eric_n_dfw

The modem upgrade for my 2014 has been backordered at my local dealer for many months - just called them and they said it still hasn't come! Has anyone else heard about a national backorder on these things? From other comments here, I'm wondering if they had so many problems that they've halted shipments until they sort it out.

Thanks for the info, HotLap. I actually did get a 220v charger a few weeks ago for that very reason. I picked up a ClipperCreek LCS-20 and added a NEMA 13-40 plug to it (we already had the garage wired for it when we built our house). Am loving it!

Looks are so subjective. Your characterization of the Volt as being like the Prius is a stretch IMO (and would be fightin' words over at gm-volt.com forums! ;) ). IMHO, I think the Volt is much more sporty looking with a wider stance. The Fusion is sharp looking though, my son still calls it our "Aston Martin". While not an issue for me, the lack of trunk space is a major turn off in the FFE - that's another area the Volt is pretty awesome in. I moved twice last year (new home wasn't built before old home sold) and that hatchback proved to be insanely voluminous, especially with the seats folded down. I love both cars, the FFE just fits my life better right now.

Didn't do any of these things but even if we had, it seems like a bug nonetheless.

Oh, and yes, the site is saying 0% EV when it should be 100%

I don't think my wife stopped and started the car up too quickly - she drove to the grocery store and was there for quite a while. I'll send FordService the message, thanks.

I'm seeing what appears to be a bug in the MyFordMobile data from our FFE. Last night my wife drove a short distance all on EV, the MFM site shows 21.5% drop in the SOC and she said the gas engine did not come on. I captured the web service JSON response, pertinent info pasted below: "beginsoc": "100", "endsoc": "78.5", "distance": "7", "energyconsumedl": "0", "energyconsumedkwh": "0", "efficiency": "0", "efficiencyuom": "W_UOM_MPG_V2", "regendist": "0", "regenpct": "0", "drivingscore": "81.7", "drivingscoreuom": "%", "evtripdist": "0", Sent the info to the Ford feedback email - is there a better bug reporting link or is that it? I hope it's some bug in the web service code and not in the car -> Ford reporting system, because the later would render all of the MFM reporting suspect.

He he, I like that - she's actually getting used to it now. I rode with her the other day and I don't think it's the speed difference, she is just so used to the Volt that having the ICE kick in and wine is disconcerting to her now. According to the MyFordMobile site, she is actually getting better driving scores than me on the few drives she's done. :) We thought about a BEV like the Focus EV or Leaf while shopping, and it probably would work for us the majority of the time, but about once a month I go camping out of town with my son's scout troop and need the space and range of our SUV (no plugs at camp). When I'm gone for 3 days, I don't want to leave her with a ~80 mile round trip tether to our home. When charging stations at malls and restaurants become more commonplace in the northern DFW area we might re-consider but for now range anxiety wins out against any BEV.

We turned the Volt in last night with about 75 miles left on the lease, an "empty" battery and about 20 miles worth of gasoline! :o) I'm loving the FFE so far, my wife misses the Volt's EV acceleration a bit.

Thanks! We actually haven't driven it much since we picked it up on Tuesday as we're trying to burn down the last ~100 miles on our Volt's lease before turning it back in this weekend.

Just leased a 2014 FFE SE, the only complaint (so far) is that they didn't have one on the lot with a rear-view camera and I didn't want to pay $1000+ for the only one they could find me and have shipped in. It's a base SE model with the Nav system being the only option add. My question is if the wiring and software exists in the car already that would make installing an OEM camera part seamless and if the center stack will recognize its presence and show it on the screen when in reverse? Also, since it's a lease, I don't want to do anything that would devalue the car at turn in time. Any suggestions/experience doing something like this?

Well, I went ahead and signed papers to lease the 2014 FFE. Thanks for the advice here and confirmation of the depleted battery theory I had. For the curious, full details of the deal are in the thread I originally started at gm-volt.com here: http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?128977-Test-drove-a-Fusion-Energi-yesterday&p=1798130#post1798130 Guess I'll have to start hanging out here now too!

