Ford Earns Nearly 500 Hybrid Patents with 47-mpg Fusion Hybrid,

[Playinghardball]

Projected as America's Most Fuel-Efficient Sedan

New Ford innovations have led to a 50-fold increase in hybrid patents to nearly 500, which is expected to help the new Fusion Hybrid achieve an unprecedented 47 mpg and would make it America's most fuel-efficient, non-rechargeable sedan
Ford's transformed lineup of fuel-efficient vehicles reflects a continued commitment to growing the company's intellectual property portfolio with significant investments during economic downturn
New Ford Fusion is the first sedan to offer gasoline, hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains – each with expected top fuel economy – underscoring Ford's commitment to give customers the power of choice
The road to the new Ford Fusion Hybrid's 47 mpg – expected to be America's most fuel-efficient non-rechargeable sedan – can be traced back to Ford's electrified vehicle team and the nearly 500 patents Ford now holds for its hybrid technology.

More: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Ford-Earns-Nearly-500-Hybrid-prnews-2691540604.html?x=0

[Kwarg]

1. A fantastic car...

What the Volt shoulda been...

[DCKit]

3. GM just hasn't had the time or money to put into research.

[Motown_Johnny]

6. I disagree

Not about it being a fantastic car, with that I agree.



The Volt is the first extended range electric car. The Fusion is still an internal combustion powered car that has electric assist.


The Fusion represents the newest, and possibly best, in a long line of hybrid vehicles. The Volt represents the first in what promises to be a long line of an entirely different type of vehicle.


Direct comparisons are not fair to either car. This is why they need to keep pointing out that the Fusion is the most fuel efficient non-plug in sedan. The Volt is a plug in.




Edit to add: While following up on this car I found that the new Fusion Energi is going to be a plug in similar to The Volt. There is a link with video on my post further down the thread.

[JNelson6563]

7. Exactly right.

Well said.

And just for that I'll never talk smack about the Lions again.

Your repentant friend~
Julie

[Motown_Johnny]

17. ROFL, I had already forgotten about that

and I forgave you long before that.


OMG, I am tearing up I laughed so hard, thanks for that.

[JNelson6563]

21. lol

Glad you got it.

[TheWraith]

11. Well said.

Personally, between the two I would tend to choose the Volt, since it would make most of my driving gas-free entirely, not just reduced gas.

[Kwarg]

22. The Volt is 10k more expensive and

The range makes it entirely inappropriate for most American commuters. Add in the pollution involved in the production and transportation of the battery packs and the increased load on mostly coal fired electrical plants and I believe the Volt isn't much more than a really expensive Cal Tech project.

[Motown_Johnny]

23. crazy talk

#1) The range is at least 35 miles and some claim as much as 50 miles per charge. The average American commute is 32 miles which makes a 35 mile charge just about perfect. At the very least it is entirely appropriate for most American commuters.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Traffic/story?id=485098&page=2#.TzwOP06vKSo

^snip^

Life for commuters can be heaven or hell. They report an average one-way commute time of 26 minutes (over an average distance of 16 miles). But the variance is huge: On the best days, the average commute is 19 minutes; on the worst days, 46 minutes. That means traffic, at its worst, can double the average commute time, adding 27 minutes each way.



#2) The battery pack is far more environmentally friendly than gasoline. Here is one that will blow your mind. (This is above and beyond the fact that electric vehicles are nearly three times as energy efficient as internal combustion engines.)


http://gatewayev.org/how-much-electricity-is-used-refine-a-gallon-of-gasoline

^snip^

Your average EV can go 16 miles on 4kwh (20 miles on 7.5kwh)- so that’s on the electricity used to just to refine that gallon of gas, nevermind the energy used to extract and transport the oil, and the tailpipe emission.


Factor that into your calculations (assuming you have calculations) and there is no possible environmental argument against electric vehicles.




#3) The Fusion starts at $28,775 and The Volt starts at $31,645. So your 10k estimate is way way off (31,645 - 28,775 = 2,870) . You then need to factor in the tax credits. The Volt gets a $7,500 credit and the Fusion Hybrid gets a $3,400 credit. Just how this will effect the out of pocket cost for the vehicles depends on your tax rate but I think we can make some assumptions about the income of people spending ~$30K on a new car. There are also state tax credits but I am not going to get into those here.



http://www.ford.com/cars/fusion/trim/?trim=hybrid&searchid=64584685|2100144205|651898108

http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2009/01/ford-fusion-hybrid-gets-3400-tax-credit.html


http://www.chevrolet.com/volt-electric-car/

http://www.mychevroletvolt.com/chevrolet-volt-tax-incentives-and-rebates

http://www.chevrolet.com/chevy-volt-electric-car-tax-credit/



#4) The Ford Fusion Energi. If The Volt isn't much more than a really expensive Cal Tech project then why is Ford about to follow up with a plug in electric hybrid?

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/01/09/2013-ford-fusion-energi-detroit-2012/




Please do a little research before posting. You had nothing right. Is looking up the price really to much to ask?

