Have PiP, just bought a Ford Fusion Energi...

Hello, I'm just his son who is driving the Ford Fusion Energi, got to tell you, my dad is right, I do have a thing for pedal to the metal, but i still get no less than 47.5 MP/Ge on the streets and HWY, and tell you what, I Fucusing loving it, It's fully loaded, Self parking, and besides that, it's a plug in, I get to work, and back and spend no gas on it, except I travel a lot because I like to get away sometimes, and it's a perfect car for that because even then I spent less on gas...
If you get a Ford Fusion Energi, the one like mine, I just have to let you know, this car drive itself, you aint got to do shnauzer.... Just chill da Fucusion down in your chair, and enjoy the ride, it stays in lane, and cruise control, and when I let go of Steering wheel, and didn't touch when it was about to go off the lane, my dad panicked, but the car turned back slowly on it's own, back in lane, my dad was surprised. Well, I'm 100% in love wit this car, and will drive it to the ground, it's very comfortable on the road like Mercedes, and the look of it so fancy like Aston Martin, I think I am in love...
Well, when I got back behind a wheel of a Prius, I got really frustrated, and mad, so I told my dad to take his car back and give mine back, because it is so much more comfortable and easy to use.... I am begging my dad to trade in his Prius for Fusion, so he wont bug me with mine....lol
In the end I spent a lot of time behind a wheel of a Prius, and I loved that car, don;t get me wrong, there were many times this car made an impression on me, and I loved it, but time is moving forward, and things are improving, and I personally like the Fusion now even better, thank you for reading, and everyone has their own opinion, I have mine....
hedgehog

 

...The Hedgehog has spoken.

 

Hedgehog gets around mid-50 MPG when he gets his meathooks on the PiP, which is becoming rare now.

I note that the Fusion Energi displays its energy use breakouts differently than the PiP does. Its power-choice switches are also different: it has an "EV only" switch, an "EV Auto-assist" switch and an "EV hold" (for later) switch.

Since we have two L2 chargers (one Leviton and one 240V receptacle for use with the EvseUpgrade), and since the Fusion really does hold about 22 - 24 miles for urban/suburban driving, the Fusion rarely runs out of EV juice before it gets charged again, often multiple times/day. This certainly affects its MPGe compared to the PiP, which runs out of EV juice every day somewhere during its daily runs. On interstate freeway trips (to NYC, to Massachusetts, to Maryland's Eastern Shore), the Son tells me he gets around 44 MPG readouts in the Fusion. Of course, since there are all these fancy cool display buttons to play with, the Hedgehog resets them all the time so I can't quite verify...

We plan on a road trip to Wisconsin & points West this August in the Fusion, and I'll come back with lots of data.

 

If we were to take both cars, we'd be arguing about which car the parrot'll go in (I'm NOT making this up - Loki the Brazilian Green Cheek Conure Parrot drove with us to Mississippi last March, and he's coming along on this trip too).

We're taking the Ford "Fucusion". It feels good to stretch these old bones on that comfy plush seat

 

Great question - and of course I have no idea since they are really different cars as far as their mechanical details go. Not much blogosphere info yet out there on the Fusion Energi compared with PriusChat's accumulated wisdom (I render chapeaux bas here to the PriusChat family).

Of course, as plug-ins diversify and spread out across the land, this really becomes a discussion of "How to adapt a plug-in car to alternative uses during emergencies" rather than "How to adapt a Prius to alternative uses etc..." and thus stands to become a much broader general discussion topic, as the Fall hurricane season again approaches. If I had just 10 more hours per week (hah!), I'd be tempted to start a web page.

 

Eliot, congrats on a great car. Can't really go wrong with a Prius, no matter what the Hedgehog now claims

 

Update: Ford Fusion Energi behavior on the Great American Road Trip:

Overall = this is a well designed, comfortable, powerful car.

ODO: we started the trip with odometer at 4200 miles. Now, in Cody Wyoming, the odometer stands at 6700 miles. We'll be close to 10k on our return to Northern Virginia by late August.

MPGe: as we started, the mostly city/suburban life of the Fusion resulted in an MPGe of 47.9. At the house, the Fusion (and the Prius) get charged daily, sometimes more often. Now, 2500 miles later on the open road, the MPGe stands at exactly 43.0. Charging during the trip: three times - one incomplete charge during a dealer's 5K oil change & tire rotation, one complete charge this morning at our 1950's style motor hotel in Wyoming (hence no effect yet on MPGe as it's still morning here) and one 80% stealth charge yesterday coming down the Powder River Mountain range on US 16 between Buffalo and Cody. However, pls remember the much higher altitudes here in the West - we've been between 3000 feet and 5000 feet for the last few days, and that impacts all gas mileage no matter what the car.

Pros: OMG is this car comfortable on the open road! It's fast, it's maneuverable, its suspension is well-tuned. The passenger seat is not quite as long-term comfortable as the driver's seat (lacks built-in lumbar support), which means that the driver's seat is just about perfect.

Cons: although the MyFord GPS map display is very nice and graphically advanced, the GPS system itself SUCKS compared to Toyota's: it's verrrrry slow to load after a car start, it sometimes just loses its planned route, and it often mis-routes the chosen route in a random fashion. I say: give me Ford display graphics + Toyota GPS logic.

Charging: the Ford EVSe has a better design than Tyota's EVSE, as its "brick" is also a winding loop for the cords. Unfortunately, the Ford EVSE handle lacks a locking hole for a lock.

Stealth charging: the western downslope yesterday on US 16 in Wyoming had a continuous descent of about 30 miles. By the end, our traction battery, long depleted, regained 22 EV miles out of a total 25 possible. Nice!

Trunk space: we each packed one mid-size duffle bag, one Thermarest pad, one sleeping bag, one laptop+ backpack, and a Playskool food/beverage cooler, and one suit (friends' wedding enroute), plus coats etc. We gained a few giftie / memory goodies along the way during the trip, for the house and for friends. This all fits in the trunk, on the trunk shelf above the traction battery, and in the left rear seat - hence, one seat is still open. For two people, the cargo space works well on a long trip. For three, it could work but it'd be tight. For four, the cargo space for a cross-country trip is inadequate.

Hope this is helpful.