We’ll Tell You Why the Ford Fusion Hybrid is ‘Car of the Year’
Last week Ford’s 2010 Fusion Hybrid was named car of the year by 49 auto journalists at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
Ford invited Earth911 to Washington D.C. last spring to test drive the Fusion Hybrid in its attempt to drive 1,000 miles on one tank of gas. Needless to say, we were more than impressed.
After 69 hours of drive time, the car managed to go 1,445.7 on one tank of gas, setting the world record for gasoline-powered, mid-sized sedans. The drive team averaged 81.5 mpg despite a storm and three nighttime drives.
According to the Associated Press, Ford finished strong in 2009, with a 33 percent increase in sales thanks to high demand for midsize cars. Photo: Flickr/Ford Motor Company
We found that the Fusion Hybrid was different than any other hybrid we’ve driven because of its quick response. It drives like a luxury sedan and responds well to flooring the accelerator if needed.
The Ford team taught us all about hypermiling, a driving method that decreases energy uses while upping your car’s gas milage. Hypermiling is different in a hybrid because the car uses the energy you save by regenerating the battery.
A more powerful battery will give you more drive time in EV mode, resulting in less gas used. While the Fusion Hybrid is advertised at 41 mpg in the city, we were getting as much as 81 mpg.
As a whole, Ford Motor Company is already practicing eco-friendly manufacturing and takes into consideration the amount of waste it produces and reuses.
According to Hybrid Marketing Manager David Finnegan, Ford’s recycling efforts can already be seen in Detroit. For example, the Detroit Lions play on a field that’s made of recycled tires, which is one of the ways Ford reuses its leftover tires.
So the big question now is where will Ford go from here? Now that the car company is staking a claim in the hybrid industry, Ford will need to constantly be reformatting and rethinking its idea of driving in order to remain a viable manufacturer. Jay Ward, Ford’s communication director for North America, believes Ford’s new EcoBoost technology plays a huge role in the company’s future.
“Over the next five years or so, you’re going to see Ford rolling out a significant number of EcoBoost engines, starting with the V6 EcoBoost, which will give the V8 power that consumers want but with a V6 fuel economy,” Ward says. “Costing what [hybrids] do, consumers may not necessarily feel comfortable with those. But the EcoBoost is going to be an affordable technology that still reduces your fuel economy by up to 20 percent.”
We’ll definitely stay tuned for that.
Read more about our review of the Ford Fusion Hybrid in Test Spin With Ford: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
