Ford C-Max Flexifuel MPV
Submitted by Ford on 4 June, 2007 - 14:12
Ford was the first vehicle manufacturer in Europe to offer production passenger vehicles with Flexifuel vehicle (FFV) Technology. The Ford C-MAX and Focus Flexifuel both use a state-of-the-art 1.8 litre Flexifuel engine which can be run on bioethanol, petrol or any mixture of the two. In addition, the new Mondeo, new Ford Galaxy and Ford S-MAX, are now available as Flexifuel vehicles.
Biofuels will become more sustainable as we progress to second and third generation fuels which will be made from non-food crops. In the meantime, people need to buy cars like this to help create the demand to get to the next generation of biofuel production.
- green-car-guide.com
Flex-fuel Availability
Available in 11 European markets now, incl. Sweden, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, France, Spain, Switzerland, Norway and Belgium - other markets will follow.
Affordable: Prices for FFV versions in the same region of (or only marginally above) petrol technology.
In Sweden - the first European market where Ford first introduced its FFVs in 2001 - more than 80 per cent of Focus and Focus C-MAX sales and by 2006, nearly 50 per cent of all Ford sales in Sweden were FFVs.
In the past decade, Ford has sold more than 2 million FFVs worldwide.
Key alterations to the standard petrol engine
- valve seats of the 16-valve gasoline engine made of especially hardened material (bio-ethanol is more corrosive)
- variable ignition control, automatically adapting to the ratio of bio-ethanol and petrol present in the fuel tank
- cylinder block pre-heating for temperatures below minus15° C (because bio-ethanol fuel has different cold starting characteristics than petrol)
