Ford has announced it is no longer bringing a gas-powered, seven-passenger C-Max to the U.S., and will instead only offer the 2013 C-Max five-passenger hybrid and plug-in Energi hybrid starting in 2012. (Aww, and we’d already driven our C-Max. Sort of.) The now-canceled North American gasoline C-Max was essentially a European Grand C-Max without the “Grand” portion of the badge; it’s similar in size to the Mazda 5, features sliding rear side doors, and seats three in the second row and two in the way back. In contrast, the C-Max hybrids we’ll get, as well as the conventionally powered non-Grand C-Max models sold in Europe, seat just five and feature four conventional front-hinged side doors. All C-Maxes use a version of the Global C platform that underpins the 2012 Ford Focus.
Seven-passenger Ford C-Max
Ford says the idea is to give consumers a “dedicated body style for a range of Ford electrified vehicles” with the C-Max lineup, and that it felt a gas-fed seven-passenger C-Max didn’t present as strong a business case as did the expansion of the hybrids’ production capacity. Ford cites the C-Max hybrid and Energi’s popularity in Europe as reason to invest in amping up North American volumes. Furthermore, the company said it will produce up to five new electrified vehicles by 2012, including the electric Transit Connect, upcoming electric Focus, the C-Max pair, and a yet-unnamed “next-generation hybrid” to bow in 2012 (most likely a hybridized 2013 Ford Escape crossover). Since most of them share a platform, they can all take advantage of the additional factory capacity. All told, Ford wants to increase its hybrid and electric vehicle production volume to 100,000 units by 2013.
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