2010 Fusion Hybrid Review

[buster]

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/08/19/review-2010-ford-fusion-hybrid-what-a-difference-60-degrees-m/

Quote:
We've had the opportunity to drive a number of different hybrids over the last several years and, without fail, when driven in winter conditions, the mileage significantly degrades compared to summer motoring. Naturally, all vehicles perform worse when the mercury drops precipitously, but this seems to be particularly true of hybrid vehicles. The problem is that hybrids (at least strong hybrids like those from Ford and Toyota) rely heavily on their electric drive systems for their efficiency improvements over equivalent conventional vehicles.

 

[opus1]

Can't say I'm surprised.

In addition to shrinkage

, cold wreaks havoc on batteries, then throw in "winter gas" which reduces mileage when it's burned.

This is a little OT, but I worked for an electric utility that had a test-fleet of all-electric S-10's that employees could borrow overnight. The advertised range was 60 miles. The secretary in our department won the lottery one day and got to take it home, in late November. She lived only 20 miles from work and the thing was supposedly fully-charged when she left. When she got home, the estimated range was down to half, and despite plugging it in overnight, she barely made it back to the office the next day, and drove in without heat to conserve power.

Seems logical that a hybrid would experience the same issues, only the IC engine is there as a fallback.

 

[ekpolk]

Yes and no. First, it is a mistake to compare the gas-electric hybrids to electric cars, such as those battery-powered S-10s. The battery-powered cars must be able to contain a battery that's large enough (whatever technology is used) to carry one charge that will propel the vehicle for a reasonable distance. That calls for a vastly different battery than gets used in the G-E hybrids. In the latter, the battery is only meant to save several decelerations worth of kinetic energy converted to electrical energy. Those are then promptly re-used to propel the vehicle, reducing the load on the gasoline engine. Different batteries, different situations, different outcome when things get cold.

Second, the hybrid cars are much better at mitigating the effects of either cold or hot weather (though they do suffer to some extent, like all cars). In the HSD cars, the battery is cooled (sometimes actually heated, breifly) by recycled cabin air. So, if your car is parked outside in Minnesota in the winter, yep, the whole thing will be cold soaked in the morning, and you will suffer accordingly (in so many ways...). BUT, as soon as the heater, which like other cars, heats via hot coolant, starts delivering warm air to the cabin, you've immediately got warm air going to the battery too.

By contrast, if you're enduring very hot conditions, in the hybrids, you very much should use your AC, as the cool cabin air will be used to cool the battery. If you try to tough it out, leaving the AC off and rolling the windows down, you'll end up with a hotter-than-optimum battery, and the ECU will make more use of the gas engine to protect the battery, causing you to use more gas.

Right now, we're seeing temps consistently in the 90s in this part of the country. My Camry hybrid is black, and I just leave the AC in auto/econ mode, it works beautifully, and I still manage to get 35 to 36 mpg on a constant basis (above EPA...).