First Drive: 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid

[zenMachine]

CanadianDriver First Drives First Drive: 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid

The switch from gasoline to electric is seamless, even though it happens a great deal (the system has been optimized for the maximum number of gasoline engine shut-offs, which improves fuel economy). The redesigned Fusion has a great deal of sound-deadening, and it’s so quiet that, combined with the seamless operation, I’d be willing to bet that if a driver was placed in it with no indication of its hybrid status, it would take him a while to realize it. Steering is responsive, with none of the vagueness that can sometimes plague hybrids, and it feels firmly planted and confident on the highway. If you’re not worrying about how many leaves are growing in your gauge, the car’s very peppy, and there’s enough power to get you around traffic on the highway.

[Rybold]

Sounds great. I sure hope to see more similar reviews from other sources to support this.

Excellent article. Everyone reading this should click on the link to the actual article and read the entire article. Lots of good info and photos in there.

"is now entirely Ford’s technology (save for a battery purchased from Sanyo), with over 100 patents pending on the Fusion’s system alone." - an indication that Ford has put a lot of effort and investment into this vehicle.

"Canadian pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but south of the border, the MSRP is US$27,270."
At that price, it should sell very well in the US. (especially since gas prices are heading back up)
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[Vincent]

I'll test dive it before I buy the 2010 Prius.

[Flying White Dutchman]

nice

good things with ford!

[Bohous]

the MSRP is US$27,270, which puts it $1,442 above the next-highest Fusion Sport model, and $8,000 over the entry-level base trim line.
<snip>
I expect that the Fusion Hybrid will be somewhere around the $30,000 mark when it gets to our dealers.

It will be interesting to see in the HYbrid package has features closer to the sport model or the base model. From the pics it looks pretty loaded but $30k is a lot to pay for a midsize Ford and the "hybrid premium" could be pretty easy for naysayers to show the payoff period to be prohibitive. That being said it's a nice looking car and I wish Ford best of luck.

[SageBrush]

it uses regenerative braking to capture up to 94 per cent of energy normally lost through brake friction to recharge the battery.

uh-huh. 40% would be fantastic

[snead_c]

...and Ford was the ONE of the Big Three that didn't request a bailout.
Way to go, Ford.

[Shawn Clark]

There are some claims being made about this vehicle that make me highly skeptical. The braking efficiency is just one. The staying in all electric is another.

If they truly are staying in all electric for moderate acceleration, that is not likely to be efficient. The other major problem is that it will result in deeper pack discharge and at a higher amperage rate--not conducive to long battery life as I understand it.

That's not to say it is a bad vehicle, just that it appears that some of the points are being oversold or perhaps misapplied. Until one of the hypermilers spends some time with it I doubt we will get a straight technical scoop.

[jpadc]

Originally Posted by SageBrush

uh-huh. 40% would be fantastic

I assume the 94% refers to how much of the breaking is of the regenerative type - not the percentage of the energy recouped from getting and keeping the car moving. If the former is was what was intended, I'm not sure how that figure was estimated (and am still skeptical). If the latter, then I'm getting one of those cars ASAP and and submitting a patent for a "near perpetual motion" machine.

[Mike Dimmick]

Originally Posted by jpadc

I assume the 94% refers to how much of the breaking is of the regenerative type - not the percentage of the energy recouped from getting and keeping the car moving. If the former is was what was intended, I'm not sure how that figure was estimated (and am still skeptical). If the latter, then I'm getting one of those cars ASAP and and submitting a patent for a "near perpetual motion" machine.

It's straightforward: the amount of the car's kinetic energy that is turned into electrical energy and used to charge the battery, compared to the amount that could potentially be recovered. However, it's nothing new: the Prius (HSD, NHW20) also extracts most of the car's kinetic energy through regenerative braking.

Remember that the car is subject to losses while driving down the road. In fact most of our fuel's energy goes into overcoming those losses: friction, rolling resistance, wind resistance. The kinetic energy of a 1725kg car (stated Gross Vehicle Mass) travelling at 70mph is around 840 kilojoules, which for comparison is about 233 watt-hours (one joule is one watt per second), i.e. 0.233 kWh. The fuel's energy content is (per Wikipedia) 34.8 megajoules per litre, so absent other losses and assuming 100% conversion it would only take 24 millilitres, or less than two tablespoons, of fuel to accelerate to that speed. In fact the Prius engine is better than 33% efficient at the engine output shaft, so let's say 75ml of fuel.

Clearly we use much more fuel than that in a day!

Anyway, once you take your foot off the gas, the car is subjected immediately to those losses. Per Wikipedia again, the Prius has a drag area of 6.24 sq ft, which is approximately 0.58 square metres, so the wind resistance is about 730N at 70mph, with the air at 0 celsius and one atmosphere of pressure. It therefore requires 22,776 watts of power to overcome that wind resistance, and no doubt there's some complex integral I can't be bothered to compute which would demonstrate how much of the kinetic energy is simply lost to wind resistance.