Ford will reveal the new B-MAX Concept at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show. This car is literally production-ready and shows Ford’s new vision for the small car segment. It features innovative door formats.
As seen in the picture below, the B-Max has no B-pillar so when the front doors and the twin rear sliding doors are all open, it offers huge convenience (clear aperture measuring over 1.5 metres wide) to load passengers or stuff! This innovative format – which has already been engineered for production – promises best-in-class access to the cabin, together with unmatched convenience and flexibility.
The design of the car is based on Ford’s Kinetic language which means it’s both sporty and practical. It is a more compact alternative for the C-Max.
Based on Ford’s global B-car platform – shared with the highly successful new Fiesta – the B-MAX is slightly more than four metres in length, the B-MAX is just 11 cm longer than the Fiesta five-door, and is 32 cm shorter than the new C-MAX.
It also has a clever interior with 60/40 split rear seats and the front passenger seat to create an extensive flat load floor, the side access is particularly convenient to load bulky items such as flat-pack furniture or even a bicycle.
To makes sure the lack of the B-Pillars won’t affect the car’s safety, the structure of both front and rear doors has been significantly strengthened – with ultra-high-strength Boron steel in key load-bearing areas – so that the door frames work together to absorb energy like a ‘virtual B pillar’.
The cabin retains the dynamic, sporty feel of Ford’s small-car interiors, but introduces the more premium character and decorative elements from the larger C-MAX. Driver controls are based on Ford’s HMI (Human Machine Interface) approach, with a large six-inch touch screen display mounted in the centre of the upper IP, above the much-acclaimed mobile-phone style integrated control panel.
As for the powertrain, it gets three-cylinder 1.0-litre Ford EcoBoost petrol engine equipped with the Ford Auto-Start-Stop system to become an ultra-low-CO2 powertrain. This unit combines direct fuel injection, turbocharging and twin independent variable cam timing to achieve significant reductions in fuel-consumption and CO2 emissions.
It is only a matter of a time before we see the B-Max on the streets.
