pluggedin

If any of you would like to explore placing a order for an Energi right away, click on my name, Pluggedin, and send me a private email requesting my salesmans name and phone number. My email address in on my profile page. I spoke with my salesman and he gave me permission to disclose his name and phone number, but only through a private email...not the internet. If you ask me for his number, and I give it to you, you must honor his request not to disclose his information on the internet. If you do contact my salesman, you must be aware that there is currently no special pricing, like the X-plan or USAA, available through him...that I am aware of. But it never hurts to ask. My salesman is in the Tucson area, so I am guessing you would have to pick the car up in Tucson. So factor in those costs when you are trying to decide whether to place an order with him or not. There is only value in this offer if you simply cannot find a dealer near you who is willing to place an order for you, for an Energi, at this time.

I will be interested to know how well you did with the X-Plan stategy, rprobst. I'm rooting for you. If my dealer/salesman does what they say, I should be among the first to receive a customer ordered car once the Fusion Energi is produced and shipped. However, I will not celebrate that event until I receive a VIN. You raise a very good point of concern for me though when you say you would like about 50 people to buy an Energi ahead of you so they can iron out any wrinkles before you get yours. I may be one of those who do the ironing for you. There is some good and bad in most things though. I guess we are both trusting in Ford to help make us Energi-zed.

Good comments jsamp. I think I read somewhere (I've read so much that it runs together sometimes) that it takes about two days to manufacture a car, maybe a little more. Like you, I hope that Ford has the consumer's intersest at heart and take their time getting this car right. By extension, it will benefit them as well. Again, I read an article, in one of the online car magazines, that when they tested the Fusion with all the new electronic bells and whistles, a couple of them kept giving false warnings and they finally defaulted to an error mode. One of them was the driver assist package, as I recall, and I forget the other. I would much rather they solve those issues before production of the car, rather than rely on the consumer to find and help them correct those issues after the fact. It makes sense that the dealers will have first dibs on these cars, with a few customer cars sprinkled in here and there. I'm not sure about the sufficient demand part though. Even I am having a hard time getting past the $8-$10,000 premium for the plug-in version of a hybrid that will only give me 20 miles on a charge, maybe. We will see if they hold to that pricing when the car goes up on their web site. But so far everything says they are.

Ya know, as a consumer, I find Ford's TV advertisement campaign for the C-Max Hybrid, Fusion Hybrid, C-Max Energi and Fusion Energi puzzling, to say the least. I mean, all I see advertised in my area is the C-Max Hybrid (which has been out for a couple of months now) and the new Lincoln Motor Company. Not a word about the C-Max Energi (even though they are in production), the Fusion Hybrid (also in production) or the Fusion Energi. At face value it would seem Ford is not very excited to get these cars into the hands of the public. That's the way it appears to me anyway. I can understand (a little bit) why they are holding off on advertising the Fusion Energi, since everything says it is coming in "early 2013" but we know there is a thread on this Forum that indicates the Fusion should begin to be scheduled for production on 12/12/12 and production of the car should begin on 1/7/13. Is the Fusion Energi not on the Ford.com web page yet because they are only scheduling dealer orders for the car? It would seem so, wouldn't it? Besides me, how many of you have contacted a Certified EV Dealer to see if you can order a Fusion Energi at this time? Since I posted what the price of the car might be (in another thread) all of you have been pretty quite. Are you waiting for official word of the pricing on ford.com...or what?

Ooops. Try this and go to page 15, if it works for you.http://www.evsafetyt...ybrid%20ERG.pdf

Here is an Emergency Response Guide that shows the battery location for the 2013 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid, the Fusion Hybrid and the Fusion Energi. See page 15: http://www.fordfusionenergiforum.com/index.php?/topic/218-battery-pack-durability-in-hot-climate/page__pid__577&do=findComment&comment=577 Still no data on how the batteries are cooled or the trunk capacities though.

In Tucson we can have up to 110-115 degree temps during the summer and down to 18 degree night time temps during the winter. It is supposed to be 28 degrees this coming Tuesday. So I am concerned about how the Energi is cooled/heated. With that in mind I called my salesman and asked him the question. He did not know, of course. But said he would look into it for me. My guy is pretty trustworthy so I feel pretty comfortable he has asked the question of someone at Ford but after a couple of days, I have no answer. I will let you if or when I do. Even when Ford finally gets around to putting the options and pricing on their web site this type of information will not be there so it is like buying a pig-in-a-poke. And a very expensive pig at that.

The 2013 Fusion, with a gas engine, that I drove had nicer instrumentation and gauges, in my humble opinion, than did the C Max Hybrid I drove. I would think the Energi will have similar instrumentation to what the gas model did.

Isn't this odd! The car is not yet on the Ford web site yet (as of this morning @ 7am MST) but they are scheduling production beginning next Wednesday. That is exciting, but we would like to see the models, specs and pricing guys!!

Attached is a link to pictures of the C Max Energi cargo area. If the cargo area is flat with the back seats folded down in the C Max Hybrid, it looks like the battery in the Energi has added a 6-8 inch hump behind the back seats. Still lots of cargo area but not very convenient. I copied the following link from the C Max Energi Forum: http://s1097.beta.photobucket.com/user/darrelld3/media/2013_ford_c-max_energi_04-991.jpg.html That is a lot of battery to hide in the Fusion Energi trunk, even if the wheel base on the Fusion Energi is longer. I'm glad you drove the C Max Hybrid, rprobst. I have driven one as well and was going to try to drive a Fusion Hybrid tomorrow but I think I will try to find a C Max Energi and drive that instead. I think there is a white one in town and that would give me a good comparison of what kind of power the Fusion Energi will have. Problem is the C Max is selling so quickly that you have to jump right up and go see it before it is gone. I've missed seeing a couple of cars by not getting there right away.

