The green Ford MotorCompany

In order to meet the challenge of raising the average fuel efficiency of its vehicle fleet more than 10 mpg by 2016, Ford announced a plan to implement more electric and hybrid vehicles and smaller but more powerful gasoline engines into most of its models over the next few years.

The rise in fuel efficiency standards has been newly mandated by the federal government. A full hybrid vehicle is one that can run for short distances on electric power only, with the gas engine kicking in when the battery is drained to a certain level. A plug-in hybrid is one that can be recharged by plugging them into a socket rather than by the vehicle’s engine, which further reduces the use of gas.

Ford also plans to produce a fully electric van with a range of 100 miles on a single charge. But those will all likely involve relatively low-selling vehicles. The real boost in its average fuel efficiency will come from implementing different versions of its EcoBoost engine in its best-selling vehicles. The EcoBoost engine uses direct fuel injection and turbocharging to get more power out of a smaller engine and thus reduce the use of gasoline.

Ford’s plan includes replacing 8-cylinder engines with 6-cylinder ones and replacing 6-cylinder engines with smaller 4-cylinder ones, increasing the MPG of nearly all of its vehicles. They’re even contemplating a 4-cylinder option for the F-150 truck. The plan is to double the number of vehicles with the smaller 4-cylinder engines and reduce the use of gas-guzzling larger engines.

Source : The Michigan Messenger, by Ed Brayton, July 22nd, 2009