The Ford Airstream is a

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...

built by

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

that made its debut at the 2007 North American International Auto Show in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. The Ford Airstream is a

retro-futuristic Retrofuturism (adjective ''retrofuturistic'' or ''retrofuture'') is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipatin ...

crossover utility vehicle A crossover, crossover SUV, or crossover utility vehicle (CUV) is a type of automobile with an increased ride height that is built on Unibody, unibody chassis construction shared with Car, passenger cars, as opposed to traditional sport utilit ...

that was inspired by the classic Airstream

recreational vehicle A recreational vehicle, often abbreviated as RV, is a motor vehicle or trailer that includes living quarters designed for accommodation. Types of RVs include motorhomes, campervans, coaches, caravans (also known as travel trailers and camper ...

trailers built since the 1930s. The modern Ford Airstream concept includes a

plug-in hybrid A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a hybrid electric vehicle whose battery pack can be recharged by plugging a charging cable into an external electric power source, in addition to internally by its on-board internal combustion engin ...

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...

fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...

drive system, called ''HySeries Drive'', that operates exclusively on

electrical power Electric power is the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt, one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with other SI units: thousands, millions and billions of ...

. Ford calls the Ford Airstream Concept "a futuristic look at crossovers" as "modern touring vehicle(s)" for recreational travelers. The concept vehicle was designed in cooperation with

Airstream Airstream is an American brand of travel trailer ("caravan" in British English) easily recognized by the distinctive shape of its rounded and polished aluminum coachwork. This body shape dates back to the 1930s and is based on the Bowlus Road C ...

, a division of

Thor Industries Thor Industries, Inc. is an American manufacturer of recreational vehicles (RVs). The company sells towable and motorized RVs through its subsidiaries brands including Airstream, Heartland RV, Jayco, Livin Lite RV, and others. The company's head ...

. The design and name of the Airstream were possibly influenced by the

Ford Aerostar The Ford Aerostar is a range of vans that was manufactured by Ford from the 1986 to the 1997 model years. The first minivan produced by Ford, the model line was marketed against the Chevrolet Astro/GMC Safari and the first two generations of the ...

Powerplant

The concept vehicle is powered by a rechargeable plug-in hybrid hydrogen

drive train, called ''HySeries Drive''. This power plant system was developed with partial funding from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Department of Energy A Ministry of Energy or Department of Energy is a government department in some countries that typically oversees the production of fuel and electricity; in the United States, however, it manages nuclear weapons development and conducts energy-rel ...

, and is currently being tested on a prototype version of the

Ford Edge The Ford Edge is a range of crossover SUVs manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. Introduced for the 2007 model year, the Edge is the first mid-size CUV marketed by Ford in North America; the model line is currently in its second generation. ...

. The Airstream Concept's wheels are driven by

electric motor An electric motor is an Electric machine, electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a Electromagneti ...

s, which are powered by a

lithium-ion battery A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery which uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy. It is the predominant battery type used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. It also se ...

pack. The

Ballard Power Systems Ballard Power Systems Inc. is a developer and manufacturer of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell products for markets such as heavy-duty motive (consisting of bus and tram applications), portable power, material handling as well as engineer ...

hydrogen fuel cell system recharges the vehicle's battery pack as needed, as a portable generator, and the vehicle can also be plugged into an AC source, to recharge between trips. The HySeries Drive delivers the equivalent of a combined city/highway equivalent fuel economy of 41 mpg (U.S.) (5.7 L/100 km). In pure-battery mode, the Ford Airstream Concept is designed to travel about , before the hydrogen-powered fuel cell begins operating to recharge the vehicle's 336-volt lithium-ion battery pack. With a full load of hydrogen, the range increases another , for a total of . The sole exhaust emission from the operating vehicle is water vapor.

Exterior

The Ford Airstream includes asymmetric doors. The passenger side door is a power clamshell hatch that runs two-thirds the length of the vehicle for loading of passengers and cargo. The crossover includes a rear hatch for loading cargo aft.

Interior

The interior was inspired by spacecraft images and environments portrayed in 2001: A Space Odyssey, according to Ford. It is described as a "lounge atmosphere", meant to provide a relaxing experience while traveling. The instrument panel includes flush-mounted, touch-sensitive controls and a single, multi-function gauge display with primary driving information. A center-mounted dual-view screen provides a camera view and secondary driver-oriented information, and also allows the front-seat passenger to view DVD movies and work on the Internet. The front seats are captain's chairs that can swivel and rotate to face aft. The rear seats are lounge-like, and includes a 360-degree viewscreen for entertainment, games, Internet access, and as a live camera feed. The seats include four-point safety belts.

Specifications

*Powertrain: Ford/Ballard HySeries Drive plug-in hydrogen hybrid fuel cell *Chassis dimensions **Overall length: **Wheelbase: **Overall width: **Overall height at curb: **Front track width: **Rear track width: *Suspension **Front:

Double wishbone A double wishbone suspension is an independent suspension design for automobiles using two (occasionally parallel) wishbone-shaped arms to locate the wheel. Each wishbone or arm has two mounting points to the chassis and one joint at the knuckle ...

independent suspension Independent suspension is any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically (i.e. reacting to a bump on the road) independently of the others. This is contrasted with a beam axle or deDion axle system in w ...

**Rear: Multi-link independent *Interior **Front headroom: **Rear headroom: **Front legroom: **Rear headroom:

References

External links

www.airstream.com
nbsp;— Airstream, Inc.
www.ford.com
nbsp;— Ford Motor Company
media.ford.com
nbsp;— Ford Motor Company Media Center {{Ford concept vehicles

Hydrogen cars Electric concept cars