Ford Motor Company unveiled the new 2010 Ford Fusion and Fusion Hybrid at the Los Angeles Auto Show earlier today. The new Fusion Hybrid will be the most fuel efficient mid-size sedan on the market according to Nancy Gioia, (Joy-ah), Director of Sustainable Mobility Techonologies and Hybrid programs Globally for Ford.
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| Cut #1: |
"We wanted to do two major things, we wanted a car that was absolutly fun to experience and delivered best in class, best in its segment its fuel economy. We really view the Toyota Camry Hybrid as a direct competitor to this product and we're proud to say we're atleast six miles per gallon better than the Camry Hybrid on city and also beat it on highway, so that means our city number on fuel economy is at least a 39 miles per gallon, so its really a significant effort and really proud of the team." :28 sec. |
| Gioia was asked what it took to out distance Toyota Camry by at least six miles per gallon and establish 39 miles per gallon with their 2010 Fusion and Milan Hybrid's. | |
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"Number one we realized it was the top priority for our Hybrid customer. But number two it was Ford inovation and team work looking at every system improving every component, and so we've taken our systems and we've improved every element to deliver that kind of performance." :14 sec. |
| According to Gioia Ford will be doubling Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan Hybrid volume and gearing up with their supply base to meet customer demand. | |
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"Right now today, around the world, Ford is the second largest producer of full Hybids. These are vehicles that can propel themselves in both electric vehicle mode as well as combined blended mode for a Hybrid drive." :12 sec. |
| Ford Fusion will also offer three fuel-efficient gasoline engine options, the Duratec 2.5 liter I-4 and enhanced 3.0 liter V-6 and 3.5 liter V-6 Duratec engines. Gioia said consumers wanted to know more about their vehicles and how they could optimize their mileage, so the team developed a brand new instrument cluster called Smart Gauge with EcoGuide. | |
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"We have two LCD's display's like mini-flat-panel TV's in your car, and we've provided four levels of information that the customer can select, so if you want it real simple and don't want to think and just drive, but if you want be that, "hyper-milers" the folks that want to ek out every bit of energy, we've given that capablity to the customer." :20 sec. |
| The staying power of the Hybrid electric powered Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan has also been marginally improved as explained by Gioia. | |
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"We now run up to 47 miles per hour in electric vehicle, the higher you can run in EV mode the more we can shut-down the engne and save fuel. So our goal is to run the engine at it's peak efficiency all the time, so when the engine is on, we're as efficient as possible with that engine, when it's off we use the combined battery and motors to then run as efficiently as possible or we have both running and then that delivers the best efficiency so this is all about energy management and making it seemless to the customer so the customer does not have to do anything." :33 sec. |
| The Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan will be in dealers in the Spring of 2009. | |
| Cut #6: |
"People should love it, then should have fun it it, and they can certainly be proud of how they're contributing to the environment with it." :06 sec. |