Ford Fusion Hybrid (Ford Mondeo outside USA)

I recently rented a Ford Fusion Hybrid while on a business trip in Los Angeles. The car itself was very comfortable but it seemed a bit different from Japanese or Korean hybrids. The Fusion was based on a 2.0 litre gasoline engine with a parallel hybrid system. The energy recovery was good and the batteries charged up very efficiently when you are off throttle or coasting or while braking. The battery pack wasn't big and it didn't really offer much of a performance boost. The car's performance on paper showed 188hp which is quite low for a hybrid but I believe Ford was aiming more at fuel economy rather than performance.

The car's MPG meter consistently showed 44MPG (US gallon) which was quite good. A full tank had 14 gallons and I managed 500 miles before I refuelled (I estimate that the fuel tank had about 2 gallon left before I refuelled). Considering that driving in LA we spend a lot of time on freeways the fuel economy on this car was good. The interior was typical Ford design with a special rotary knob gear selector (similar to Land Rover and Jaguar). I felt that Ford still had some catching up to do in the hybrid department since it is still not quite as good as the Camry Hybrid. The switch between electric power and gasoline engine power was quite seamless and often it was not noticeable. I would appreciate if the car had more power and torque because quite often when the car was accelerating to meet the freeway speeds from an on-ramp the car felt slow.

Other hybrids like the Camry or the Hyundai Sonata had much more punch compared to the Ford. Delivering good fuel economy does not have to come at the expense of performance as demonstrated by other hybrids. I feel that Ford pushed a little too far into the fuel economy direction and forgot about extracting more performance.

It would seem like Ford would need another generation of development before it was on par with Toyota, Honda or even Hyundai when it comes to making hybrids. Nevertheless it is still a good effort by Ford and they needed to jump on the bandwagon to show that their cars are fuel efficient and can compete with others. Since diesel cars are still not popular in America going with a diesel hybrid would be out of the question. Mercedes's E300 Diesel Hybrid is probably the most fuel efficient hybrid available now. Diesel engine is already more fuel efficient than gasoline engine combined with further fuel savings with the electric motor. The combined performance is nothing short of impressive with 205hp and 500Nm of torque. A single tank of diesel can stretch up to 1000 miles which is more impressive than any other gasoline hybrid.

If Ford wants to make a real statement about fuel economy it has to be radically different and do something like the Mercedes E300 diesel hybrid. Give the buyers something to really talk about and be the champion of the fuel economy game!