20 Jul 07
The price tag is hefty. Chief of hybrid development Scott Staley says if this car was on sale today it would cost about four times the price of a standard Edge (currently £15,000 in the US). Even in 10 years' time he'll be happy if it's twice the price of a regular model.
But it's not all compromise in the name of conservation. Ford engineers are confident the hybrid route solves the hydrogen conundrum because, says Staley, while fuel cells are brilliant at delivering power they like to do so all at once or not at all - less than ideal for smooth driving. Using a fuel cell as a generator solves that problem.
Cost and weight issues aside, no-one at Ford mentions the environmental implications of lithium extraction for the batteries and its subsequent disposal. Equally, when Staley talks about plugging in to charge the batteries, his electricity comes from the wind, sun, even nuclear sources, not nasty old coal-fired power stations.
But let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Assuming you do get the electricity from an environmentally friendly source HySeries is the most convincing zero-emission technology we've driven so far. And that statement's definitely not hot air.