[Kwarg]

25. Ok

1) many volts had a dealer price of 40k+ because dealers knew that the potential buyers were a select group of high income folks that wanted a second ir third household vehicle to outdo their neighbors prius and added high dealer mark-up

2) the production of batteries and the transportation of its components have an environmental impact. Tooling and manufacturing has an environmental impact when its built fresh for one project

3) I live in los angeles and the volt would be useless here or should i say... No more useful than any other 40mpg highway car.

4) just curious, for the 2.4billion usd Invested, how many 60mpg VW bluemotion Polos could be built? And sold for under 20k?

[Motown_Johnny]

26. .

1) The same thing may happen with the price of The Fusion hybrid and now that production of The Volt is going from ~10,000 units last year to ~25,000 this year your point is not valid.

2) Yes they do have an impact but not nearly as much as the burning of fossil fuels. The production and transportation of gasoline also has an impact. Drilling has an impact as do the accidents that accompany it.

3) In high pollution areas, zero/low emission cars are more useful because the pollution that is associated with the energy they use is created elsewhere, in this case wherever the electricity is being generated.

4) New technologies are always expensive at first. The long term impact here is what we should be focused on. As we slowly move toward more green energy vehicles like The Volt actually become cleaner because the sources of their electricity become cleaner. Also, there is a very limited market for supermini vehicles in the US. It isn't a permanent solution by any means.

[Fawke Em]

12. The regular version is nice, too.

Hubby just bought one and loves it.

We couldn't afford the hybrid model (certain circumstances involving what he owed on his piece of crap BMW he had to get rid of before its 19-visits-to-the-shop-in-3-years record put us in the poor house), so he opted for the regular version, but he only works a few miles away, so it works out fine.

[Motown_Johnny]

24. I sat in one at the Auto Show

It is pretty nice.

Strange that they move the Taurus to the full sized model and then created the Fusion for the mid size but I guess it is all marketing.

With all the different versions of The Fusion it looks like they are using the same approach Toyota took with the Prius. I guess "Fusion" polls better than Taurus for this purpose.

[TlalocW]

2. News like this is making it hard for me to continue to hate Ford...

Not that I like Chevy any better.

TlalocW

[benld74]

4. I saw one yesterday with a SPOILER on the back?!? Whats up with that Ford??

[Fawke Em]

13. Aerodynamics.

It's really not all that funny.

Even the very non-sporty Honda Civic has a model that comes with a spoiler.

[EOTE]

15. Spoilers don't add to aerodynamics, they take away from it.

The purpose of a spoiler is typically to provide additional traction to the driven wheels at high speed. Considering that both the Fusion as well as the Civic are FWD, the spoilers are entirely unnecessary (and usually detrimental to performance) and just an aesthetics piece. Even in RWD and AWD cars, they're typically never utilized.

[snooper2]

18. It is pretty funny actually...

[n2doc]

5. nice looking car

Wish it were available now.

[JNelson6563]

8. Wow! That IS nice!

I'm more of a GM girl myself, coming from a GM family and all. Still that is a sweet looking car and I am glad to see Ford serving up some awesome vehicles. Every story of success regarding the Big Three pleases me greatly as it means so much to the economy as a whole and, most especially, for much beleaguered Michigan.

Julie

[fascisthunter]

16. it is

[Motown_Johnny]

9. Did you see the Fusion Energi snippet?

The all-new Fusion Hybrid is anticipated to deliver 47 mpg city and 44 mpg highway and the new Fusion Energi, arriving this fall, is anticipated to deliver more than 100 MPGe – more than the projected efficiency of the Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid mode




Depending on price this could really hurt the Prius. The Fusion is a much nicer car (IMO) and if it can compete on cost while being more energy efficient then Toyota sales are going to drop.

Maybe this will get Toyota to move more quickly on the fuel cell extended range hybrid version of the Prius. (IMO) That thing is going to be as big a leap forward as The Volt.





Edit to add link with video: http://www.autoblog.com/2012/01/09/2013-ford-fusion-energi-detroit-2012/

[Fawke Em]

10. And the Ford has the added benefit of NOT looking like something

Glenda the Good Witch rode in on.

[Motown_Johnny]

14. I am impressed with the entire new line

The Taurus is new and looks nicer than the older model. It was moved up from mid sized to full sized to make room for The Fusion but still a nice looking car.

The Focus is a little larger and looks nicer to me too.

The Fiesta is still a tiny little sub compact and I am not to impressed with it right now but if they start installing some of this new technology on it then it might turn into something.

Also the Mustang still kicks ass, but that is another story.

[Fawke Em]

27. I have a Mustang.

I know it kicks ass.

[Romulox]

19. There has definitely been some pride/hope in Dearborn of late. nt

[Progression]

20. This is the way to go

Fuel efficiency and environmentally friendly technology are the way to go in this economy. I'd say that is a good investment especially for this particular industry.