Fuel Economy
The EPA rates the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid as getting 41 MPG in the city and 36 MPG on the highway. But more and more those EPA numbers are meaningless with modern alterna-cars such as hybrids and PHEVs. They can be incredibly sensitive to how you drive them and your mileage will vary dramatically based on your willpower to save fuel.
Case in point: even the EPA now gives expected ranges in very small print underneath its bold, one-number MPG proclamations which show large swings. For the 2010 Fusion Hybrid the EPA small print says the expected city range for most drivers is 35 to 47 MPG and for highway driving it is 31 to 41 MPG. I don’t know about you, but to me a variance of 12 MPG is pretty large range to be able to boldly say that the car gets 41 MPG in the city.
Based on about 60 miles of city driving, my experience was that if you tried you could get nearly 50 MPG in the city—and it really didn’t take that much effort, willpower or training to do it. The car provides you with such a great driver interface—the Ford SmartGauge—that it almost seems like fun trying to make it get the highest fuel efficiency possible.
The fully customizable Ford SmartGauge
The Fusion Hybrid’s killer app is the ability to act like a fully electric car below speeds of 47 mph. With a little coaching from the SmartGauge, you can easily bring the car down to the level at which the 2.5L Atkinson-Cycle I-4 Hybrid engine shuts off and it runs completely off of its high-power NiMH battery. Doing some additional planning ahead for stop lights, I found that on the relatively flat drive between Huntington Beach and Long Beach Airport I was able to average about 49 MPG.
In the city, the car benefits from getting up to speed quickly with its available 191 HP and then feathering back from the throttle to pop it into EV mode. Using this strategy I could make it from stoplight to stoplight with about 70% of my time as an electric car. I also found that the transition between engine driving and EV mode was essentially seamless, with the stop/start feature being barely noticeable.
If you spend most of your time driving in the city and you’re willing to drive a bit less aggressively with your mind focused on both the road and the SmartGauge, you will get much better than the EPA average of 41 MPG.
When we finally hit the road to make the long drive out to Festival 8, I was curious to see if we could beat the EPA estimate of 36 MPG on the highway. Although I didn’t make highway-only estimates, in the end we were able to average almost 39 MPG for the entire 328 mile trip. Given that we ran into heavy traffic, used the A/C a lot and were charging all sorts of mobile devices that’s a pretty respectable showing, but clearly the Fusion Hybrid is built to excel in city driving.
One item of note: the cruise control on the Fusion Hybrid helps to conserve fuel by not killing it to get up slopes and letting the car go above the set speed on downhills. I also noticed that on extended downhills, the engine would shut off conserving fuel even more. In fact, the cruise control on this car is so unlike your standard cruise control that Ford has decided to call it speed control. Usually you have to avoid cruise control to get the best fuel economy, but the speed control on the Fusion Hybrid turned out to deliver better mileage on the highway than I could even when I was concentrating.
Next page: Comfort, Convenience, Safety and Build Quality
Related Posts:
- Driving to Phish Festival 8 in a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid
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Sweet article, thanks.
Sweet article, thanks.
Cool car, one of my financial institutes is a partial sponsor of the Seattle Auto Show, you can actually enter to win a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid…
Cool car, one of my financial institutes is a partial sponsor of the Seattle Auto Show, you can actually enter to win a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid…
Honda Civic hybrid has been around for a long time and it is a beautiful looking car. What does the fusion have that the Civic does not?
Honda Civic hybrid has been around for a long time and it is a beautiful looking car. What does the fusion have that the Civic does not?
Russ,
The Fusion offers more interior room, the SmartGauge, as well as the ability to drive in all-EV mode at speeds below 47 mph.
After experiencing the usefulness of the SmartGauge, I can tell you that it is a feature in and of itself that makes owning the Fusion Hybrid over the Civic Hybrid worth it.
I also refused to own an American made car in the past because of quality but would very much like to today. (great article by the way)
I would love to buy a Fusion but it is out of my price range. I’m hoping that Ford will join other car companies in making a smaller hybrid in the near future. My current Toyota Rav4 is almost 10 years old. I’d like to replace it soon but I’m not worried. I drove my ’86 Toyota pickup for 14 years before I replaced it.
I’m hoping for a Yaris or Fit sized Hybrid both for size and price range. Most of my driving now is my commute to work with the occasional need to fit the family of 4 in for something.
I also refused to own an American made car in the past because of quality but would very much like to today. (great article by the way)
I would love to buy a Fusion but it is out of my price range. I’m hoping that Ford will join other car companies in making a smaller hybrid in the near future. My current Toyota Rav4 is almost 10 years old. I’d like to replace it soon but I’m not worried. I drove my ’86 Toyota pickup for 14 years before I replaced it.
I’m hoping for a Yaris or Fit sized Hybrid both for size and price range. Most of my driving now is my commute to work with the occasional need to fit the family of 4 in for something.
Great article! Great to hear such positive news on Ford’s vision and specifically the Fusion Hybrid.
Great article! Great to hear such positive news on Ford’s vision and specifically the Fusion Hybrid.