2013 Ford Fusion debuts along with 47-MPG Fusion Hybrid, 100-MPGe Fusion Energi

It's exciting to see hybrids moving into second generations and MPGs going up. Very nice!

(yes, I know Toyota did this years ago and is now on GenIII, but it's an exciting time when we see other automakers (the auto industry as a whole) on second generations of hybrids. Hybrids are maturing, they are no longer "new" and this is an exciting time. It will be just as exciting to see Hyundai and others moving their hybrids into second generations in due time)

 

It looks like an Aston in the front, and an Audi in the back. But still a nice re-design. I would consider one of these, after I see the reliability ratings. Maybe in a couple of years. A relative of mine who works at a Ford dealer says that he never sees Fusions come in for service (any configuration) so that is looking good.

Also, why do they always go to the HyCam for the Fusion comparison, when the Prius is also mid-size? There is only a small mention of the Prius.

 

I think that is the case. I am aware of at least one manufacturer that is scaling back a hybrid program after rule making did not go the way they thought it would and the sticker mileage is not going to hit their target. The belief is that sticker mileage is the big consumer measure at this point. The recent Honda lawsuit kinda reinforces that belief.

 

Great job, Ford! Those are awesome MPGs. I thought Fusion hybrid is a heavier car but they managed to get higher MPG than Camry Hybrid, at least EPA number (optimization?).

I want to know the trunk size.

 

Looks good but the rear seat seems to be a bit claustrophobic based on some videos that I have seen so far. I really want a lot of glass area on my cars - which was one important reason I went for my Prius v - the back seats are spacious and have big windows.

I guess most people don't seem to have this hangup considering that cars seem to look like tanks with slit-like windows nowadays.

 

On the one had, the article says they're estimating 100mpgE. They also say 45mpg. They say a 500 mile range. That data is enough to calculate out what the EV range would be. Yet the article says they don't yet know. What am I missing.

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Here are the specs
http://media.ford.com/images/10031/2013_FusionHybrid_Specs.pdf

Trunk is 12 cu feet same as the outgoing fusion hybrid. This compares to 13.1 in the new camry hybrid, and 11 in the outgoing one. It should be fine. There may be a typo though as the energi has the same trunk?

I would assume all the city mpg numbers are high, my prius gets more than 10mpg less in the city, but my city may be different than yours. The highway should stay good. The hybrid seems optimized for hypermilers, with electric going to 62 mph, it should be able to glide on the highway if your glides get down to this speed.

There isn't a spec for curb weight, but normally if it drops they put it in the press release, so I would expect this still is heavier than the TCH but with 47/44 versus camry hybrid's 43/39. A business week article I read said that fussion sold so well last year because people came in to look at the hybrid and went away with the regular version. The 2013 1.6 ecoboost gets 26/37. We will see with pricing if ford wants to sell the hybrid and energi, or just lure people in to buy the ecoboost. Toyota has priced the toyota camry hybrid to sell. The sonata hybrid is still in this mix. Ford like hyundai has killed the v6 option, so I would expect those not wanting turbo 4s to move to camry.

The fusion has more passenger room than the v but a lot less cargo room. Yes even the back seats in the fusion are bigger, but packaging does make things seem bigger or smaller, so the prius v may look bigger. For more cargo room, but v proportioned seats ford has the c-max hybrid and energi coming out. The v does still have more cargo space than the c-max though.

 

Gas tank is 14 gallons. With 45 MPG, it'll go 630 miles if the last drop is used.

 

Couple of things I earlier posted in the other Energi thread.

 

evnow said the hybrid version has 16 cu. ft cargo. I don't know where he got that info because that's not what the spec said.

 

I see the spec say 118.8/16.0 for Fusion & 114.8/12.0 for Energi.

Which spec are you looking at ?

BTW, both Energi & Hybrid give the same figures. Hmmm ...

 

those are great numbers.. sure they optimized the EPA, and it is 2.0l with probably considerably slower overall, but so what? .

People can easily hit EPA mpg in CTh and Prius v (even reviewers which is usually not the way it goes), but they probably wont get any better than TCH with this, but whose bad is that? I guess Toyota will have more satisfied customers at the end, while Ford will get good PR. Cant really fault them for playing the game.

Anyone checked 45mpg Hybrid Jetta? Now that wont get anywhere close to those numbers. Autobild tested Q5 Hybrid with similar setup to RX450h AWD, and Lexus was faster, bigger and 25% more efficient in real life, despit their Euro cycle showing same official mpg .

 

He got it from my post above, which came from here
http://media.ford.com/images/10031/2013_FusionHybrid_Specs.pdf

These are preliminary. I expect either the hybrid and/or energi spec is wrong and may be simply copied from the other one.

 

I suspect toyota is looking to see how prius phv does before adding phv to the camry or prius v. I suspect prius v plug in status will wait for gen IV prius drive train. Camry is the number one selling car (not truck). The phv is on a slow roll out. Ford on the other hand is behind and feels that plug-ins will help sell regular and hybrid c-maxs and fusions. They need the economy of scale to help drive down plug-in costs. The fusion is really a world car, it is reported that designers changed the front end because focus groups in china thought it looked too mean.

 

At the same time!? I couldn't imagine that being anything but confusing for consumers, especially with v so new and c not even available yet.

Notidce how our own "PIP" usage would contribute to the confusion. Saying "Prius v PHV" suddenly makes sense in a market where there are a variety of Prius available.
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Well, Toyota invented the naming confusion. Anyway, hardly a reason not to be aggressive on the plug-in front.

 

Will ford actually sell their PHEVs WW? They said that they dont even know if hybrid will be sold in europe, not decided yet... you think they will actually sell more than Prius Phev in 2012? For that, they would have to sell more phevs than total number of hybrids they sold last year.

 

not sure whats aggressive - publishing PRs and not selling cars, or selling 30k-40k plugins in 2012 .