Ford Fusion Gets 81.5 MPG

Last week, a team of Ford engineers, hypermiler Wayne Gerdes, and NASCAR driver Carl Edwards pushed a new 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid to its fuel economy limit, racking up 81.5 mpg–and $8000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

The foursome traveled over 1400 miles of highway and city streets in the greater (much greater) Washington, DC, area in about 48 hours. The Ford Fusion, a full hybrid, is rated at 41 mpg city, 36 mpg highway, and can get 700 miles on a tank of gas. This team, with careful driving but no modifications, doubled that.

I’ve been in the new Fusion hybrid for a short jaunt, and I was impressed with its capabilities as a gas-sipper and a comfortable sedan in the little time I had with the car. With the right drivers and a good-gas goal, it seems to be capable of more than I suspected, though real-life numbers are likely to be closer to the EPA estimates.

Image of the team breaking the seal on the gas tank at the end of their 1447-mile run on a single tank courtesy of Ford.