2011 Ford Fusion Hybrid. Photo courtesy of caremycars.com.
If you’re like most people, you aren’t very comfortable with change, so if you’ve driven a conventional vehicle your whole life, you might not be quite ready to take the leap into a hybrid or electric.
Getting use to new technologies can be a bit intimidating, but the good news is that some of that hybrid fuel efficiency will soon be coming to conventional vehicles, and it won’t require you to change your driving habits at all.
Ford is working on adapting one of its popular gas saving feature from its hybrids to its conventional models. It’s a feature that automatically shuts off the engine when you hold down the brake while you’re stopped and automatically starts it again when you take your foot off the brake.
In the United States, the feature currently exists in the Ford Fusion Hybrid and Ford Escape Hybrid. The global rollout of its “auto start-stop” system is already underway in Europe. The system is designed to work on both gasoline and diesel engines, and is standard on the Ford Ka and Mondeo.
The “auto start-stop” system will also be installed in the Focus, C-MAX and Grand C-MAX. The system is scheduled to debut in North America in 2012 and will eventually be offered in all of Ford’s global markets.
Ford plans for the system to eventually be available in many of its conventional cars, sports utility vehicles (SUVs), and crossovers (vehicles built on car platforms and combining to some degree features of SUVs, station wagons, or hatchbacks).
Ford predicts that the “auto start-stop” system will improve fuel economy in gasoline engines by four to 10 percent, depending on vehicle size and usage. Benefiting the environment, the new system will also eliminate tailpipe emissions while the vehicle is in stationary situations, such as stopped at a light.
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