Mercury Mariner Hybrid
Go to most
Ford / Mercury dealerships and you might find a few
Escape hybrids, but you almost certainly won't find a
Mercury Mariner hybrid.
Ford simply hasn't produced many
hybrid Mariners and if you want one, you pretty much
have to order one.
Still, if you like Mercury styling, the Mariner hybrid might be worth your effort.
Incredible fuel economy, functional SUV size and Mercury styling makes the Mariner hybrid a classy, sensible choice in the city or the country, in good or bad weather.
Mariner
hybrid nuts and bolts
It took Ford five years
and 100 engineers to successfully integrate a hybrid
powertrain into the conventional Escape to produce the
hybrid Escape - the foundation of the Mariner hybrid.
Combining two electric
motors - one to drive the wheels, the other to turn over
the gas engine - with the standard Mariner 2.3-liter four-cylinder gas engine,
the Mariner hybrid should achieve around 33 mpg in the city
and 29 mpg on the highway, yet perform
as well as the 200-hp 6-cylinder version.
Since its debut, Ford has only made a few thousand Mariner hybrids per year.
How the Mariner hybrid
does it.
The hybrid Mariner's gasoline
engine has been modified to run on the Atkinson cycle,
unlike the standard Mariner, which like all conventional
automobiles, runs on the Otto cycle.
This cycle runs more
efficiently, using less air and fuel, but also reduces
engine horsepower, and that's where the electric motors
kick in.
One motor drives the
wheels on the Mariner hybrid, the other starts the engine
and manages the transmission's ratio.
These electric motors improve fuel economy in city
driving, allowing the vehicle to be powered by electric
power only, and by capturing energy more efficiently.
Yes, you still have to keep gas in the hybrid Mariner.
Similar to other
hybrids, the Mercury Mariner will utilize a variable
transmission system, which Ford calls Electronically
Controlled Continuously Variable Transmission or eCVT.
This allows the distribution of power between the
gasoline engine and the electric motor to be determined
by driving conditions, allowing the gas engine to shut
off when the electric engine can provide enough power to
run the hybrid SUV - significantly increasing
fuel-efficiency.
The Mariner also uses
regenerative braking, allowing the vehicle to
recapture some of the vehicle's kinetic energy to
recharge the hybrid's battery pack.
How Will the Hybrid
Mariner perform?
Most important, the
Mercury Mariner Hybrid will perform at any level, on-road or
off-road, as well as, if not better, than the standard
Mariner.
For those that have to have an SUV, but feel
guilty about purchasing a gas-guzzling SUV, the Mercury
Mariner is the perfect solution.
The biggest downside of
the Mariner hybrid is cost. The hybrid components of the
Mariner add more than $3000.00 to the cost of the hybrid
versus the conventional Mariner.
Some people have been
bothered by the hybrid Escape's drive-by-wire brake and
accelerator controls, as well as the electric power
steering, claiming less responsiveness, but hopefully,
this issue will be resolved on the Mariner hybrid.
Additionally,
it seems that the Mariner hybrid is a better city hybrid
than a highway hybrid, where it can be a little noisy.
Read our article on the Ford
Escape Hybrid Test Drive, to get an idea of what
the Mariner hybrid will be like. |
