Yesterday, we checked out a few new Ford vehicles including the 2013 Ford Escape and the Ford Focus Electric. The Escape requires gas for fuel and the Focus is purely a plug-in vehicle, but the new Ford C-Max hopes to bridge that gap as a hybrid vehicle. There will be two models of the C-Max: one that’s powered primarily by gas and another that will have a full plug-in charging system built into it as well. For those who buy the plug in (called the C-Max Energi), you’ll be getting the best of both worlds because the car will be able to run on electric power most of the time with a gas engine kicking in when needed. This means it has a range of about 500 miles, far more than the 100 miles an electric car gets and the 200-400 that most regular cars get. Reps also tell me that the C-Max is an MAV or Multi Activity Vehicle. It’s a fancy new word to mean a passenger vehicle that’s a bit sleeker than either an SUV or minivan.
