The Mercury Meta One 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 ...

that was created by Mercury. A four-door crossover sport-utility vehicle, the Meta One made its debut at the 2005 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan. The Meta One is notable for being the first concept vehicle designed with a

PZEV A partial zero-emission vehicle, in the United States, is an automobile that has zero evaporative emissions from its fuel system, has a 15-year (or at least 150,000-mile) warranty on its emission-control components, and meets SULEV tailpipe-emissio ...

diesel-hybrid powertrain."Mercury Meta One Concept Vehicle." ''Ford Motor Company''. February 4, 2007

Design

Loosely based upon the body of the production

Ford Freestyle The Ford Freestyle is a crossover utility vehicle that was sold by Ford from 2005 to 2009. Largely marketed as the successor to the Ford Taurus station wagon, the Freestyle was the CUV counterpart of the Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego fo ...

, the Mercury Meta One was a luxury crossover SUV with four seats. Serving as a testbed for in-vehicle technology, the Meta One featured an always-on

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wav ...

connection; along with the ability to connect handheld devices and the built in

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, it also allowed the on-board navigation system to deliver real-time updates for traffic and route conditions. Instead of a traditional instrument panel, the vehicle featured multiple computer displays that were reconfigurable to fit driver needs. A special design for the

smart key A smart key is an electronic access and authorization system that is available either as standard equipment, or as an option in several car designs. It was first developed by Siemens in 1995 and introduced by Mercedes-Benz under the name "Keyless- ...

allowed it to double as a PDA, allowing it to also store emergency contacts. In collaboration with Volvo, the Mercury Meta One was designed with a number of safety technologies unseen on a production Ford Motor Company vehicle. These included lane departure control and collision mitigation by pre-charging the brakes if an on-board camera and radar sensor senses the likelihood of an accident.

Powertrain

The Meta One was powered by a 248 hp twin- turbocharged diesel V6; the 2.7L engine was sourced from the Australian Ford Territory (sized similar to the Freestyle) and the

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product lines. Coupled with the continuously variable transmission (as used in the Freestyle) was an electric motor, providing start-stop technology to increase fuel economy. The combined

torque In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational equivalent of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). It represents the capability of a force to produce change in the rotational motion of th ...

output of the powertrain was ; it was 97% cleaner than the Tier I emissions standard for

NOx In atmospheric chemistry, is shorthand for nitric oxide () and nitrogen dioxide (), the nitrogen oxides that are most relevant for air pollution. These gases contribute to the formation of smog and acid rain, as well as affecting tropo ...

. While the technology has not been applied to diesel engines, the Ford

EcoBoost EcoBoost is a series of turbocharged, direct-injection gasoline engines produced by Ford and originally co-developed by FEV Inc. (now named FEV North America Inc.). EcoBoost engines are designed to deliver power and torque consistent with thos ...

family of gasoline engines has utilized turbocharging in the same manner in the effort to lower emissions while increasing power. In place of a traditional V8 engine, the

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and

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utilize a 365 hp twin-turbocharged V6.

Fate

Although sharing the architecture of the Ford Freestyle, the Meta One was not released as a production vehicle.Neff, John. "UPDATE: Mercury Meta One not happening." ''AutoBlog'', October 20, 2006. February 4, 200

In late 2006, during the development of the Ford Taurus X, prototype development mules were spotted using front bodywork of Meta One prototypes, leading to speculation that the Mercury division would be given a production form of the Meta One, possibly named either the Mercury Monticello or Mercury Magellan. As with its Ford Freestyle predecessor, the Ford Taurus X reached production without a Mercury (or Lincoln) counterpart. The Meta One's current location, or if it still exists, is unknown.

References

http://www.automobile-catalog.com/car/2005/1899380/mercury_meta_one.html Dimensions and powertrain information

External links

2005 Mercury Meta One Concept at Serious Wheels

Mercury Meta One Concept (Mercuryvehicles.com) (archived link)
{{Mercury Vehicles Concept cars Meta One