Ford Fusion Energi Plug-In Hybrid Rated Up To 108 MPGe City, Making It America's Most Fuel-Efficient Sedan; Ford Projects Best Hybrid Sales Quarter Ever

Adding to Fusion Energi's value – and the myriad ways it beats Toyota Prius plug-in – are its innovative technologies that are designed to help win over both novice and pro hybrid owners.

SmartGauge ^® with EcoGuide, for example, provides in-vehicle customizable displays, including instantaneous fuel economy readings and coaching functions to help drivers understand and optimize their fuel efficiency.

SYNC ^® with MyFord Touch ^® offers multiple ways – including voice commands – for customers to manage and control their phone, available navigation, entertainment and climate functions. Plug-in hybrids and all-electric models have additional options for monitoring information like battery state of charge.

EV+ combines the built-in GPS of Ford SYNC with proprietary software algorithms developed by Ford engineers to learn frequent destinations. As a result, vehicles give drivers more drive time in electric-only mode.

Such technologies have helped get sales for Ford's electrified vehicle lineup up and running. With more than 19,000 hybrid vehicle sales projected, the automaker expects total fourth-quarter hybrid sales to set an all-time record for a three-month period, with more than half of hybrid sales this year expected to come in the fourth quarter.

In fact, C-MAX became the fastest-selling hybrid ever at launch after 8,030 units were sold in October and November, the first two months C-MAX was on the market. The pace beat Toyota Camry Hybrid's 7,300 sales in its first two full months of availability in May and June 2006.

"The response to C-MAX really shows the amount of pent-up demand from a specific market for C-segment hybrids," says C.J. O'Donnell, marketing manager, Ford Electrified Vehicles. "Fusion Energi has a different audience in the midsize sedan market, but delivers many of the characteristics and technologies that make C-MAX Energi so great, which is why we're anticipating a similar positive response."

C-MAX is geared toward those most concerned with fuel economy, but designed so that owners aren't forced to sacrifice comfort and convenience.

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