I had my second test drive last night, this time with a full charge. It was a night-and-day difference. My full comments are in the gm-volt forum: http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?128977-Test-drove-a-Fusion-Energi-yesterday but here is a copy of my new driving impressions: The FFE, in day-to-day driving seems to feel a lot like the Volt with the exception of the ICE engine kicking on when you really "put the spurs" to it. The electric motor provides similar throttle response to the Volt in "Normal" mode. I drove their test circuit in the various EV modes: EV-Auto: In this mode, the ICE really didn't come on in normal driving unless I floored it EV-Later: This seems much like my Volt's "Hold" mode in that the electric motor still is active but the ICE runs more often to try to keep the battery charge up. The ICE still shuts down when it can if you're stopped, coasting, etc. EV-Now: In this mode, you're not going to win any speed records or effectively pass other cars very well. However, even though the 0-60 times suck in the mode, from 0-30 or so it is pretty snappy. As stated above, though, the ICE engine doesn't come on that much anyway (provided you have battery charge) so it's really not that much different. The real questions in this category comes down if the ~20 mile AER range is adequate and if you mind burning a little bit of gas during hard acceleration such as short on-ramps, turning onto crowed streets or passing on the highway. I'm still going to give the Volt the nod on this category because it is able to perform at it's peak without burning gas and it has nearly double the AER. If those two things are not important to your driving situation, it's probably a tie. So now, I'm finishing getting Volt quotes, but it's starting to look like the better lease will be the 2014 FFE.

Damn! What do you have to pay for electricity where you are? Mine is $0.09/KWh - which (using the numbers I get from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_hybrid ) would make the Fusion Energi cost me $0.333 per mile in EV only - regular gas is about $3.20/gal so that's about $.086 per mile on dino-juice. I think to be higher than gasoline (at least at $3.20/gal) your electricity would must have to be somewhere around $0.24/KWh! My condolences, that really sucks.

One might say that's it's weakness when compared to the Volt. The Volt two has two sources of power and is responsive regardless of which you are utilizing. I'm really not trying to turn this into a Volt vs Energi discussion - each has it's strengths. I'm just trying to figure out why on the test drive it had such poor acceleration and if that situation would ever happen under normal, "EV-Auto", use seeing as I'd always be charging it when at home.

My comment was misleading, I think. I don't try to keep it centered, in fact I'm sure it's bouncing at least 1/2 way up the meter when I hit the throttle - but it settles back into the center so quickly that it seems to always be near there when I look. My point was that, even though I do that, I don't really even think about conservation or hyper-miling but I still get excellent AER numbers. It's like the best of both worlds: sporty acceleration + great EV mileage. I just wish it was more practical from the interior space POV... which is why I'm considering the Fusion after all. My worry is that, even if the Fusion Energi is as peppy as I read in EV-Auto mode, that I'll have to use gas to achieve the same responsiveness - a compromise I didn't anticipate. (Not saying it's a deal breaker either, but something to consider.)

Interesting comments. The car was in EV-Auto mode and, in fact, wouldn't let me chose any other mode due to the low battery. One of the things I love about the Volt is that I drive it in "Sport" mode all of the time and don't notice any lose of AER: 40 miles in spring/fall, 35-38 in the summer, ~30 in sub-freezing. I generally keep the little "leaf" icon close to center too, not flooring it very often but it's nice to have that power when I ask for it. I'll let you guys know my impressions after test drive #2.

Hi there, I'm currently nearing lease end on a 2013 Chevy Volt (if you frequent gm-volt.com forums, you probably have seen me there) and decided to go test drive a Fusion Energi SE a couple of days ago. When I got to the dealership the car's battery was completely drained to the point that the ICE had to run even when idling to get the cabin cooled off and when crawling through the parking lot. When I hit the road, I immediately noticed that the acceleration seemed horribly slow, especially compared to my Volt. This seems to contradict what I'm reading on all of the automotive review sites which say it should match the Volt when both the ICE and electric motor are running. My question is if the Energi's battery can get depleted so far that the electric motors effectively provide no power? I'm planning on asking the salesperson to charge it up (like they said they were going to do last time but didn't) and test drive it again to compare. PS: If you care to read it, I originally posted my "review" at gm-volt.com which is where one of the commenters referred me to the reviews I mentioned above.