DETROIT – Laying the foundation for a planned explosion in hybrid gasoline-electric engines, Ford Motor Co. showed off a new 3.5-liter V6 engine and six-speed automatic transaxle Wednesday that will help future vehicles get better fuel economy and produce fewer emissions.
Ford says the new engine will power one in five of its vehicles by the end of the decade.
The company also said:
• Its hybrid Ford Escapes would serve as taxis in the five boroughs of New York City.
• It has begun work on a third-generation hybrid transaxle for future four-cylinder and V6 engines. A transaxle is a unit that consists of a combination of transmission and front axle.
The announcement and a tour of one of the company’s engineering and transmission technical centers were designed to put the company’s engineering prowess on display as Ford pushes ahead to meet its goal of producing 250,000 hybrids a year by 2010 – less than five years away.
Ford would need to expand hybrid production tenfold to meet that goal.
“We are full-speed ahead,” said Barbara Samardzich, Ford’s new vice president of powertrain operations.
The engine and transaxle pairing are set to power two crossovers slated to hit showrooms late next year, the Ford Edge and Lincoln Aviator. While the engine will be built at the Lima Engine Plant in Ohio, the transaxle will be built at Ford’s Van Dyke Transmission Plant in Sterling Heights, Mich. The Lima plant employs about 1,300 workers. Van Dyke employs about 1,700.
To meet the company’s one-in-five goal, additional plants might eventually be needed to build the engine and transaxle, Samardzich acknowledged.
The new engine produces 250 horsepower and 240 pound-feet of torque and uses sophisticated technology for smooth, quiet operation. It’s also been designed to accommodate advanced technologies, including gasoline direct injection and turbo charging.
Ford said six-speed automatic transaxles improve performance and fuel economy. It’s estimated they save up to 7 percent of fuel in highway driving, which equates to nearly two tanks of gas a year, compared with typical four-speed automatics. Ford said it’s an industry leader in six-speed transmissions, with 24 nameplates offering the fuel-saving technology.
Work on the company’s third-generation hybrid transaxle, meanwhile, will be critical for the company to meet its hybrid goal of 250,000 vehicles a year by 2010.
The transaxle is the central device in Ford’s hybrid vehicles, responsible for transferring the power from the battery or the gasoline engine to the wheels.
The hybrid transaxle also allows for the recovery of energy through the hybrid’s braking system, which reuses the power.
The Ford Escape hybrid and Mercury Mariner hybrid are equipped with Ford’s first-generation transaxle, which Ford developed jointly with Japan’s Aisin AW. In 2008, the Ford Fusion hybrid and Mercury Milan hybrid will come with Ford’s second-generation hybrid transaxle.
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