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frst North American assembly plant that's zero waste-to-landfll. Investments were also made in LED lighting. They replaced some 7,000 lights with LEDs, which is resulting in a savings of approximately 15-million kilowatt-hours per year. Kevin George headed the exterior design for the new Edge, the second generation of the vehicle. He describes it as "an evolution, not a revolution." Meaning, they knew that the frst- generation was doing comparatively well in the market, so if you have something good to begin with, there is little point in making unnecessary changes. George says, "The frst thing people notice when evaluating a vehicle is the silhouette. We did experiment quite a lot with diferent silhouettes on this package, but Edge has some classic features that we wanted to retain." So what did they hang on to? "The way the grille is swept back in profle, the short hood leading to a fast windshield. The windshield center line fattens out. We have a backlight that's angled forward. And doesn't sacrifce usable space behind the rear seat. We kept the overhangs low." But you don't design a new vehicle by sticking entirely with the template of the old. And the canvas is somewhat bigger as the 2015 Edge has grown in length from 184.2 in. to 188.1 in., with a wheelbase increase of one inch (to 112.2 in.). At 68.6 in., it is 1.6 in. higher than the previous vehicle, though the width, at 75.9 in., is the same for both vehicles. "What we changed was the surface language," George says. "The previous Edge was very modern, and what 'modern' sometimes means is 'reduced.' It was very clean in its body side. We added sculpture to the body side through reduction. "Edge had a shoulder that joined the rocker with a smooth line, with one break at the shoulder. We started with that and carved out a new, sort of sexier shape. What that does is make it look more light weight because we removed a lot of visual mass." The previous Edge was slab-sided. This isn't. "We replaced the monolithic protective- ness with agility," George says. The design of the previous Edge is "tough like a boxer." The new one is "tough like a sprinter." p Note how the tail lamps are integrated with the backlight and connected by a ribbon along the bottom of the backlight. The previous-generation has vertical lamps that stand alone. 22 AD&P; > May 2015 > FEATURE > One Edge. One Ford. > Gary S. Vasilash > gsv@autofeldguide.com