'LECTRIC FACE (via BradS):

2013 Ford Fusion branded as 'new face' of Ford: The 2013 Ford Fusion, which debuted in Detroit this week, gets a sweeping makeover and a plug-in hybrid brother called the Fusion Energi. (Matthew Shaer / January 9, 2012, CS Monitor)

Ford this week took the wraps off its new flagship sedan, the 2013 Ford Fusion - a car, according to reports, that Ford hopes to position as the "the new face" of the company. [...] The Associated Press is reporting that Ford will sell a few different versions of the 2013 Fusion, including a hybrid and plug-in hybrid called the Fusion Energi. No word yet on price, although Ford America's President Mark Fields told the AP that the car will have "close" to the same base price as the current Fusion, which starts at around 20 grand.

2013 Ford Fusion Energi PHEV will plug-in the mid-size segment (Sebastian Blanco, Jan 9th 2012, Auto Blog)

Along with the standard and hybrid versions of the 2013 Fusion, Ford brought something completely different - for the mid-size segment, anyway - to the Detroit Auto Show this morning with the Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid. It's the cleanest of the trio and it shows that Ford is ready to introduce a big change to the competitive (and somewhat staid) mid-size class. Ford says it expects the Fusion Energi to get better MPGe ratings than both the Chevrolet Volt (93 MPGe, EPA rating) and the Toyota Prius Plug In (112 MPGe, but that's on the European rating cycle). Ford won't say for certain - the Energi isn't due for another 8-12 months, after all - but the automaker is saying the plug-in should get "up to more than 100 MPGe." That's a convoluted way to say, "we think we win."

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 9, 2012 3:38 PM
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