Ford has recently confirmed that the company has developed a feature which is designed to further boost the fuel economy ratings of some of its vehicle models and dubbed as the “EV+.” The US carmaker has also revealed that this feature will be included on the SmartGauge which is offered as standard on the Ford Fusion Energi and the C-Max Energi.
Based on the information obtained from Ford, the EV+ feature will be using the GPS data stored on the vehicle’s Ford Sync system to record or remember the respective destinations wherein the vehicle is frequently driven. As soon as the frequent locations where the vehicle is driven is determined, the feature will automatically adjust the controls of the vehicle’s powertrain and allow this to run in pure electric mode.
The EV+ feature was actually developed by the company’s employees Matt Smith and Ken Frederick while they were trying to come up with a system that will collect the available data and alter the performance of a particular car model based on the locations where this is driven. However, Smith and Frederick’s team have discovered that the system that they are trying to develop will absolutely involve a lot of software and hardware. They also realized that developing such technology would also require a lot of resources and efforts.
Fortunately, Frederick and Smith came up with an idea to develop a feature that would provide the same outcomes by just using GPS data. In statement, Frederick has stated that what they actually did was to harness the available data and obtain the same goal that their previous plan would want to achieve.
As of the present, the EV+ is undergoing the needed process in order to have this patented. As soon as the patent is secured, Ford would most likely start using this on the latest or upcoming version of the C-Max Energi and the Fusion Energi.
Ford has also revealed that once the feature is offered on the models mentioned earlier, each of these vehicles will eventually become capable of switching into electric-only mode when the EV+ detects that the vehicle is driven closer to the driver’s home or work.
