Eric Trytko can tell you first hand. He had the opportunity to spend time with Wayne Gerdes, pilot a Fusion Hybrid on one of the two Washington DC-area routes that the record setting team followed, and drive one of the Fusion Hybrid media cars back to Ford’s headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.
The experience (and all that time behind the wheel) provided Eric with some interesting insight on the Fusion Hybrid and how it operates in the real world. While he wasn’t able to come anywhere close to the 81.5 mile per gallon (MPG) mark on his one attempt on the event route, Eric was able to easily break the 50 MPG mark. Eric’s real world highway mileage results on the drive back to Michigan provide tangible proof of the Fusion Hybrid’s fuel efficiency while at speed.
In his Ford Fusion Hybrid review, Eric gets down to the details on the car’s interior and delivers unbiased driving impressions. If you’re thinking about buying a new fuel efficient four door sedan, this is a must read.
We’re hoping to put a 2010 Fusion Hybrid to a week long test drive at some point this summer …
How far can you go on one tank of gas? A team of drivers has driven 1445.7 miles on one tank of gas in a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, averaging a remarkable 81.5 miles per gallon on roads in the Washington DC area. Team members included CleanMPG.com’s Wayne Gerdes, NASCAR driver Carl Edwards (shown below), and four Ford engineers, Sherif Marakby, Gil Portalatin, Tom Rolewicz, and Steve Burke.
The team set out on Sunday morning with a goal of breaking the 1000 mile mark, in an effort to raise funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The Fusion Hybrid was a standard production model, running on 87 octane gas. It was not modified for the event. After driving for 69 hours continuously, the tank finally ran dry early this morning. Continue reading →
Seeing that the 2009 Detroit Auto Show was dominated by electric car technology, I lucked out to score the second of my two interviews with Nancy Gioia, Ford’s Global Director of Sustainable Mobility Technologies and Hybrid Programs. My goal was to look into what the coming years will bring with specific regard to Ford’s electric car efforts. As with other automakers, electrification has a past (the Ford Electric Ranger), a present (the current Ford electric-hybrids), and a future. Our conversation was inspiring. As it turns out, a full-fledged market-ready Ford electric car is neither far-fetched, nor far off …
I had the good fortune to sit down with Barb Samardzich, Ford’s Vice President of Powertrain Engineering at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show with the camera rolling. I’ve been intrigued by Ford’s decision to aggressively pursue their EcoBoost (turbocharged direct-injection) here in the States, rather than take the diesel route. We shot this candid discussion in one take, in a conference room in the second floor of Ford’s sprawling booth. While there was no editing of the flow of the conversation, I took the liberty of cutting away to supporting displays in the booth to liven things up.
On Sunday evening, I had the good fortune to have dinner with Ford’s CEO, Alan Mulally and a number of Ford executives. I was the lone wolf mad dog blogger at the table, surrounded by conventional journalists from America and the UK. Needless to say, I was nervous as could be, not having previously met a single person in the room. I compensated by throwing down three pineapple vodka infusions – the house specialty at the Capital Grille in Troy, Michigan (and for good reason, I must say) – in rapid succession while twittering and waiting at the bar.
All in my best attempt to summon inspiration from the late great Hunter S. Thompson.
As the outsider not knowing a soul, I felt a bit uneasy as I eased into my spot at the corner of the table. I was only guy not wearing a tie (although I did have a proper navy jacket). My non-corporate arrangement of facial hair du jour couldn’t have helped. Continue reading →
