Twelve months after its debut at the Geneva Auto Show as a barley disguised concept, Ford has released images of its new B-Max compact MPV that goes on sale next August.
Its principle novelty is a pair of sliding rear doors that interlock with the conventional hinged front doors to eliminate the ‘B’ pillar resulting in a 59-inch wide access from both sides of the car.
Special ultra-high-strength steels, which provide up to five times the strength of conventional mild steel, were used in key parts of the body and doors to create an extremely strong and stiff structure without adding extra weight.
The process involved intense testing and analysis at every stage. More than 1000 detailed computer simulations were conducted over three years to optimise side impact crash performance; each simulation taking 24 hours to complete and using the equivalent computer-power of eight high-end PCs. These simulations were then tested in the real world through a further 50 physical side impact crashes.
Ford has also patented the unique locking system and has admitted that the sliding door concept could be scaled up to bigger SUVs.
However, cars with sliding doors don’t have a happy history in the UK and Europe witness Peugeot’s 1007 that was launched in 2004; it had a pair of arthritically slow electric powered sliding doors and proved to be a sales flop on both sides of the Channel.
.
Related posts:
- Ford B-Max Revealed – 2012 Geneva Auto Show Preview
- First Drive: Ford C-Max
- Ford Abandons 7-Passenger C-Max for Electrified 5-Seat Variants
No comments:
Post a Comment