Ford Fusion Hybrid Mileage: 41 City, 36 Highway

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co.'s much ballyhooed 2010 Fusion Hybrid will get 41 city miles per gallon and 36 mpg on highways, based on final certification figures from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the company said Monday.

The move is one of the final steps in getting the vehicle to dealerships next spring. Certification of the vehicle was recently completed at the company's testing laboratories in Allen Park, Mich.

Ford said that the Fusion Hybrid tops Toyota's Camry hybrid _ its main competitor_ mileage by 8 mpg in the city and 2 mpg on the highway.

The Fusion can travel up to 47 miles per hour using only battery power. After 47 miles, the car's four-cylinder engine turns on to power the car and recharge the battery.

The Fusion's nickel-metal hydride battery is lighter and produces 20 percent more power than the Ford Escape hybrid. It also devised a way to get 28 percent more power out of the battery cells, said Praveen Cherian, program leader for the Fusion Hybrid.

"It's not just one thing, but thousands," he said of the improved mileage numbers. "We've optimized the heck out of that vehicle, it's individual components."

The battery can also tolerate higher temperatures, and Ford has eliminated its battery cooling system in the Fusion, allowing the battery to cool using regular cabin air.

The company has also improved its regenerative braking system, which captures energy lost through brake friction and stores it for battery usage. Ford said 94 percent of brake friction energy is recovered in the new model.

The Fusion also includes SmartGauge technology, which helps drivers adjust their driving to get more mileage out of the car.

Ford unveiled the Fusion Hybrid at the Los Angeles Auto Show last month, along with the Mercury Milan hybrid.

Comments

[KillTheMessenger]

Mid 30s on the highway? Ford's engine technology sucks. Or they still think they can get away with less than 40mpg in a market that is firmly marching towards 50mpg and beyond.

So much for forward looking thinking.

[kstuff]

Some of you people cannot give credit where it's due. What will satisfy you? Nothing?

[KillTheMessenger]

50mpg would satisfy me. If you are are happy about less you have really low standards. Or you just don't mind walking the ten miles difference between the two points where 40mpg and 50mpg vehicle stop when given exactly one gallon of fuel.

[MuchMadness]

Fiesta, Focus, Fusion.
Which of these are built in the USA?

[mamacat]

Sounds very encouraging. Anyone know what the price range would be for this Fusion? I wonder what sort of mileage a Focus would get with this technology, and what it would cost. I am hoping not to have to buy another car until there is a good, "cheap" PHEV on the market, preferably made in North America.

BTW, I read that the new plant that Toyota was planning on opening in Mississippi to build the Prius in the States has been cancelled, due to the bad economy.

[eus]

This is good they are moving into the future. The car might be a little heavier and safer (modern standards) than the old honda civics. Plus its a hybrid.

[aceholiday]

heavier does not mean safer

[KillTheMessenger]

It does mean cheaper. It is far easier and cheaper to make a heavy vehicle that satisfies safety standards than a light one.

[NCN8]

36 highway? My 15 year old Honda Civic gets 40 with a conventional internal combustion engine.

Back to the drawing board, Ford.

[howmuchisenough]

How many people does that Civic seat comfortably? How's the warranty? Are there a few hundred thousand of them available for people to buy to significantly impact our consumption? I didn't think so. This is a great start, Ford should keep the hits coming. Now the Fed Gov't should provide big incentives for people who really need new cars to be able to get one for about $10K with attractive financing. How about 0% financing for 6 years and a joint incentive between the gov't and automakers to get the price to $10K. This would sell cars and get a lot of inefficient, polluting old junk off the roads.

[KillTheMessenger]

The old Civics seat 4 comfortably. The warranty was that of any other car and there were millions made.

What's your point? That we messed up building a fleet of inefficient, over-sized vehicles right before peak oil? Now that, indeed, would be true.

[mamacat]

They are not, strictly speaking, comparable.

[aceholiday]

exactly, because ford is selling hybrid. the japanese can do it on engine alone.

