Ford Fusion Gets 81.5 MPG

May 6, 2009 in Hybrids, MPG by kristen | 3 comments

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.

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  1. Josh Maxwell’s avatar

    Josh Maxwell on May 6, 2009 at 12:31 pm

    Hi there,

    I looked over your blog and it looks really good. Do you ever do link exchanges on your blog roll? If you do, I’d like to exchange links with you.

    Let me know if you’re interested.

    Thanks..

  2. Nguyen H. Tuan’s avatar

    Nguyen H. Tuan on May 16, 2009 at 8:26 pm

    I wonder how long is the batter life. Yes, we can save gas, but we have to pay big money to replace the battery, though.

  3. kristen’s avatar

    kristen on May 18, 2009 at 10:29 am

    Nancy Gioia, the head of Ford’s hybrid program, said in an interview I did in April that Ford warranties the batteries for 10 years/150,000 miles in “green states” and 8 years/100,000 miles in “non-green” states. She said the tests Ford has done “show no reason to change batteries.”

    Ford is currently using older nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries in its hybrids, though it is testing newer lithium-ion batteries. The concern is that the batteries must meet Ford’s warranty standard, though it seems they will.

    Kristen Hall-Geisler
    GoodGreenCars.com