I have not driven the Fusion Hybrid, the C Max Energi (of course) or the Volt, but I have driven the C Max Hybrid and the power was forminable. We have a freeway ramp near the dealer and when I stepped half way down on the throttle of the C Max Hybrid the car took off like a shot and I was astonished to see I was doing 75 mph before I got to the end the ramp and had to let off of the throttle to slow down. I was very impressed and expect the Fusion Energi to have similar pep, but it WILL be a slightly heavier car then the hybrid. In comparison, my Camry is a 4 banger and I don't achieve the same speed, on the same freeway on-ramp, as quickly as I did with the C Max Hybrid.

The trunk for the Energi should be smaller than Hybrid, but the question that keeps going through my head is, did they go down with battery instead of up? If they went down, that might make the trunk capacity about the same between the two cars. The reason I have that question is because my salesman told me the only wheel size available on the Energi is 17 inches. What other reason could there be for eliminating the option for the 18 inch wheel? Of course, it would be nice to be able to verify what the salesman told me by seeing the official options available on the Ford website. Listening Ford? Maybe ChuckJ could check that out if he sees the car in Ft Worth this week.

That they would not release any more info than that is most discouraging. But you can bet your buttons the car will be at the Ft Worth Auto Show Friday. If it is, please share with us what information you get from seeing the car there.

This article says the battery size in the C Max Energi is 7.6 kWh and produces peak power of 35 kW but does not talk about how the battery is cooled or heated. Should be the same size in Fusion Energi too, don't you think? Here is the article: http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews/driven/1211_2013_ford_c_max_energi/

Yep, it's definately a TBA. As close as the car is to production you know they know the size of the trunk and whether it is a pass thru or not. I am seriously disappointed that the car is not on the Ford site yet. I was anticipating it would show up on 12/1/12 but it didn't. If they are quoting a 12 week build time, which I was quoted, and they are shooting for a "early 2013" delivery, it may be they will not put the car up on the site until after January 1, 2013. That will put the delivery date in late March or early April, if you wait to order the car online. The least Ford could do is release the specs on the car, if not the pricing.

Thanks jsamp, from your thumbnail it looks as though the battery alone, in the Energi, weighs 274 lbs more than the Fusion Hybrid. One thing that just came to mind and you may be interested to know, is that when I was with my salesman ordering my car he had a piece of paper in front of him that showed the back seat on the Energi as a 60/40 split. What he said that meant to him is the trunk should have a pass thru. Unfortuneately I don't have that paper but I am certain of what I heard and saw.

Welcome ChuckJ! The more of us with practical experience, like you, with the Fusion Hybrid the better off we all are. My reason for being here is to get and give as much information as possible so we can make an informed decision on whether to buy a Fusion Energi or not. We are having to dig for any information we get at this time, since Ford is being really silent about the specs and details of the car.

Well, I am glad I have until Feb/March to make that decision. If the Bush tax cuts aren't extended, by January 1, 2013, all of us are going to be looking for relief in some way.

If one does not want to wait until 2014 to use the assumed $3,750 tax credit for the year 2013 or you will not have a tax burden high enough to use the full tax credit, would leasing the car make sense? I'm not completely sure how leasing a car works but I think the dealer/leasing company can use the tax credit themselves and reduce the price of the car by $3,750 before they figure tt&l and payments. In that way you can take advantage of the tax credit right away. Right? Anyone want to make comments on that idea?

Thanks jeff_h, that sold me. I will make the call to add the GPS to the car. More money but what the hey. :wacko: I have had the TomTom a little over a year and have never had my car broken into but it is a pain in the rear to keep messing with it or to remember to take it with me.

Ya know, I am still on the fence about this. It would be more convenient to have the navigation system come with the car, rather than have to plug in and unplug my TomTom and then have to worry about some yo-yo breaking one of my windows to steal it. I am going to have to make up my mind soon though because once they issue a VIN it will be too late to change anything on the car.

Yes, I would like to see a price drop or incentives too. I just hope they are retroactive to my deal. I found I had to tell the salesman and salesmanager what the Federal tax incentive was going to be on the Energi...they thought it was $7500 and I think that was part of their reasoning for MSRP plus a premium. Seems they wanted part of that.

One other thing, rprobst, I have a TomTom GPS with lifetime maps and that is why I did'nt want the Navigation system from Ford. I understand the update for the Navigation system for Ford is around $300. I went with the Parking Assist package to help my wife park this car. It's the closest thing to a force field I could get.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, rprobst. I didn't see your post yesterday. My dealer has a paint and protection package and a tint package that is added to MSRP and adds up to $1,394. My salesman talked to his manager and came back to tell me they had decided to add $2,000 to the MSRP of the new Fusion Energi, so the price to me was $48,544. But, the salesman said, since mine was the first such car ordered by the dealer and the car would be visible in the community while helping the allocation numbers, they waved the $2,000 and the price started at $46544. It took some back and forth but we negotiated on the price of the protection packages and I ended up paying about $500 under MSRP + the full price of the protection packages, for a price that is right around $46,000, plus tt&l. These cars are brand new so the dealers will, and are, very proud of them. Each deal stands on its own but I think you will find the dealers are going to start with MSRP + a premium. The stance I took was that my car would the first Titanium Energi in the community, would be visible in the community, would be good advertisement for them and it would help increase their allocation numbers for their dealership. That seemed to make a little difference. Good luck in your negotiations, I hope you hit a home run.

My Ford Mobile comes standard on the Energi. Is AppLink part of that?