Hypermile a Ford Fusion hybrid: average 21 mph over 1446 miles = 81.5 mpg (US)

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Ford organized an eco-driving "demonstration" (and charity fund raiser) to promote the Fusion hybrid over the weekend and managed to go 1446 miles on a single tank of fuel.

What I find rather strange, and quite annoying, is that none of the news articles about this ever bother to tell the readers how big that single tank is. Seems to me that's a pretty important piece of data: if it's 50 gallons or so, then that 1000 miles isn't much of a trick at all :-)

[TestDrive]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

What I find rather strange, and quite annoying, is that none of the news articles about this ever bother to tell the readers how big that single tank is. Seems to me that's a pretty important piece of data: if it's 50 gallons or so, then that 1000 miles isn't much of a trick at all :-)

From the OP

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

• Finished at 1,445.7 miles after 69 hours, for a total of 81.5 mpg (US) / 2.9 L/100 km, according to Jalopnik (avg. speed of 20.95 mph / 34 km/h - my calc)

1445.7 miles / 81.5 mpg = 17.7 gallon tank

Advertised capacity for each of the 2010 front wheel drive trim variations is 17.5 gallons.

[almightybmw]

why? How is this useful? Who limits their top speed to 25mph including stops to average 21mph? 81mpg isn't that great. This is just a publicity stunt, and a pointless one at that.
"look what I can do! Duh I'm a moron!" --Ford

seriously, this is not the future. getting 81mpg at 21mph in a 3600lb car is not a good number. A good number is 300mpg at 21mph in a 1000lb car.
It wastes most it's energy just moving its heavy arse around. How much battery and motor was needed to move that exceedingly large battery and motor?

No, I will not smile, I will not become happy or show joy. If I had seen this car moving down the road I would have spit on the ground in disgust. It is a waste of resources just to prove a point, a point that doesn't need to be proven.

[SVOboy]

To be fair, it was a charity fundraiser and publicity scheme. The probably spent less money doing this than they would have printing billboards and other stuff. Plus, charity!

[gascort]

My wife wants one.
What mpg do you guys think the gasser is capable of? Wife drives 35mi. each way to work. Unless this could be modded as a plug in electric hybrid, I'm thinking the hybrid would be wasted on her. She does hit the brake a lot though, which would be good as a hybrid. Cheaper to train her to drive differently.

[Nevyn]

Well, their speed varied from 20 to 45 MPH, from a post on Twitter.

@Starraze We are driving at speeds between 20 and 45mph as a rule. We don't use cruise control to get the best mileage. ^JW
10:27 AM Apr 27th from CoTweet in reply to Starraze

As well as:

@sunsetford Average speed is around 25mph depending on the time of day and traffic of course. ^JW
10:29 AM Apr 27th from CoTweet in reply to sunsetford

[Chuck.]

Originally Posted by almightybmw

why? How is this useful? Who limits their top speed to 25mph including stops to average 21mph? 81mpg isn't that great. This is just a publicity stunt, and a pointless one at that.
"look what I can do! Duh I'm a moron!" --Ford

seriously, this is not the future. getting 81mpg at 21mph in a 3600lb car is not a good number. A good number is 300mpg at 21mph in a 1000lb car.
It wastes most it's energy just moving its heavy arse around. How much battery and motor was needed to move that exceedingly large battery and motor?

No, I will not smile, I will not become happy or show joy. If I had seen this car moving down the road I would have spit on the ground in disgust. It is a waste of resources just to prove a point, a point that doesn't need to be proven.

The same could be said about NASCAR - they use way more fuel and it's not typical driving either.

No, it's not the daily driver, but you know what?

It brings awareness to the fact good driving habits improve fuel economy. Several people lightening up their right foot makes up for the "wasted gas". In two years of seeing people diss hypermiling, it's typically people that get poor fuel economy - try it - you might like it. Instead of getting 11.9% under the EPA, you could easily get 11.9% over the EPA. And you could be flowing with the traffic or close. So try it instead of your childish sour grapes....can't tell you how many times I've seen responses like yours.

The future is global energy demand will triple by 2050 - you're ride will change - both in vehicle and type of driving.

[PaleMelanesian]

My daily commute has 55 and 45 mph speed limits, and averages 20-25 mph including stops. This is very much real-world for my situation.

Wayne also reports that he's getting 60 mpg at 60 mph on the way back to Detroit to return the car.

[SVOboy]

They drove the car from detroit to washington just for this? Why didn't they use one of the cars in the east coast press fleet

[Chuck.]

No way it could have compared to the fuel consumption of flying from Detroit to DC - wish Mullay thought of that the first time (when the Big Three went for TARP aid), but you gotta credit him for his overall management at Ford - GM and Chrysler don't have a car like this.

I look at the big picture.