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Recharge Wrap-up: Daimler spending big for fuel cells, Ford Go!Drive experiment advances

Ford's Go!Drive experiment is entering its beta phase in London. The project, which is one of the automaker's global smart mobility experiments, uses a mobile app for on-demand carsharing of Ford Focus Electric and Ford Fiesta vehicles. The beta phase involves increasing the number of available vehicles from 20 to 50, and collecting new data from users. The program offers one-way rentals and guaranteed parking, with no membership fees and a cost of 26 cents per minute. Ford hopes to get 2,000 drivers involved in the program. Read more at Green Car Congress. Daimler will invest billions of dollars to upgrade the Mercedes-Benz Unterturkheim plant over the next few years. This year alone, it plans to spend $1.06 billion. The company expects cost savings "in the range of hundreds of millions of euros until 2020," while maintaining its workforce of 18,700 employees and adding 150 vocational training positions. The upgrades will allow the plant to become a center for building more efficient engines, hybrid powertrains and fuel cell systems. "Alternative drive systems are an important element of our future mobility," says Mercedes-Benz's Markus Schafer. "Their share of automotive production is set to steadily rise over the next few years, complementing our highly efficient engines within the portfolio. This is what we have laid the groundwork for today." Read more at Reuters, or in the press release below. The Department of Energy is providing $20 million in funding for the development of more efficient high speed industrial motors and drives. Ditching old motors and gearboxes for ones that use integrated power electronics could help decrease the energy consumption of the industrial sector, which currently uses more than 25 percent of the electricity generated in the US. The projects being funded will reduce losses and decrease the size of drive systems used in industries like petroleum refining and natural gas, which could affect the lifecycle efficiency of transportation fuels. Read more at Energy.gov.

Focus RS shreds in prep for Goodwood hillclimb

The Goodwood Festival of Speed is rapidly becoming a second home for Ford's hottest versions of the Focus. Last year, the updated Focus ST and high-performance diesel debuted there, and this year the motoring event has been selected to show off the new 2016 Focus RS. To get a little exercise before speeding up the hill climb, the Blue Oval unleashed its upcoming hyper hatch on a Belgian test track. Based on this clip, Ford's test driver has absolutely no problem whatsoever in making the Focus RS slide, at least with the stability and traction control off. Interestingly, while the RS shares its 2.3-liter EcoBoost with the latest Mustang, the Blue Oval's engineers give it a much different exhaust note here. Rather than a growling muscle car, this example has much more of the staccato bark of a rally-bred machine, which is a great fit. The all-wheel drive, 315-horsepower Focus RS should be arriving at dealers soon, and we're definitely looking forward to seeing and hearing it take on the Goodwood hill during the upcoming event. Related Video:

What an Atlas-based Ford F-150 might look like

Just ahead of January's Detroit Auto Show, surprising rumors pegged Ford as revealing some sort of F-150 concept, perhaps as a hurried effort to deflate some of the buzz building around General Motors' new Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra twins, which were also making their auto show debut. Those rumblings turned out to be true, as Ford rolled into the Motor City with its Atlas concept (inset, right), touting the truck's bold styling as a precursor to the next-generation F-Series.
The show truck featured all kinds of clever details, including active wheel shutters and a front air dam that raised and lowered to improve aerodynamics while preserving off-road ability. It also had a genuinely snarly face. And it's that pugnacious snout that may well be on its way to production. The good folks at TopSpeed have worked up the plausible-looking artist's rendering above by cross-referencing the Atlas concept with what little has been revealed from recent spy shots. The look is toned-down pretty dramatically from the concept truck, but its Atlas roots are clear, with a massive three-bar grille and bracket-shaped headlamps hiding a next-generation EcoBoost engine. In the rendering, the show truck's deeply contoured hood and roofline have been ditched and larger, more traditional side mirrors have been fitted - all likely concessions in the move to production sheetmetal.
While Ford has yet to officially announce when it will unveil the 2015 F-150, all signs point to next year's Detroit Auto Show - one year after the Atlas shrugged off GM's new pickups.