Ford may have a quiet home run on its hands, if the company can survive until the 2010 model year. The automotive press is just beginning to get its hands on the hybrid version of the latest Ford Fusion midsize sedan, and early reviews say the car is attractive, easy to live with, and nearly as fuel-efficient as a Toyota Prius.
Ford claims the Fusion hybrid will get at least 39 mpg city/ 37 mpg highway when the EPA numbers are calculated in the coming weeks," Autoblog notes. But a group of auto writers was invited to Los Angeles to test drive the car recently - and every single one of them beat those estimates easily.
"Ford hybrid applications manager Gil Portalatin used his intimate knowledge of the car to set some benchmarks the day before," they report, achieving "46 mpg on the first segment of the drive route and 43.5 mpg on the hillier second part. Among the journalists on hand, Car and Driver's Steve Siler recorded a 43.6 mpg result on the first part," and Autoblog's own writers "achieved 43.1 mpg, which is a very impressive number for Ford's new mid-size sedan."
Illinois' Daily Tech claims that the car has "the ability to drive up to 47 MPH on battery power alone." That's a higher number than any current hybrid can claim. The car "will be priced from $27,270. Toyota's Camry Hybrid and Nissan's Altima Hybrid are priced from $26,150 and $25,480 respectively," and neither one can match those numbers.
The car will also feature an instrument display that coaches its driver to achieve better fuel efficiency, and a parent control feature that limits what the car can do when teenage drivers are behind the wheel. Business Week says that Ford "urgently needs to distinguish itself" with the next Fusion, and the 2010 model "is an attempt to leapfrog the company's outsized competition and do just that."
Wired calls the Fusion "a car that should make Toyota nervous and might just help Ford escape the apocalypse in Detroit."
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