Ford Pulls Mercury Hybrid Ahead; Plans Additional Models

Ford Motor Co.’s Lincoln Mercury Div. will get its hybrid sooner than expected as part of the auto maker’s push toward having at least five hybrid nameplates on the road by 2008, Ward’s learns.

The auto maker is pulling forward the launch of the planned hybrid version of the Mariner cross/utility vehicle to later this year, moving the vehicle up from the initial ’07 model-year debut, Mary Ann Wright, director-Sustainability Mobility Technologies and Hybrid Vehicle Programs, tells Ward’s in an interview prior to the North American International Auto Show.

The vehicle, which now will be designated an ’06, will be built in Kansas City alongside the Escape Hybrid, already on sale.

Mercury Mariner

Additionally, Ford plans to boost the amount of hybrids it has on the market, she says. It will launch a hybrid version of the Mazda Tribute in the ’08 model year, also built in Kansas City, and it will add a hybridized Mercury Milan sedan derivative to the Ford Fusion hybrid program, which was announced in 2004, Wright reveals for the first time.

While it will collaborate with Mazda Motor Corp. operations in Japan, Wright says Ford is developing the Tribute CUV hybrid in its U.S. hybrid center, which serves as a global outpost for alternative technology work. Ford is stringing together a team of engineers and global suppliers that feed the company’s intentions to be the global leader in hybrid development.

The Tribute program begins with a test fleet of Mazda CUVs that will hit the street later this year.

Wright says the sedans will come in calendar 2008 from the company’s Hermosillo, Mexico, plant, which will be retooled later this summer for the Fusion sedan family launch. They likely will be the first full hybrid vehicles built in Mexico and will represent the second facility charged with hybrid production.

Chairman and CEO Bill Ford is slated to announce officially the hybrid moves Jan. 9 during an auto show press conference. In addition, he is expected to reveal company plans to build up to 100 hydrogen-powered, internal-combustion-engine E-450 buses in 2006 for use in fleets across the U.S.

The State of Florida is the only buyer so far for the hydrogen buses. It ordered eight units from Ford, which are equipped with enough liquid hydrogen storage capacity to provide a range of 150 miles (241 km).

Wright says Ford plans to ship 20,000 copies of the hybridized Escape this year, but she declines to comment on production volumes planned beyond that. Although it eventually plans to export hybrids to other markets, including likely destinations such as China and Europe, the auto maker will continue U.S. and Canadian deliveries for the foreseeable future. Ford’s vote of confidence in hybrids does not mean it is not looking at diesel passenger cars for the U.S., Wright says. However, the market demand for hybrids and Ford’s successful Escape Hybrid launch lend immediate momentum to putting more of them in the market, she says.

– with Cliff Banks

[email protected]