[allwrite]

I certainly hope the claims are legit and that it proves durable and reliable. If this comes to market with major bugs, look our for the grim reaper.

[DRaymond]

Between this, the new Focus,

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/ford-says-2010-focus-double/story.aspx?guid=%7B36223557-8870-4517-8713-E84340304572%7D

and the new Fiesta,

http://www.motortrend.com/features/auto_news/2008/112_0806_2010_ford_fiesta/index.html

Ford is going to have a pretty competitive stable coming up.

[ferrarimanf355]

Don't forget the Mustang!

http://www.fordvehicles.com/the2010mustang/

[choada777]

2010 always seems to be the magic number.

[philosopherkingtomas]

http://www.afstrinity.com has a much better battery system, long life, long miles !

[LiberalSwede]

If Ford has moved this slowly in the hybrid arena, will the Lions will be competitive in the NFL in about 20 years?

[Pucker]

The technology in the vehicle is 100% Ford....and the manufacturing is done in the USA, unlike the foreign built Prius.

None of this makes the segment viable anyway. So long as gas is

[drkazmd65]

Put this setup in a Focus body,... preferably the 4-door sedan and I will be all over it in 2011-ish.

[KillTheMessenger]

Yawn... Ford is catching up... after ten years of sleeping at the helm.

[MattInVA]

Ford has been developing and using this hybrid technology since 2002.

And I would say they've actually surpassed some people rather than catching up.

This Fusion will get better fuel economy than the best hybrid Honda currently sells, and the hybrid Camry.

[dolphy]

I tried buying American. I bought a total of 4 American vehicles and only the Mustang lasted more than a hundred thousand miles without having major problems. I'm sticking with Toyota for now.

[bluejay10027]

Honda is bringing back the Insight. It will do 55 mpg with a MSRP at 18K.
Ford has a chance, but they need to drop the price point 10K.
The GM volt @ 40k will sink like a lead anchor.

Hybrid technology is here to stay.

[KillTheMessenger]

Toyota has been selling hybrids since 1997. What's your point? That it took Ford five years to get started AFTER other manufacturers were selling a perfectly working new technology already? Indeed. What an accomplishment.

"And I would say they've actually surpassed some people rather than catching up."

So far they did not surpass anyone. At least not in anything that is tangible.

"This Fusion will get better fuel economy than the best hybrid Honda currently sells, and the hybrid Camry."

Except that Honda is going to ship a new hybrid Insight next year which should be above 50mpg. Reality sucks, doesn't it?

[NC4Obama]

Ok... now add a plug.

[SolarPowerGuy]

Indeed. You would think this would be a simple step, wouldn't you?

Now, I wouldn't expect much plug-in range from a PHEV-modified Fusion. Another web site says the Ford Fusion's battery has a 2.4 kWh capacity, just over double the 1.1 kWh capacity of the Prius battery.

But with NiMH car batteries, you never run them from 100% to 0% charge. This shortens the battery life drastically. The Prius battery management profile typically keeps the charge between 40% and 80%.

So the Fusion's PRACTICAL charge capacity would be about 0.96 kWh. That would give the car the ability to travel roughly four miles on battery power alone. Not bad -- I could get to the grocery store and home again -- but not much.

For the average driver, four miles of all-electric travel per day would probably result in an effective gas mileage boost of around ten percent. The standard Fusion's combined gas mileage rating is 38.5 MPG. The PHEV would clock in at about 42.5 MPG.

[Tom95134]

Detroit can do it. The article sounds like Ford has put their own hybrid technology in the car instead of using Toyota technology.

Obviously, the batteries are a major improvement over what is in my Prius.

[KillTheMessenger]

It's still a NiMH battery. Not much different from what has been in use 10 years ago. The "nickel-metal hydride battery is lighter and produces 20 percent more power" is really an engineering parameter of choice. No battery in any vehicle aside from an RC-racing model is ever used nearly to its full power or energy limits. Therefor the designers can decide if they want to opt for battery life or for power/energy density. One can only hope for future owners of this vehicle that Ford engineers stayed on the safe side...

:-)