2007 Ford Edge HySeries Concept Road Test

If you want to look at promising cars that are on sale today, look no further than

Looks like an Edge, but there's much more to it. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)the Ford Edge. It currently stands proudly in the number one position atop the crossover sales charts, selling a remarkable 130,000 units in the United States last year since it was launched - and a handful or two in the Middle East and Asia. But if you want to look at what cars hold promise for tomorrow, also look no further than the Ford Edge... this Ford Edge.Besides looking a little like an earth-bound space ship, this particular Ford Edge is special. It's the only one in the world that's been converted from gasoline to run on hydrogen and electricity. It's one of over two-dozen hydrogen-powered vehicles that Ford has built over the past decade, and like the rest it's out on the road being tested for durability, gathering data. What makes it even more special is that it integrates the much-talked about series hybrid drivetrain with a Ballard fuel cell.Without getting to in depth and technical, a series hybrid isn't at all like the

There's no gasoline - or tailpipe emissions - here. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)hybrid that roams about on streets today; those are parallel hybrids. It shares the same rough definition of hybrid in that it runs on more than one type of power, but unlike, say, a Prius which uses both a gasoline-powered engine and an electric motor to propel it, a series hybrid's propulsion comes strictly from its batteries. When the charge of the batteries is on the way to depletion, a power source - an internal combustion engine, or, in the case of the HySeries, a hydrogen fuel cell - fires up, acting like a generator to charge the batteries back up. In much fewer words, it's like an electric car that's got its own hydrogen-fueled power station. Conceptually, it's the same sort of thing you'll find in GM's much hyped E-Flex system in the Chevrolet Volt, though there are two key differences, the first being that the Edge HySeries is fully functioning and has racked up nearly 10,000 miles in the process, and two, that it runs on hydrogen, not gasoline (though a fuel-cell Volt has appeared in concept form, with China as a targeted market).