I was invited to participate in the Irvine FEH Rally. It was a great opportunity to offer my input into what I like and or hate and would like to see added or changed.

After filling out an survey online I was met at the rally by engineers in the areas I was not 100% satisfied with. Overall I am a 9 or 10, 10 being best, and Ford wanted to know how they could get 10's across the board.

After they were finished with the detailed walk around of my FEH and my pointing out and or telling them my opinion, I then filled out a questionnaire about Plug-in hybrids. They had on display the 2nd of 20 prototype Plug-in Ford will deliver to So.Cal Edison. I found it to have those trick door handles but when I went to open the door I did not like them at all. A woman with long finger nails was concerned about breaking them so we both think Ford should pass on these door handles.

I asked about the battery pack maker and was told it is confidential though it was 10 KWH IIRC which is more than 5 times the power we have in our FEH's today. They are Li-Ion and not our current Nickle metal hydride. The battery back extends down below the current one and is so large that it eliminates the spare tire.

I sure wanted to drive it but was sure it was just there to tease us. After talking to the young woman she asked me if I would like to drive it around in the parking lot?

I was blown away. I sure would like to give it a spin.

So the big question is how was it?

It will do 20 miles at 40 miles per hour or less in pure EV mode.
I own an AWD 2008 FEH and trying to keep it in EV mode is a challenge, at times nearly impossible. This Plug-in is like driving an electric golf cart. It is so powerful! It will easily accelerate to 40 MPH in EV mode and at a pace that you swear the ICE has to be on except it is nearly silent. I had to really floor it to get the ICE to kick in.

It also has what Ford is calling silent start. Turn the key on and no ICE start up. Just and instrument check and away you go in pure silent EV mode and at a very robust 40 MPH. AWESOME!!!

So the big question how is the MPG's in these working out?

How does 120 MPG sound?!!!!

They said the best SHORT run was 198 MPG!!!! With a bit of Hyper-mileing we could have some real fun here.

It recharges with 110 or 220 volt so you can plug-in anywhere. Recharging IIRC is around 6-8 hrs depending.

I have to tell you it is exactly what EVERY FEH MUST BECOME. It has EV power to spare and MPG's we also must have. I did some figuring and IF it were available today I could pay a $4000 premium and break even in about 3 1/2 years. I estimated that my wife could go to work and back on not the 5 gallons a week now but on 1 gallon a week. And if she could plug-in at work she would use ZERO GAS!!!!

The icing on the cake was at the end I got a check for $180. They Paid ME to go play. I love it!!!

Other tid bits are the 2009 FEH has the same battery pack and yes it is AC cooled as in the past. The Ford Fusion will have silent start and will best the Toyota Camry Hybrid. This is one to watch. There is as of now a 1 MPG increase in the AWD using the 2.5L over the 2.3L but it looks like the 2wd will be the same MPG. Subject to change of course. There is a bit better performance with the 2.5L but I have not driven one so who knows?

IIRC we should see silent start in 2010 or 11 in the FEH. But the Plug-in is just a wonderful dream for now as the cost of the batteries are the real deal breaker.

I really like our 2008 FEH but after driving the Plug-in prototype I am so bummed out I can not get one. It truly is like night and day. It's power is insane compared to what we have today. If this thing were on the market tomorrow it would sell 1 million in the first year. No doubt about it. Imagine 120+ MPG and 20 pure electric miles. This single SUV could break the foreign oil company's grip on the US and clean the air all the while doing it. Combined with Al Gore's wind, solar, and geothermal initiative we would put a halt to 2/3rds of CO2 in the US in 10 years time. We would also put the power of our economy to work and tell the terrorists to pound sand.

 

Sounds interesting... but I have to say about MPG's with plug ins..... um... Whats a short run? If its less than 20 miles than isn't the MPG INFINITE? The engine should never come on unless you exceed 40MPH from your description.

There is going to have to be some DIFFERENT measure of mileage for these because MPG is pretty much meaningless... it all depends on how far you drive in one.

 

Allen, thanks for taking the time to report.

If Ford is listening and wants someone to talk to on the other coast, I'll come to them. I too love my FEH and want to see it remain the dominant SUV hybrid on the market.

I'm also going to try to get my parents to purchase a hybrid Fusion when it reaches the dealers.

 

While in the pure speak MPGs would be infinate... the MPGs in this case are calculated by using the amount of money it costs to recharge the battery when you plug it in and then dividing by the amount of miles driven with a conversion factor to determine the amount of gas you could have bought with the cost of the electricity.

That was probably confusing, so lets use an example.
It costs $1 in electricity to fill up the battery overnight.
Gas costs $4/gallon so you would have bought 1/4 a gallon of gas.
You drive 40 miles on all battery power, not turning on the engine.

Therefore you'd go 40 miles on 1/4th of a gallon of gas - or 160 MPGs.

 

Early reviews of the Plug-in FEHs talked about the NAV/Hybrid head unit having a screen to input you electricity cost and gas cost and it would calculate a cost per mile (or possibly a MPGe number).

I believe there was a video review on AutoBlogGreen or somewhere similar. Don't have time to look it up right now but I seem to remember it was a 3 part review.

 

Check out the videos on this page: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/12...ndover-videos/

The first video they start talking about using the Radio/Console/Hybrid Display/NAV to input the gas and electric rates to allow for a MPGe and Cost Per Mile reporting. this around 5:35 (note the $3.09 per gallon figure )

Again on the second video at around 5:23, a different person talks about it (5:44 shows the actual screen).