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

http://media.ford.com/images/10031/1000kchallenge.jpg

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.

They succeeded in demonstrating that the pulse and glide driving technique and very low average speeds can return great fuel economy. :)

Their goal was to beat 1000 miles on a tank of gas, which they handily did:

• Passed the 1,000 mile mark after 47 continuous hours, according to Ford (avg. speed of 21.3 mph / 34 km/h - my calc.)

• 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)

Wayne from CleanMPG was on hand as a driver and tutor to the team of drivers who took shifts behind the wheel (including a NASCAR racer who headlined the event).

Congrats Ford, Wayne and NASCAR dude!

(I hope Ford also publicises the average speed of the event. No holds barred fuel economy stunts can be fun and educational and produce spectacular numbers, but I'm a firm believer in providing full disclosure / context. Otherwise they verge on being misleading to Joe Public.)

Don't let that average speed mislead you too much. They were doing this as a loop in downtown Washington DC and Alexandria VA - back and forth from Mount Vernon to DC. 21mph is actually not far off from what you would aggregate in typical driving. I doubt they passed anybody, but I don't think they were unsafely slow, either.

I grew up in the DC area and I can tell you, there are a lot of places where hitting 21mph can be a heady rush of progress, especially at rush hour - which these guys hit at least three times. And on weekends, traffic heading into Mount Vernon can be pretty darned tough, too.

I missed my ride to rowing practice one day. We rowed on the Potomac. My ride left five minutes before I got there, I leapt back onto my bike and pedalled like fury. I rode from Falls Church VA to the boathouse on the Potomac, and I beat them by five minutes.

Traffic in DC is tough. 21mph isn't as slow as you might think.

No, no - I didn't mean to imply anything about safety or whether or not they went with the flow of traffic or not.

I just like the speed figures included with events like this so the general public (at whom the event was aimed) has some context for understanding the results. (In other words, so they don't get mad when they only get 30 mpg in their Fusion hybrid going 80 mph down the interstate. :))

The context you give is just the kind of info we need to get a better picture of what happened.

The blackfly would've wooped on that :p

interesting....

Audi in 1994 was able to put 1750 miles (2800km) on a single tank, with an Audi 100 TDI... at a fuel consumption rate of 2.8L/100KM (83.99 MPG)

Of course this is not the typical drive, but I see two good things out of this.

1. If the average driver tries a few of the techniques
2. It's great publicity for Ford :)

It is good publicity for Ford :p. The Fusion Hybrid is a pretty nice ride.

ya.. but its still a F.O.R.D.

GM and Chrysler need publicity like this. ;)

GM and Chrysler need vehicles capable of doing this.

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
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.

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.

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!

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.

Well, their speed varied from 20 to 45 MPH, from a post on Twitter.
As well as:

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.

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.

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 :p

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.

I guess that's true. Why travel at all? I imagine Gil Portalatin and Octavio Navarro and whoever else flew anyway...

Baby steps. First we must convince the unwashed masses that better fuel economy is a good thing. This unaltered Fusion Hybrid will do that. And then when someone shows a pared-down hybrid doing even better, and a flyweight custom jobbie doing better still, we will be on our way - I hope.

Well I work at a Ford store and have been pressuring my boss to let me drive one to break the 1000 mark long before this happened ... did they listen ... no ..

Here are my rough figure on real highway driving on both models from what I have been able to accomplish;

-The gasser - can easily get 39mpg driven at highway speed, I did it with a stick shift 4cyl driving @ 65mph on a 120 mile round trip commute to work and back one night.

-The hybrid - just did a run today on the highway 40 miles round trip @ 55mph on the highway, got 51.6mpg. Problem is none of my dealership vehicles have fully charged battery packs, so anything below 50% charge and you really have to work to get the car to go into EV mode.

So there are some unofficial numbers from an average hypermiler.

Dang, that Ford hybrid does well, imho.

My wife H A T E S my Civic because it makes her feel unsafe because it's so low. I won't show her the crash test results because then she will never get in the car. The Fusion is one car that I she will most certainly consider. I am hoping against the odds, however, that I will be able to convince her that the Focus electric is a good car when it comes out. She has had several very bad accidents, so I don't blame her for being afraid of small cars.

You're forgetting just how thoroughly retarded the average American is these days. They will expect it to get 80+ mpg at 80mph if it did so at 20mph. :p

While I share in your displeasure, I find irony in the car that you drive, and the poor fuel economy it reports. :D