Lightweight Fusion

[darcane]

Ford Just Unveiled A Fusion That Weighs As Little As A Fiesta

Ford Fusion with heaps of lightness added allowing no change in performance when downsizing to an Ecoboost 1.0L. Obviously costs are high and many methods are not ready for production cars, but still an interesting study.

[Xist]

Basically, they used all the methods that sports car and supercar companies like Porsche, Ferrari, and Koenigsegg use to make their insane dream machines shoot you into warp speed, and put them on a Ford Fusion.

Sounds far less fun, but kind of sounds like somewhere between the Gen1 Insight and the XL-1, without the aero.

So what you end up getting is a Ford Fusion that is much more fun to throw around, plus it gets the same gas mileage as the Fiesta, with up to 45 MPG on the highway.

The Fusion is 58.2 inches tall and 191.8 inches long. The Fiesta is 58.1 inches tall and 173.5 inches tall. Being 0.17% taller and 10.54% longer, it should inherently be more aerodynamic, although it is 83.5 inches wide, compared to 67.8 (23%!), but 45 MPG for a non-hybrid car with that much interior room is awesome!

What could they do with the Fiesta?

[user removed]

1.0 Ecoboost 2DR 6 speed tall geared alloy everywhere, removeable back seat, flat floor, 2100 pounds, idle stop, 55 MPG, more when hypermiled.

Ya asked
Mech

[Frank Lee]

"Developed with a Grant..." B.S.!

Ford made an aluminum Taurus decades ago. They know darn well how to do it and what the effects are.

Ford Drops Plans For Aluminum Taurus-sable - Orlando Sentinel

Ford's Super-Rare Taurus SHO-Powered Aluminum Super-Sable


And all the N.A. automakers got a HUUUGGGGEEE Grant in the PNGV (Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles) Program: news: US DOE starts Freedom CAR, retires PNGV


United States Council for Automotive Research - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[elhigh]

Fusion space for Fiesta weight, or Accord space for Civic weight.

What might a compact car like a Civic, or a really petite car like the already-featherweight Metro, weigh at the scale when built to similar spec?

[darcane]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Ford made an aluminum Taurus decades ago. They know darn well how to do it and what the effects are.

Ford Drops Plans For Aluminum Taurus-sable - Orlando Sentinel

Ford's Super-Rare Taurus SHO-Powered Aluminum Super-Sable

I can see why Ford dropped the Aluminum Taurus/Sable. At the time, there was no pressing need to shed the pounds and the added cost wouldn't have made sense. But, because of this project, aluminum use increased significantly in Ford's products even without having an aluminum bodied car.

But keep in mind, this isn't just an aluminum Fusion. It's high strength steels, carbon fiber wheels and oil pan, composite and hollow-steel springs, plastic windows, etc. While I don't expect to see this Fusion in production, I would guess elements of it will show up in Ford's product line when they work out the bugs in manufacturing them.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by elhigh

What might a compact car like a Civic, or a really petite car like the already-featherweight Metro, weigh at the scale when built to similar spec?

If they were going for eye-popping coverage, that's the route I think they should have taken (superlight Fiesta).

The fans of the sport model Fiesta (ST?) would have gone equally bananas as the efficiency-minded.

[gone-ot]

COMMENT about marketing & PR:

"Milking" a cow is NOT the same as "milking" the bull...

[UltArc]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

COMMENT about marketing & PR:

"Milking" a cow is NOT the say as "milking" the bull...

They could definitely do some type of high performance pack for cars. Aimed towards the ST line, like the CF seats and wheels.

They did make a few major suspension packages that were the same as their WRC car (I think this is part of one: https://www.fordracingparts.com/part...KeyField=22427).

[kir_kenix]

I think Ford (or any other company for that matter) needs a platform like the Fusion to work out the kinks in before transitioning into an ultra light Fiesta. The average consumer would freak if they saw a Fiesta marketed for $50k (they start around $14k real world). The fusion on the other hand is a much more refined vehicle and a better starting platform (not to mention a tricked out Fusion runs around $38k to begin with).

If Car companies can make this technology work (and become profitable) then that technology will trickle down and become cheaper as it does with all advancements.

What I dream about is a mid sized pickup that with these aluminum/carbon fiber technology with a small diesel. I know it wouldn't be any good for towing, because the tow vehicle would be so light relative to the pay load. But if it could haul 1,000 lbs in the box and tow 3,000 lbs and still get 50mpg unloaded...

Anyway, what I'm saying is a mid priced sedan is the perfect place to start. That puts it in the price range of the average middle class family (just barely), and puts a bunch of them on the road. As they get better at producing/tweaking the production, it will scale down and up the entire fleet roster. Imagine what a Fiesta or Chevy Spark would end up weighing...a very light and inexpensive .5L turbo would be adequate and return amazing MPG.