Ford Fusion Energi: 800 miles on 5 gallons of gas - 160 MPG!

[doug]

Hi Everyone,

 

I posted a new article on my blog on the lifetime MPG of our Fusion Energi.

Please have a look and post comments on this forum thread: 

Ford Fusion Energi: 800 miles on 5 gallons of gas - 160 MPG!

The forum admins have granted me permission to post links to my blog articles here for discussion.

 

I'd prefer to promote this forum and have discussions here rather than on my blog.

 

 

[murphy]

MPG on an Energi is meaningless because it doesn't take into account the energy added to the car by the electric utility.  If it wasn't for out of town visits to family I could probably drive all year and not use more than two gallons of gas.  That would be about 4000 miles on 2 gallons for a meaningless calculation of 2000 MPG.

MPGe is the only valid calculation for an Energi.

[Energized]

I wouldn't call MPG with a plug-in meaningless, MPG just needs to be understood in the proper context, 

 

For Doug, one of his goals is to reduce his use of gasoline, so going 800 miles on 5 gallons of gas (160 MPG) is very relevant.

 

I think going 800 miles on 1/3 of a tank is an achievement that would interest people who are curious about plug-ins and they possibilities they bring.  It demonstrates one of the benefits of having a convenient fuel source at home, an electrical outlet.  I know I haven't missed going to a gas station in 6 weeks.

[doug]

Energized: You are correct about my personal goal to use less gas, so MPG is the most relevant number for me.

 

Murphy:  The relevance of MPG depends on why you drive a plug-in.  I drive one to lower my use of gasoline for reasons of climate change and our national security.  I'd much rather buy U.S.A. electricity than imported oil (e.g. gas) or U.S. oil for that matter.  Also, my electricity source is nuclear so no carbon emissions there.

 

MPGe is only interesting to me in terms of comparing two EVs to see cost of ownership.  It's meaningless to me once I have car in my garage....(e.g. the Fusion Energi).  All I care about now is how little gas I can use so MPG is the number I watch.

 

Also, MPGe doesn't really tell the whole story when comparing the energy in gas to the energy in electricity.  As I understand it, it leaves out the drilling, shipping, refining and military energy used just to get that gas to your car.  Then there are huge efficiency losses in the combustion engine.  So again, for me, MPGe is meaningless at this point.

 

Thanks for your comment and I understand the technical point you are making.  However, please keep in mind that each person's goal is different and one man's 'meaningless' is another's 'most important'.

[doug]

PS - One more reason I'm so excited by the 160MPG result:  We had been driving a minivan for all the local miles that only got 16 MPG, so I'm now 10x that with the Fusion Energi.  It' pretty exciting to see and fun to no longer have to get gas every week.

[DelS]

Energized: You are correct about my personal goal to use less gas, so MPG is the most relevant number for me.

 

Murphy:  The relevance of MPG depends on why you drive a plug-in.  I drive one to lower my use of gasoline for reasons of climate change and our national security.  I'd much rather buy U.S.A. electricity than imported oil (e.g. gas) or U.S. oil for that matter.  Also, my electricity source is nuclear so no carbon emissions there.

 

MPGe is only interesting to me in terms of comparing two EVs to see cost of ownership.  It's meaningless to me once I have car in my garage....(e.g. the Fusion Energi).  All I care about now is how little gas I can use so MPG is the number I watch.

 

Also, MPGe doesn't really tell the whole story when comparing the energy in gas to the energy in electricity.  As I understand it, it leaves out the drilling, shipping, refining and military energy used just to get that gas to your car.  Then there are huge efficiency losses in the combustion engine.  So again, for me, MPGe is meaningless at this point.

 

Thanks for your comment and I understand the technical point you are making.  However, please keep in mind that each person's goal is different and one man's 'meaningless' is another's 'most important'.

Doug you are spot on.    And like you, our emissions from plugging in(1 plug-in and one pure EV) is negligible(solar roof which is roughly equivalent output to our electric usage).     So using as little gas as possible, is the big Kahuna for me.  Since both me and the wife drive to multiple work sites daily, we can't bike or subway it.       The oil drilling, fracking, shipping and refining are energy inefficient, and the military energy, equipment,  and lives lost(not to mention more suicides in the last throes of the Iraq & Afghanistan wars than deaths) and Homeland Security endeavors for that matter, should legitimately be laid on the doorstep of the price of petro-- if we are adult about it. 

Edited May 12, 2013 at 07:46 AM by DelS

[parlesstwo]

Wackos, everywhere

[DelS]

Wackos, everywhere

Said the 'Flat Earth" society, as well.

[Ashamam]

I've been watching my MPG's going up too and since we rarely (once or twice a week maybe) go over 20-25 miles on the car our lifetime MPG is 212 or so with 720 miles on ~1/4 tank of gas so far.  We still haven't filled it up once since buying the car early April.  I have picture's I've been taking but don't know how to upload them into a post, but I can tell you I'm pleasently surprised.

