The vehicle's wheels are powered, at all times, by a lithium-ion battery pack. The batteries can be charged overnight while the Edge is plugged into an electrical outlet.
After the first 25 miles of driving each day an on-board hydrogen fuel cell begins operating to charge the batteries. Hydrogen fuel cells create electricity in a process that combines hydrogen with oxygen from the air to create water, which escapes from the vehicle's tailpipe as steam.
For drivers who travel less than 50 miles each day, a vehicle like this should get about 80 miles from an amount of hydrogen equivalent to one gallon of gasoline. For drivers who travel more than 50 miles, the average would drop to 41 mpg, according to Ford.
A gasoline engine or other type of engine could also be substituted for the hydrogen fuel cell as a power source. The result would be something like the Chevrolet Volt which, in turn, could also use a fuel cell as the HySeries does.
