tangozulu

Thank you for the suggestions. The next time I visit I will plan more and optimize for EV more. There were a lot of public charges listed on the in-dash nav. I drove to Topanga Canyon, then to Encino via Ventura Blvd then to Glendale via Brand Blvd then across town to Palos Verdes Estates and Malaga Cove and then to Torrance along the beaches to Santa Monica near the Rand Corporation and then lunch at Stella Barra on Main Street then back to Encino and Canoga Park then out to Ventura beaches and then up to Santa Barbara and then up to Hurst Castle, etc.. The air in LA seemed very clean compared to when I lived there in the 60's. I was impressed.

I recently drove my 2013 Ford Fusion Energi from Seattle to Los Angeles and back with no issues. I averaged 42 mpge mostly I5 freeway driving with adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning system enabled. I drove around LA city streets. Along the Big Sur coast road via Highway 1 I averaged 43 mpge. I found most motels I stayed in didn't have a charging station. There was one Best Western in Red Bluff, CA that had one. I used the navigation system and the range display to plan fuel stops. Temperature min was 31 and snowing near Mount Shasta City and max was 89 and blue sky in downtown LA. Longest leg between fuel ups was 466 miles. Car now has 16766 miles on the odometer. Its very quite and I couldn't tell when the gas engine came on except when passing. Also plenty of performance available when passing. Never felt underpowered. The auto parallel park feature reduced stress when parking in Santa Monica. Fun trip. FordMobile tracked it all and gave me an out and about badge and 10000 ev mile badge. p.s. when driving in suburbs charging at home nightly I get 90 mpge.

The Energi's smooth ride comes with trade offs in certain scenarios but I think the engineers did a good job balancing the trade offs. I drive a 180 degree hair pin turn every day at 40 mph and the car stays level and hugs the road. I don't feel like the car is going to roll over like my Prius. The Fusion car likes to turn.

I commute 15 miles each way, from 800 feet msl to sea level then back again. I only charge at night No reliability issues on any of the systems so far at 4500 miles. Keith

3300 miles logged since August 14th, no problems. My definition of reliable is ... a system or component works when I need it to... the following components are used almost daily and all have worked when needed... adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning system, cross-traffic alert, rear view camera, auto rain sensing wipers, auto high beams, defrost system, auto climate system, one touch door locks (key fob proximity detection), smart phone detection, auto play blue tooth stream (via HTC windows 8x phone Spotify cloud music service), received text message announcements/readback work, navigation routing, voice recognition, collision detection, go times work, pre-heating works. EV modes work. Auto parking works. All sensors work. I updated the sync software in August and that went well. I have seen one or two glitches with the uploading of trip info data to the myfordmobile web site, (duplicate records, missing records). One time my phone wasn't detected upon entering the car but I think it was the phone. Rebooting the phone eliminated the problem.

I hear the growl the most when 1. the motor is in hybrid mode, 2. the bar on the 2d battery display is below half. 3. I am accelerating. During this time, I think the motor has two jobs... turning the wheels and charging the battery. So I figure the system needs more power from the gas engine during this time. Once the high voltage battery is re-charged or I stop accelerating, I hear an rpm drop and there is less growl. I am unable to describe the amount of acceleration that I am doing when it starts to growl or quantify how much growl there is or how much less it growls when release the gas pedal. Also is it possible that noise cancelling systems are tuned to target a range of audible frequency patterns and above that range it gets more growly? Keith

I voted 24. 16 miles to work all ev. It depends on conditions but I seem to average about 8 miles back home before it switches over to hybrid mode. But if I measure it going home, then it would have to be less because the last 4 miles is all up hill. Another way to say it is... On the myfordmobile web side it says it takes about 3.1 kwh hours to get to work on average and 4.6 kwh to get home (when I charge at the Fred Meyer across the street from work occasionally). I live at 800 feet above sea level and work at 100 feet above sea level. The commute is 6 miles of surface streets and 6 miles of freeway at 60mph, and 4 miles of stop and go freeway traffic. Odometer is 2292 miles and the lifetime average mpge is 82 (down from 91 in warmer weather).

According to my recent electric bill for the period September 23rd to October 23rd, during which I drove the Fusion Energi approx.. 840 miles averaging 28 miles a day fully charging once a day, the total bill electric for the whole house including charging the car was 680 khw -- of which the car consumed about 150 khw (dashboard display not including charging losses), Cost per khw here is 9 cents for the first tier and then 11 cents after that. So I am estimating the electricity costs for me are about 20 U.S. dollars a month to operate. For two months I drove 1600 miles on one tank of gas requiring 10 gallons to fill up October 25th, which cost 32 U.S. dollars at $3.17 per gallon at Costco. Cost summary for the last month: 20 U.S. dollars for electricity, 16 U.S. dollars for gasoline for a total of 36 U.S. dollars a month, $432 a year assuming my driving style remains consistent. My driving and braking scores average around 85 to 88. The first 3 miles of my commute is surface streets all down hill (800 feet) so lots of brake regen (on a full battery) and last 3 miles is all up hill (usually in hybrid mode with gas engine on). I sometimes charge up during lunch time. Conclusion: The battery size on this car is a good fit for my type of driving.

Hi I am new. I have 1200 miles on my Energi. It says 89 mpge on the dash. My commute is now the best part of my work day. I can see the grill shutters. They are closed when parked. I wonder when they open? Perhaps I should mount a video camera somehow and see.