I am getting more mileage out of the battery and also better efficiency on the hybrid drive after depleting the EV only capacity than I expected.  We live in a fairly hilly area (Coming from someone who lived in flat flat FLAT Delaware for most of his life) and I was expecting to get worse then the advertised numbers.  We get ~ 25-27 miles per charge,  which isn't amazing like the 43 (!!!) miles per charge someone on these forums got but I was originally worried that I'd get less then the advertised 21 on the sticker since we live 18 miles round trip from work. 

 

Overall I am very pleased with the car :-)

 

Concerning the MPG vs. MPGe I show the MPG on my screen right now mostly because I want to see how high it will go during our normal usage.  I bought the car not to minimize my emissions, but because I liked the idea of going loooong times without having to go to a gas station, and because I like the concept behind the technology.  The cost savings to run the car versus an equivalent all ICE (sort of shown by the MPGe) is nice but I was mainly only interested in that while comparing the car to other cars in determining how long it'd take for the extra cost to pay for itself in efficiency.  Perhaps once the OMG BIG MPG #'s!!1!!one!!! fades away I will switch it over to the more operating cost friendly MPGe.  We will see. 

Edited May 23, 2013 at 08:27 PM by Ashamam

[Steve smith]

Lets. See now. I installed myself 8 KW of solar panels that is designed to125% of my usage before I bought Fusion energi. So now my MPG is true MPG as I have zero electric costs ,correct.

[meyersnole]

Lets. See now. I installed myself 8 KW of solar panels that is designed to125% of my usage before I bought Fusion energi. So now my MPG is true MPG as I have zero electric costs ,correct.

 

Maybe, were there any costs associated with the installation of the solar panels?

 

Murphy's point was simple, there is so much confusion about this car out there its just good to keep things clear.

 

I can remember when I first started driving this car and I would drop by the local fast food chicken place every once in the while and would have a conversation with the guy in the window. I think the MPG ran all the way up to 260 something before I took my first of several trips. We spoke in trips to the gas station (x number of miles on the ODO and still on the dealers tank) and not in MPG. It is still very impressive, especially when you explain to them you can drive 20-25 miles on electricity that costs about 75 cents (which use to cost me over $4 for same range in a similar sized car).  

 

Thinking of this another way, what if the dealer told you that you could achieve 160 mpg in this car as a selling point? Its true, but not complete information. 

 

Oh, and put me in the group that does not look at MPGe (don't care). Just look at MPG. Have not been to the gas station since December (or was that November?).

[Rexracer]

MPG on an Energi is meaningless because it doesn't take into account the energy added to the car by the electric utility.  If it wasn't for out of town visits to family I could probably drive all year and not use more than two gallons of gas.  That would be about 4000 miles on 2 gallons for a meaningless calculation of 2000 MPG.

MPGe is the only valid calculation for an Energi.

Yes and no. The automatically calculated e figure does not take into consideration the cost of the electricity. If I charge my car at night only its $.02 per Kwh. if I need to charge in the middle of the day, its $.12. Really the point of why people care about MPG and MPGe is how much does it cost to drive x number of miles. The gas consumed is going to be easy to calculate, but the electric is much harder. Sometimes my wife drives the car, and charges at work, for FREE. So in my mind that doesn’t count. toward my cost to operate the car, since it cost me nothing.

[Griff]

Yes and no. The automatically calculated e figure does not take into consideration the cost of the electricity. If I charge my car at night only its $.02 per Kwh. if I need to charge in the middle of the day, its $.12. Really the point of why people care about MPG and MPGe is how much does it cost to drive x number of miles. The gas consumed is going to be easy to calculate, but the electric is much harder. Sometimes my wife drives the car, and charges at work, for FREE. So in my mind that doesn’t count. toward my cost to operate the car, since it cost me nothing.

I agree with this.I  I can often charge at various locations for free. All that matters to me is how much more my electric bill is each month and how much less gas costs me each month vs my 17MPG truck. So, I use MPGe to make sure I am driving efficiently. It also serves as a great gauge to show the overall difference (gas and electric) between winter driving and summer driving.

[shaggy314]

Well... MPG mean miles per GALLON.  :-)

 

Now MPGe might be more relevant to you since it tries to take into account the electricity.

 

You should fairly consider electricity production is cleaner, transports faster and more efficiently than gas. I've never had anyone who mentions 'well it pollutes to make the electricity' EVER consider how gasoline gets to the tank of their car, NEVER. I have to remind them: It gets pumped out of the ground, trucked, pumped, shipped (in some cases thousands of miles) to a refinery. It is then refined. It is then pumped or most likely driven by truck to a gas station, where they then drive to go get it. Me? I plug in to the wall of my house. Transmission of electricity is a loosing game, but still better than driving 6# per gallon of gas around. The production of electricity (and the fuel to do that) is still more efficient that producing gasoline.

 

I've always wonder instead of burning waste gas onsite, oil producers don't use the Nat'l gas to run a generator to produce electricity into the system...