Editor's note: Ford revised its EPA fuel economy numbers for the 2014 Ford Fusion Energi. The new numbers show an electric range of 19 miles, an MPG equivalent average of 88, and a gasoline MPG average of 38. This review has been updated to reflect the new numbers.



Automotive innovations usually come from racing development or smart engineers within big automotive companies. Not so the plug-in hybrid, an idea dreamed up about 10 years ago by hackers in California who figured they could make the Toyota Prius better. Swapping in a bigger battery pack, adding a plug-in port, and revising the power control software, these hackers made what they called the Prius Plus and boasted of its 100-plus-mpg fuel economy.

They also set the stage for the 2014 Ford Fusion Energi, a Ford Fusion midsize sedan with plug-in hybrid driveline.

Ford is putting a lot of its advanced fuel efficiency game into the Fusion, offering the model with four engine choices, three of them from its EcoBoost line as well as a standard hybrid model. The Fusion Energi builds on the Fusion Hybrid with a greater-capacity lithium ion battery pack, 7.6 kilowatt-hours, that can charge from the grid to give the car an EPA-rated electric range of 19 miles.

Once you use up the electric range, the Fusion Energi seamlessly switches to hybrid mode, getting another 599 miles with the gasoline in its tank and the recaptured kinetic energy from braking. Look at the Fusion Energi as a kind of stepping stone to electric cars, a midpoint until battery tech improves for longer range and more affordability.

The Fusion model was a good choice for the plug-in hybrid driveline. It is a very attractive midsize sedan with a design that isn't too ostentatious. Four doors offer easy access to the roomy cabin, which can handily fit five. And even in the SE trim model I tested, one step down from the Platinum trim model, I enjoyed power-adjustable front seats and soft-touch materials over the dashboard. Lacking the Intelligent Access option, I actually had to use a metal key to start the car instead of a push-button, which didn't seem quite in keeping with the high-tech driveline.

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There are two compromises you have to make when choosing the Fusion Energi over its stablemates, the most serious being that it loses about half its trunk space to the enlarged battery pack. It's a drop from 16 cubic feet down to 8.2 cubic feet, so you might have to pack a little lighter. Second is a weight gain of almost 500 pounds over a standard Fusion, and 245 pounds over the Fusion Hybrid.

Ford is addressing weight issues with its Advanced Materials Car, also built on the Fusion platform.

Range finder

To test the Fusion Energi's range, I plugged it in overnight so it had a fully charged battery for my next day's driving. The standard J1772 port, located on the left-front fender for nose-in parking, takes only 2.5 hours to charge from a 240-volt source, or 7 hours from a 120-volt wall outlet. When I got in the next morning, the left-side LCD on the instrument cluster, which offers a variety of trip and energy use gauges, showed 20 miles of electric range, an estimate based on how the car had been driven up to that point.

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After an hour behind the wheel, I had run that estimate down to 1 mile, using not a drop of gasoline the entire time. Checking the odometer, I had covered only 17.2 actual miles, the slow average speed being due to the intense urban driving on the streets of San Francisco, with traffic and frequent stoplights.

Aware that hard acceleration kills electric range, I was gentle in my driving, and the Fusion Energi encouraged efficient braking with a display on the instrument cluster telling me how close I had come to 100 percent energy recapture. However, a few hills and segments of highway driving took a toll on the range.

In electric mode, I was impressed by how well the Fusion Energi drove. Its acceleration did not feel crippled in any way. When I put it in drive, aggressive creep mode programming had the car straining against the brakes, ready to move as soon as I lifted off the brake pedal. Keeping up with traffic was not an issue, although my desire to hoard my electric range meant I wasn't first off the line.

I felt the extra weight in the handling, but not in the ride quality. The Fusion Energi offered the same supple, comfortable ride as every other Fusion of this generation. The suspension effectively damped out rough spots in the road. As for the handling, I didn't find the extra weight a problem, but it was noticeable. In the turns, the Fusion Energi had more of a load shift to its outside wheels than its siblings.

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There were only a couple of things that didn't impress me about the Fusion Energi's driving character. The electric power steering gave a slight rheostat-like buzz when turned while at a stop or at low speeds. Like the extra weight in the handling, this is something most drivers will gloss over. At speed, the steering responds well but feels numb, not really an issue because the Fusion Energi isn't a driver's car. Maybe Ford will come out with a Fusion ST?

As for my second issue, when driving in hybrid mode the Fusion Energi's engine sounded rough under acceleration. Again, this was a relatively minor issue, just a little extra noise from a generally quiet drivetrain when I tipped in the gas pedal.

I was more impressed by the fact that the handover, from electric drive to hybrid mode, was utterly seamless. The accelerator response felt the same between each power mode, due to Ford engineers matching the power delivery curve from the power control electronics and the electronic continuously variable transmission, a gear set that mixes power from the engine and electric motor when in hybrid mode before sending it to the front wheels.

Ford gives the Fusion Energi a console-mounted drive selector: a shifter with standard park, reverse, neutral, drive, and low positions. When using the low position on a hill descent, I did not see energy regeneration occurring on the instrument cluster display, so I relied on the brake pedal instead. The Fusion Energi's regenerative braking means less use of the friction brakes, so I wasn't burning up the brake pads.

More useful was the rocker switch on the side of the shifter, which engaged a descent control mode using both battery regeneration and engine braking. With this mode activated, I could apply the brakes on a downhill grade and the car would maintain a steady speed, turning excess momentum into more electric range.

