I assume im not your typical Energi owner

[ecoastkid]

...but I could be way off so lets find out...

 

I am gun toting, climate change denying, America super patriot who races an 03 f150 lightning and tows it with his 2010 v10 crew cab f250. Love me or hate me, that's okay...I do my best to get along with anyone and everyone regardless.

 

Now that I got that out of the way...lol...I also happened to have just purchased a CPO 2017 Energi Platinum which has quickly become one of my favorite vehicles that I have owed.

 

While I am not a latte sipping Eco-warrior, I like clean renewable energy and clean air so I'm all for it.  If I can save some money at the same time...Bonus.

 

I really enjoy tech (I work in IT), and I love my Fords so the Fusion Energi Platinum edition was right up my ally for my daily commute and typical family hauling.  Its black and has the optional 19 inch wheels.

 

My only reservation was the trunk space, but as I pondered it, I realized I only use the trunk to its capacity like once a year.  I can throw a carrier up top if I really need it.  Besides that, I have a couple of trucks better suited to hauling stuff anyways.

 

I hope to learn a bunch by interacting with those who have ventured into ownership of this type of vehicle before me.  Hopefully I'll be able to contribute the things I learn along the way as well.

Edited March 18, 2018 at 02:00 PM by ecoastkid

[muzicman61]

You sound pretty much similar to me.  Except I don't race.  I fish!  

 

Trunk space has never been an issue.

[ecoastkid]

Fishing is definitely something i wish i did more of! Good times.

 

Glad to hear you are not finding the trunk space to be an issue. So far i have had it one week and its been fine.

[4cylinder]

I also don't find the trunk space to be an issue - it can hold the contents of my weekly grocery shopping cart, and for road trips I can squeeze in a carry-on roller suitcase and two backpacks. For 99% of my use cases, the Energi's trunk is fine.

 

For the rare moments when I actually need cargo space I have a 2015 Escape Titanium. I also live near an Enterprise so even if I didn't have the secondary car I could just call for an Enterprise pick-up and rent a minivan/SUV/truck.

 

And yeah the Energi isn't exactly a cheap car when new, so most of us aren't stereotypical leftist tree-huggers (many such people even forgo car ownership altogether). Some of us just like the feel of the electric mode and/or the serene silence that comes from the engine being off. Some of us like the convenience of not stopping at the gas station too often regardless of the cost of gas. That's why you see Bentley offering a plug-in hybrid - the fuel economy is of absolutely zero concern to someone who can afford a Bentley, but the silence and feel of an electric car is something anyone of any income level or political ideology can appreciate.

 

I myself can easily afford to fill up a V8 truck - I even drove an ancient V8 Lexus LS430 for a year once - but as a lazy person I love being able to just "fill up" at home instead of queuing at the pump after work. 

 

Anyway, glad to see that at least one climate change denier still supports clean air. Whether or not one believes in climate change, one needs to breathe the same air as everyone else, and whether the temperatures go up or down, dirty air is still dirty air. That's why the recent events with the EPA piss me off - even if climate change is a hoax, emissions still equate to dirty air! Even the mainland Chinese government got serious about emission control - I doubt they're as concerned about climate change as they claim to be, but their leadership still has to live and work in Beijing at the end of the day so it is in their interests to clean up the horrible air there!

[jj2me]

C'mon guys.  The science is over 100 years old, never contradicted. even by the hucksters.  All the information anyone would need is out there.  All the objections are bogus, easily refuted, and some stinking to high heaven as manipulation.  I don't care what your political views are, or inclinations for trashing the planet, have at it, it's a free country.  But there's no denying climate science. (Luckily for us, the American super patriots in the Pentagon are protecting us by incorporating planning for severe climate change.)

 

I also have had no problem with trunk space, fit an old leather 26-inch suitcase and several other bags in there behind the battery.  But like others, I have another hauling vehicle.

[luckyleo]

 I kept my 2003 Honda CRV for hauling the kayak/bikes and trailers.  

I did have some concerns about longer trips and trunk space.   I put a hitch on my 2017 FFE Titanium.  It installs with four bolts.  Some trimming needed to the plastic under panel.

Now I have the option of a hitch bike rack and maybe the Thule Transporter for additional space when needed without having to put anything on the roof.

 

  Also an ex-IT worker.  I got tired of the outsourcing.

[Cobra]

I'm new to it too. In Canada I just got 1200 km before I filled which is now once a month. I picked my daughter up at airport from New York and large suitcase fit in trunk. Great car.

[jsamp]

 

While I am not a latte sipping Eco-warrior, I like clean renewable energy and clean air so I'm all for it.  If I can save some money at the same time...Bonus.

 

 

Similar here.  I got tired of using my F250 as a commute vehicle, especially when my commute increased to 38 miles daily.  Just the fuel savings could make a car payment.  Now I only put ~$25 in my tank at a time so the gas doesn't get too stale.

