Click on the image for a gallery of high-res photos of the HySeries Drive Edge

At the Washington D.C. Auto Show, Ford unveiled a Ford Edge equipped with the HySeries Drive power-train first shown in the Airstream concept a couple of weeks ago in Detroit. HySeries Drive is a plug-in series hybrid system, that uses a 336V lithium ion battery pack to drive the electric motor. This makes it the world's first drivable hydrogen fuel cell vehicle with plug-in capability. The full range of the Edge on battery and hydrogen is 225 miles with the first 25 available on battery alone, although some drivers have seen as much as 400 miles depending the conditions. They estimate the gasoline equivalent mileage of the HySeries Edge at 41 mpg city/highway combined if you drive the full range. Like the Volt or other plug-in hybrids the effective mileage goes up as the distance you drive goes down.

The vehicle features the latest generation Ballard Power Systems fuel cell stack. Unlike the fuel cells used in the Focus FCV, this one is capable of operating at cold temperatures down to -20C. The HySeries Drive Edge is being used to prove out the new drive-train concept. Similar to what GM has done with E-Flex, the Edge system is designed to allow flexibility in replacing the power systems. They could easily swap out the fuel cell stack for gas or diesel engines or even more batteries. Ford has spent the weekend the shuttling Capital Hill staffers around in the new Edge and in the very near future AutoblogGreen will be bringing you a full driving impression of the HySeries Drive Edge. In the meantime the Ford press release is after the jump, and gallery of high res images can be found by clicking on the image above.



[Source: Ford]