Excessive weight can hamper nearly every aspect of a car, especially performance and fuel economy. That’s why the new Ford Lightweight Concept Car is no small feat for the American automaker.
The formula is simple: take a Fusion sedan, swap out just about every component made out of steel with aluminum ones and you’ve got yourself an astonishing 25 per cent reduction in weight. To put that into perspective, the production-spec Fusion weighs roughly 3,400 lbs, while the Lightweight Concept Car tips the scales at just 2,600 lbs.
That 800-pound reduction is accomplished not only through the use of aluminum throughout the car’s chassis and body, but through a handful of additional compoents. According to Jalopnik, Ford’s Lightweight Concept Car features steel coil springs, stabilizer bars and a crankshaft that are all hollow. In addition, the rear window is plastic, the windshield and side windows are made from chemically-toughened laminated glass, and the wheels and a number of additional interior components are carbon fibre.
Powering the Fusion-based Lightweight Concept Car is Ford’s three-cylinder EcoBoost engine, which due to the weight savings, offers similar performance as the production-spec Fusion with its base engine but with considerably better fuel economy — up to 45 miles per gallon, according to Ford.