 

Trunk space can be a pain occasionally, mostly when picking up multiple people at the airport.  My wife drives an Escape for that kind of stuff.

[murphy]

Similar here.  I got tired of using my F250 as a commute vehicle, especially when my commute increased to 38 miles daily.  Just the fuel savings could make a car payment.  Now I only put ~$25 in my tank at a time so the gas doesn't get too stale.

 

Trunk space can be a pain occasionally, mostly when picking up multiple people at the airport.  My wife drives an Escape for that kind of stuff.

The Energi has a pressurized gas tank.  The gas has to be in the tank for 18 months before the car will force the engine to run to get rid of it.

[VAJon]

...but I could be way off so lets find out...

 

I am gun toting, climate change denying, America super patriot who races an 03 f150 lightning and tows it with his 2010 v10 crew cab f250. Love me or hate me, that's okay...I do my best to get along with anyone and everyone regardless.

 

Now that I got that out of the way...lol...I also happened to have just purchased a CPO 2017 Energi Platinum which has quickly become one of my favorite vehicles that I have owed.

 

While I am not a latte sipping Eco-warrior, I like clean renewable energy and clean air so I'm all for it. If I can save some money at the same time...Bonus.

 

I really enjoy tech (I work in IT), and I love my Fords so the Fusion Energi Platinum edition was right up my ally for my daily commute and typical family hauling. Its black and has the optional 19 inch wheels.

 

My only reservation was the trunk space, but as I pondered it, I realized I only use the trunk to its capacity like once a year. I can throw a carrier up top if I really need it. Besides that, I have a couple of trucks better suited to hauling stuff anyways.

 

I hope to learn a bunch by interacting with those who have ventured into ownership of this type of vehicle before me. Hopefully I'll be able to contribute the things I learn along the way as well.

I just picked up a 2016 FFE Titanium last week. I've been lurking and reading for a while and came across this thread. I have many things in common with the OP. I really bought this car for the gas savings and the technology. I'm a conservative and probably in the extreme minority of those who own this car (like the OP), but I really like it so far. I commute 48 miles round trip to work, and maybe end up using about a quart (or less) of gas each day since my employer allows me to plug in at work for a recharge. I live in the Shenandoah Valley in Northwestern Virginia and I'm probably the only FFE owner in the area. I've never seen another one around here and the closest dealer who sells them is over an hour away in Northern VA. I ended up getting a great deal on the car, which cost about the same as a similarly equipped regular Fusion, so I was very happy about that. I bought it from a private seller who had retired and no longer needed a commuter car anymore. He barely drove it in the past 9 months, so he decided to sell it. He really only used it to go into town and buy groceries. He hadn't even filled the gas tank since last July.

 

So far, I've put about 175 miles on it, with all but about 30 miles on electric. I even made it all the way to work (24 miles) one time just on battery power. There's an overall drop in elevation to work, so I regenerated a good bit of power, which allowed me to make it on hybrid mode, but still not using any gas. The other times, the ICE came on for about the last mile. This car is probably the nicest vehicle I've owned. It has literally every option in it, which I've never had in any other car. The knowledge and discussions on here really helped me to make my decision to buy the car. I think some on here way over think things, but I sometimes do that too. Just ask my wife. ;) I just plan on driving this car and using it like pretty much every other car, just plug it in when it needs it. BTW, this is my first Ford since my first vehicle, an '87 Ranger 2WD. Ford's technology and build quality really has improved since then, let me tell you. :)

 

I really hope to take this car on a longer trip soon to see how well it does on a long trip, but we'll see what happens. Both sets of our parents live in PA, so we'll probably take it to go visit the next time we go for a weekend. Any longer trips will need to be done in our other vehicle, a '13 Traverse, which has a lot more room for our stuff. The Fusion is pretty cramped for cargo space, as everyone knows.

 

Finally, thank you to all who contributed to educating me on the car. I appreciate it.

Edited April 29, 2018 at 09:41 PM by VAJon

[Centerline]

Mark me down as NRA member, conservative, yada yada yada. While I don’t deny climate change....there were not many humans or SUV’s around the end of the last ice age by the way.....I find it interesting that some other planets are undergoing climate change, probably not many humans on them

Just imagine the megatons of greenhouse gasses and other atmospheric pollutants from just ONE large volcanic eruption.....there have been a few of those over the centuries.....each one spewing many multiples of all of mankind’s spewing.......

[Centerline]

........and sorry....c’mon the “science” is out there.........um, where is the “coming ice age” predicted for the near future by elite scientists way back in the seventies......it would happen because old mans influence on the environment. Some of you may not be old enough to remember of TIME Magazine in the 1970’s predicting just that.

 

I love forests, clean air and water, etc.....I live here too, as do my children, etc

[jj2me]

It's the rate of change we're incurring that's the concern, and humans' ability to adapt to this unprecedented rate (unprecedented in the life of our species), and to survive. 