The Fusion Energi's engine is a 2-liter four-cylinder producing 141 horsepower and 129 pound-feet of torque. Its electric motor generates 118 horsepower, 88 kilowatts, with that power blended with the engine's through the transmission. Ford rates the total system output at 188 horsepower, which felt more than adequate to get the Fusion Energi up and running. It had enough acceleration to give me confidence for freeway merging and passing slower traffic in the opposite lane.

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For fuel economy, the Fusion Energi posts EPA numbers of 88 mpg equivalent when running on electricity, and 38 mpg average when running as a hybrid. When starting with a fully charged battery and driving for approximately 150 miles, hybrid mode included, I turned in mid-50 mpg fuel economy. With a daily commute of under 100 miles, you will likely be seeing mileage in the 70s.

LCD times three

Along with the neat little energy usage and mileage displays on the left of the instrument cluster, the main 8-inch touchscreen includes a screen showing the power flow from the car's motive sources, and a screen where you can schedule charging to take advantage of cheap electricity rates.

On the right side of the speedometer, another LCD shows infotainment functions, such as navigation, stereo, and phone information. Using the right-side four-way controller on the steering wheel, I could perform a limited number of actions such as choosing my audio source or entering my preprogrammed home address as a destination.

However, the real strength of this infotainment system, which Ford calls Sync with MyFord Touch, is voice command. Through voice, I could request specific music from any source plugged into the car's USB drives, place a call to anyone in my Bluetooth-paired phone's contact list, or enter an address into navigation as a single string. The voice-command system can be a little clunky, for example making me specify "navigation" before entering a destination, but the system shows available commands on the main screen, making it easy to learn.

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The center touchscreen interface divides phone, navigation, stereo, and climate into four quadrants, a paradigm that limits the system to four main functions. Audi uses a similar interface design, but I think the future of automotive infotainment would be something like Chevrolet's MyLink system, which uses an icon-based paradigm, something we are all getting used to with smartphones and tablets.

That said, I found the MyFord Touch screen nicely responsive, with a bit of haptic feedback that helped confirm for me that I had actually hit a button while I was keeping my eyes on the road. There are a few areas in the interface that could be refined. I found it particularly odd to get an interstitial screen when I wanted to select music from my iPhone, asking if I wanted to explore the device or go to the music library. That's not something you want to ponder when driving at 65 mph down the freeway.

With the MyFord Touch system, navigation comes as an option on an SD card. I like the look of the maps on this system and its route guidance, particularly that it took me to the correct side of the street for my destinations. The maps can fill in slowly, though, especially in a downtown area where there are a lot of buildings to render in perspective view. It seemed that MyFord Touch needed more graphics horsepower.

Navigation was also supposed to route me around bad traffic, but a couple of times I found myself on freeways marked in red on the map, indicating traffic flow below 20 mph. To be fair, I have found few navigation systems that are aggressive about routing around traffic jams. BMW's system seems to be the best, in my experience.

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Ford offers Sync services, a rudimentary telematics service, as a means of getting destinations from an online source. I would like to see Ford implement online destination search integrated with the navigation system, accessible at the push of a button and linked to something like Google or Bing.

The Fusion Energi offers a good selection of audio sources, such as HD Radio, Bluetooth streaming, and two USB ports for drives and iOS integration. As I mentioned above, some of the screens for finding music on a connected device are overly complex. With Bluetooth streaming, there is no means of selecting music using the car's interface, something other manufacturers have begun to implement.

Noticeably missing from the audio sources are any apps or other online sources. Ford actually does have a solid system for integrating apps in its cars, called Sync AppLink, but that system is not compatible with MyFord Touch. Because MyFord Touch comes standard in the Fusion Energi, there is no configuration for including app integration.

A Ford spokesperson told me the company was working with Apple on implementing CarPlay, which offers deep iPhone integration for navigation, hands-free phone calls, and audio. Further, Ford is also working on integrating Sync AppLink with the MyFord Touch system, but Ford would not comment on timelines for either feature.

Also standard in the Fusion Energi with SE trim, the model I drove, was a six-speaker audio system with no option to upgrade. This system is pretty good for its class, with a reasonably powerful amp that gave it a full sound. And while the frequency reproduction was well balanced, it lacked the clarity of higher fidelity systems.

Ford offers a Sony audio system, with much better quality, as standard in the Fusion Energi Platinum, the next trim level up.

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Electric drive-style

As with the crop of electric cars available today, the value of the 2014 Ford Fusion Energi depends a lot on your driving lifestyle. If you have a place to plug it in, and commute 20 miles round-trip each day, you will spend very little time at the gas station. Better yet, you can take it for longer trips on the weekend, or even extensive roadtrips, and still get excellent fuel economy for a midsize sedan. The minimized trunk space is the only real drawback.

Even with a commute of 50 miles round-trip, the Fusion Energi will turn in stellar fuel economy.

Against competitors such as the Honda Accord Plug-in and Toyota Prius Plug-in , the Fusion Energi boasts significantly more electric range, 19 miles compared with their 13 miles. The Fusion Energi offers the comfortable cabin of a midsize sedan, but those wanting a different body style can look to the Ford C-Max Energi , which uses the same plug-in hybrid drivetrain.

Ford will need to update its MyFord Touch infotainment system to remain competitive, but the basic features for navigation, hands-free phone calling, and digital audio playback are there. On the option list are a host of excellent driver assistance features, such as adaptive cruise control and lane departure prevention, that would raise the Fusion Energi's tech level. The available rearview camera is a must-have.

Most important, the driving dynamics of the Fusion Energi are about perfect for the car's purpose of comfortable, easy, and economical daily transportation.