It is a real winner. GM & Chrysler do not have anything come close.

Toyota is going to report loses for 2008.

he 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 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.


i have to see this IRL.

I agree... sounds like a winner.

This is a great job by Ford. IMO it will push Toyota to jump start the Gen 2 TCH. I'd guess that right after the Gen3 Prius hits that we will see some news on the Gen2 TCH.

Great. Now what kind of mileage can they get with a commuter-sized vehicle?

Does anyone have a clue to when this effort started? I'm trying to determine if this was a direct effect of the present Ford CEO, or was already underway.

Yeah sure, the brake friction heat gets turned back into electrical energy and stored in the battery! LOL.

Whoever wrote this piece needs to revisit some basic thermodynamics! On the other hand kudos to Ford for stepping up to the future trend, which ultimately will see automotive transportation moving to electric power.

It appears that there is some sort of typo in the article. The coincidence of operating on electric up to 47 mph and travelling 47 miles on electric is just too great. Unless this vehicle has a large lithium based battery pack it can't do the latter. What they really meant was "after 47 miles per hour". The Prius can do the same up to 42 mph, it's in the gearing of the electric drives.

Hopefully the Fusion is not too hard to convert to a Phev. The 47mph electric is impressive. The 41mpg in the city shows what a full hybrid can do, as its more then the Civic hybrid even though the Fusion is in a larger class. The price is a little steep, but its worth considering. I was looking for it to cost around $25000.

This is more of a Camry hybrid competitor in size and mileage. Ford has a smaller sedan which is being hybridized, and will be more competitive with the Prius. Price and reliability will be important for their success.
Anybody know how Ford is pricing their hybrid sedans?

Congratulations Ford! It should sell very well if the quality is as good and the standard production model.

I've read Ford will sell the Fusion hybrid at around US$27,000. Certainly cheaper than what Toyota wants with the Camry Hybrid, which can cost way over US$30,000.

By the way, since the Ford hybrid system is very similar to what Toyota did with Hybrid Synergy Drive don't be surprised that Ford may use a number of Fusion hybrids to test various PHEV technologies.

actually Fusion will be more expensive than Camry Hybrid... it probably has more powerful batteries which is where extra costs come from and extra performance.

Very good numbers, congrats to Ford!

I think this is actually the Toyota Hybrid system with some Ford mods to the software to alter how the system operates. Pretty good though but at $27K the Fusion should also be loaded. A base model is about $19K.

Talked to a Ford guy a couple of months ago and they are also coming out with a version of the Flex and Edge (the Flex is the edgey one and the Edge is the roundish one, go figure!) that has a six cylinder that will cruise on 4 on the highway. Not really a breakthrough, but they say the Flex and Edge will average about 30-31 MPG, which is pretty good cause those things aren't small.

Now put a hybrid in their and get the City numbers up and your probably looking at about 40 MPG.

I believe $27K is the base model for FFH and the TCH base is $25K.
The $23K version is not available anymore.
Fully loaded TCH is $32K, I hope the fully loaded FFH will be the same at $32K.

Hats off to Mulally and Ford! This car is ahead of the TCH in terms of gas mileage and technology, and on par in quality with Toyota and Honda. IMHO, it's the first American car to do this in a long, long time.

GM, are you learning anything here?

Bravo, Ford.
The Fusion is an attractive and comfortable car, and didn't give me the claustrophobic feel that the driving position in the Camry did. A hybrid drive system can only enhance the car's appeal. At this point, it's been on the street long enough that Ford would soon do a redesign, minor or major on the car, but with cash flow down, the current style will probably last a while.

The big question in my mind is that the Prius can be driven waaay more efficiently than the EPA tests indicate, and so can P-and-G and stealth modes be achieved with the Ford software, and what kind of mileage will motivated owners achieve in the real world?

Ford will be reducing the number of HV battery cells from 250 (Escape hybrid) to 200 for the Fusion hybrid. Ford use Sanyo cells that are 1.32 volt so the pack should be 264 volts. Sanyo cells used in the Escape hybrid are 5.5 Ah capacity so it should have 1.45 kWh of energy.

For reference, the Camry has 204 cells at 1.2 volts with 6.5 Ah capacity per cells to give a total of 1.59 kWh of energy.

Fusion hybrid has less energy in the HV battery pack and yet will go at higher speed in FULL electric. That means, the system will drain the battery at faster rate. That will in turn reduce the life of the HV battery.

Toyota baby Prius' HV battery pack to extend the life. For example, Prius HV pack can discharge 36.4 kW (48.8 hp) but decided to use only 21 kW (28 hp). The HV pack in the Camry hybrid has the spec of 45.9 kW (34 plastic modules) but Toyota only discharge at 30 kW. Both the Prius and Camry hybrid are AT-PZEV certified in the CA and other states adapted CARB emission. This certification requires the manufacturer to warrant the HV pack to 10 years / 150,000 miles.

The big question is.... will the Fusion hybrid be AT-PZEV certified?

Yes. Bravo!

If they are able to price it competitively, have good reliability, coupled w/AT-PZEV emissions and the same warranty at the HyCam and Prius, they'd have a winner.