Corsair Grand Touring - right when it is needed

[DrivingEnthusiast]

... it's gone.
The GT is unique in that it has a rear-mounted electric motor for AWD... a hybrid system that is the future basis for transverse-based AWD systems.
It's state-of-the-art... and very soon it will be gone from production.
And architecturally it's what other manufacturers are very quickly moving to.
Here's Honda's upcoming system for it's large hybrid AWD system. Look familiar?
Hold onto that GT - you are already driving the future!

 

[NJRonbo]

The GT is unique in that it has a rear-mounted electric motor for AWD... a hybrid system that is the future basis for transverse-based AWD systems.
It's state-of-the-art... and very soon it will be gone from production.
And architecturally it's what other manufacturers are very quickly moving to.
Here's Honda's upcoming system for it's large hybrid AWD system. Look familiar?
Hold onto that GT - you are already driving the future!

Thank you for this. Exciting. I am assuming this tech has been incorporated in the GT since the first vehicles? I have a 2022.

 

[B_A_H]

Ford's hybrid and PHEV work doesn't get enough credit. They were market leaders in both technical competence and available product. But they have the attention span of a Beagle and were distracted by their self-defined "next big thing."

In terms of real world use the Corsair PHEV aces things other car companies struggle with. Like the transition from full electric to ICE or marrying regenerative and friction braking so stopping feels normal. Toyota is the only mainstream car maker who hasn't been dinged in reviews for those things. BMW and M-B got off to rough starts but they too have figured those things out. Mazda's entry in to the PHEV world is a case study in what not to do.

The marketing spin for the Corsair was that it was a PHEV for people that didn't want to know they were driving a PHEV. That's why it was supposedly not labeled "PHEV." I've had mine since July and after an initial acclimation period it really don't drive like or feel like a PHEV. I love my car and pay $.13 per kHw so electricity is still cheaper than gas for me. My weekly routine is 100% electric.

All the Corsair needs to be a modern PHEV is faster charging, a bigger EV battery, and a couple of more HP. Those shouldn't have been hard had Ford not lost interest.

 

[DrivingEnthusiast]

This is why I put that post up... it's a great piece of work. And not only the PHEV but the C2 platform as well.
The C2 platform is a masterwork of shared components - it's used for everything from the great Euro Focus (and ST), the Corsair and Escape/Kuga, thru the Bronco Sport and Maverick. And even up-scaled to the Chinese Nautilus. A single platform for all those - and certainly a money-maker because that flexibility and scalability was architecturally designed in from the start.
And now that is going away too.
Ford's Universal EV Platform has the same built-in flexibility, but is electric only. We don't know if that was conceived as a C2 replacement, and although they said not in the press introductions, it is the same general size. Must have been conceived as such - at least at one point in time when electric was still the main strategy. And it has no hybrid capability.
And, BTW, the hybrid technology for the engine combustion architecture, transmission and controls was cross-licensed with Toyota originally at the time of the first Escape that used it and for some duration of the agreement after that. It went into a second gen as in the Fusion/MKZ (I had the Fusion, and IMHO the CVT needed improvement). I;m assming the Corsair/Escape/Kuga version of the engiune and tranny is the 3rd gen. Toyota has an excellent update in the current Camry (which is worth test driving just to experinece the refinement that ha sbeen done). What happens next is TBD.