Photo: Romain Blanquart/ Detroit Free Press
By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY
For car buyers who dreamed of getting 100 miles a gallon, Ford has your car.
The
automaker is announcing today that the plug-in hybrid version of the
2013 Ford Fusion will be certified by the Environmental Protection
Agency as getting the electric equivalent of 108 miles a gallon in city
driving, 92 MPGe in highway driving for a combined 100 MPGe overall.
The
plug-in Fusion's chief rival, the Toyota Prius plug-in, gets 95 MPGe.
Still waiting in the wings is the plug-in version of Honda's Accord,
which hasn't been rated yet.
The government calculation is based
on the idea that people will plug in their cars then drive them on
electric power only until the juice runs out and the gas motor takes
over. So the actual mileage that anyone gets depends on their daily
commute. The shorter the commute, the more miles driven on electric
power, the higher the the gas mileage.
The plug-in version is the
latest version of the new 2013 Fusion, the car that wowed the North
American International Auto Show last year and has generally received
good reviews in its various incarnations. There's the regular ol' gas
model, two turbocharged EcoBoost versions, a hybrid and now the plug-in
hybrid.
The plug-in version of the Fusion, called the Fusion
Energi, is the last one to come to showrooms at a base price of $39,495
plus delivery charges, almost identical to the Prius plug-in. Ford says
additional pricing details will be announced closer to launch.
The
price is almost twice the $21,700 that someone would pay for the
absolute rock-bottom cheapest conventional Fusion, but Ford says the
gasoline savings will add up. It says the plug-in could save $6,850 in
gas costs over a typical five years of driving.
"The Fusion Energi
plug-in hybrid is the exclamation point for Ford's transformed lineup
of fuel-efficiency leaders that now beats Toyota across the board," said
Raj Nair, a Ford group vice president, in a statement.
The Fusion
line was recently named Green Car of the Year at the Los Angeles Auto
Show. Green Car Journal Ron Cogan, who runs the competition, says Ford
showed how it can bring gas savings and ecology to a mass-market car
with the Fusion's various versions.