Ford to have plug-in hybrid with 500-mile range

The Ford Motor Company logo is shown during the firm's annual meeting of shareholders in Wilmington, Delaware May 12, 2011.

STERLING HEIGHTS, Michigan (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co plans to sell a five-passenger plug-in hybrid crossover vehicle that will have a range of 500 miles, which the No. 2 U.S. automaker sees as its answer to General Motors Co's Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid.

The C-MAX Energi, to be available in about a year, will also compete against Nissan Motor Co's all-electric Leaf and the Toyota Motor Co Prius hybrid, Ford said on Thursday.

Ford will have five new electrified vehicles by 2012, including a fleet vehicle that is already on sale and four yet to debut. The company has thus far relied on nickel-hydride batteries but its five newer vehicles will all have lithium-ion batteries.

The automaker has not said which, if any, of its three current nickel-hydride battery hybrids -- the Ford Fusion, the Ford Escape and the Lincoln MKZ -- will continue to be produced beyond 2012.

The C-MAX Energi will be the first Ford hybrid vehicle to have a shape that is not shared with another fully gasoline-powered model. Ford calls it a multipurpose vehicle but it can easily be called a minivan or a crossover.

The C-MAX Energi will go on sale in Canada and the United States in the first half of 2012. Ford has not said how much it will cost, or how long it will be able to travel on battery power only, or how many will be made in the first year.

Aaron Bragman, analyst with IHS Automotive Insight, said the absence of a gasoline version of the C-MAX Energi in the United States and Canada will make it as easily identifiable an electrified car as the dominant hybrid Prius.

"You will be able to tell when you see this on the road that it is not a normal gasoline vehicle," Bragman said.

Ford will continue to sell a gasoline-powered five- and seven-passenger C-MAX in Europe but does not plan to bring those types of vehicles to North America.

The plug-in hybrid C-MAX Energi will be introduced to Europe in 2013, Ford said.

C-MAX VS. VOLT

The C-MAX Energi will easily beat the range of the Chevy Volt, which made its debut late last year. But it will also use a different type of powering system once the batteries get low.

The Volt runs on battery charge for about 35 to 40 miles before a small engine kicks in to charge the batteries, giving it a range of about 350 miles.

The Leaf has a range of about 100 miles on a full electric charge.

Sherif Marakby, director of Ford's electric vehicle programs, said the fuel efficiency of the C-MAX Energi has not yet been determined. Jim Farley, Ford's global marketing and sales chief, said only that its fuel economy ratings, in terms of miles per gallon, will be "competitive."

The C-MAX Energi will run on a lithium-ion battery charge until that level gets low. Then it will run on gasoline which will power the wheels, not recharge the battery as in the Volt.

This distinction should make the C-MAX Energi less expensive than the Volt, said Bragman.

Before a $7,500 U.S. federal tax credit, the Volt sells for about $41,000 and the Leaf about $33,000, and the Prius in a range between $23,500 and $28,800.

The Prius has a range of 535 miles in highway driving and 619 miles in city driving, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

"If Ford can get it (C-MAX Energi) to do what the Volt can do, and get it to come in considerably less expensive than the Volt, it could be a great option because it sits five people and the Volt seats four," said Bragman.

TRIPLING HYBRID, ELECTRIC PRODUCTION

Farley said the automaker will increase its North American production of electrified vehicles including hybrids and fully electric vehicles to 100,000 by 2013, from about 35,000.

The company plans to add 220 jobs at plants in Michigan to build the new vehicles, including a plug-in electric version that it plans to call the C-MAX. These jobs were announced in May 2010 but most of them have not yet been filled, a Ford spokesman said.

Farley also said he was "encouraged" by Ford's U.S. sales performance in early June, which have improved since May, when the U.S. auto industry experienced a dip in sales from earlier this year in part from supply shortages due to the March 11 earthquake in Japan.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; editing by Maureen Bavdek and Matthew Lewis)