 

Yes, a major volcanic eruption could also be catastrophic to humanity because of its effects on climate. But we're not involved in creating that catastrophe.

 

........and sorry....c’mon the “science” is out there.........um, where is the “coming ice age” predicted for the near future by elite scientists way back in the seventies......it would happen because old mans influence on the environment. Some of you may not be old enough to remember of TIME Magazine in the 1970’s predicting just that.

I love forests, clean and water, etc.....I live here too, as do my children, etc

 

There were a couple of popular magazine stories (Time and Newsweek) back then, and resultant popular media discussion.  But the author has admitted he didn't have the scientific research to back up his claims, and they certainly weren't made by "elite scientists".  How do those articles affect climate science that we know today?  Not at all.

 

Yes, the information is out there, readily available.  Not sure why you'd doubt that simple claim (Google or a Librarian), nor why you'd give such weight to that 40-year old popular (but wrong) article, nor why you'd put science in quotes.

 

As I said above, it's a free country, believe what you want.  But this climate change denial thing has gone on long enough.  The chemistry was presented in the late 1800s and I've never seen the deniers take that on, nor have I seen any denier claim that hasn't been debunked.  This has nothing to do with guns, gas guzzlers, religion, political affiliation, all those have rational reasons for supporting them. 

[bdginmo]

Yeah, so I'm really not trying to stir the pot here, but CO2 and other multiatomic molecules (like H20) are definitely transparent to incoming shortwave photons and opaque to outgoing longwave photons. This is adequantely described by quantum electrodynamics via molecular vibration and although the QM explanation wasn't known until the mid 1900's laboratory experiments indicated the heat trapping behavior starting in the mid 1800's with Tyndall's famous experiment. But, even Fourier (of Fourier analysis fame) knew things weren't adding up and surmised in the early 1800's that the key to the puzzle of Earth's temperature was in the atmosphere's heat trapping behavior. Then came Arrhenius who between 1895 and 1905 actually quantified the warming behavior of CO2 and predicted that the Earth was going to warm because of humans. Callendar was also instrumental in the development of anthroprogenic global warming theory when he too calculated CO2's warming potential in 1938 and confirmed that humans would cause the Earth to warm starting within the next few decades. AGW theory is 200 years in the making.

 

Also, it's a myth that scientists thought the Earth was going to cool in the 70's.

 

The Earth is warming and humans are almost certainly the primary cause since 1960. The evidence supporting this claim is massive and spans multiple scientific disciplines.

Edited August 13, 2018 at 03:13 PM by bdginmo

[Willy662]

Just bought a new 2017 FFE. I also am probably not the target market for a plug in hybrid. Love the tech and the fuel mileage. Chalk me up as a climate change skeptic also. I believe the science that has shown that CO2 molecules trap heat. But if the science was truly settled, why do they keep having to adjust the computer models to match what is actually happening. I believe there's much more going on than we currently have the ability to understand. And even if the "climate scientists" are right, do we really want to wreck our economy to fix something that is probably not fixable? The Chinese are not going to stop building coal fired electricity generators anytime soon....Stepping down from soapbox now.

[Electriffic]

........and sorry....c’mon the “science” is out there.........um, where is the “coming ice age” predicted for the near future by elite scientists way back in the seventies......it would happen because old mans influence on the environment. Some of you may not be old enough to remember of TIME Magazine in the 1970’s predicting just that.

 

I love forests, clean air and water, etc.....I live here too, as do my children, etc

 

Sometimes people claim something is a scientific fact when it isn't, so being a smart consumer of science is important.  The starting place for being a smart science consumer is asking the question, "Is there any motive for the source of this information to be lying?"  For example, accepting that smoking cigarettes is safe because a major study funded by Phillip Morris found it to be safe-- we can all see that the source is tainted because of a strong motive to lie.  How about Monsanto telling you that Roundup is totally safe?  In both these cases everyone should be able to see that the source is unreliable because of a motive to lie. 

 

In the case of climate change, dozens of not-for-profit scientific organizations from every developed country on earth are saying the same thing.  Do they have a motive to lie?  No, they have no such motive.  In fact, they have much to lose by lying. 

 

Therefore being a climate-science denier is to admit that you believe 1)an international global conspiracy to defraud the public is underway, and 2)it's being perpetrated by dozens of unrelated non-profit scientifc organizations from various countries, and 3)there is no known motive for this conspiracy.  

 

It's not that conspiracies don't happen, they do.  But the scale and lack of motive make the "manmade climate change is a hoax" theory as believable as the "the earth is flat" theory.  You don't have to be a tree-hugger to be a good consumer of science.  

[Willy662]

Of course they have a reason to lie. Tow the party line, get funding. Create doubt by saying that the so called consensus might be wrong, no funding. Big incentive to lie.