Engineers at Ford certainly draw from their wealth of both experience and education when designing the company’s vehicles. But once in a while, it doesn’t hurt to turn to Mother Nature for a little inspiration.
Ford revealed Tuesday that the cargo floorboard in the 2018 EcoSport is made of 100-percent recycled honeycomb paper. The U.S. automaker claims the floorboard weighs just 6 pounds, but can support as much as 700 pounds of cargo.
“The hexagonal design of honeycomb is a testament to nature’s ingenuity,” Ford EcoSport assistant chief engineer Mike Mazzella said in a press release. “Not only is it strong, it’s superlight. Customers can slide the shelf into multiple different slots like an oven rack; even store it on the back of the seats. It helps make EcoSport super-flexible in everyday use.”
The compact crossover is making its North American debut for the 2018 model year after previously only being sold in parts of South America, Europe and Asia.
We only can hope it didn’t bring any killer bees with it.
