DETROIT – The Ford Fusion hybrid breaks 41 miles per gallon on the highway, 8 MPGs better than the Toyota Camry hybrid. Toyota’s president may be stepping down and could be replaced with the grandson of the company’s founder. A new kind of oil filter could extend oil changes to 30,000 miles. All that and more, plus a look at the technology in the all-new 2009 BMW 7 Series.
Yesterday we reported on the new Ford Fusion hybrid and how it was rated at 39 miles per gallon in the city and 36 on the highway. Well those were preliminary numbers. Ford executives told me they were going over every inch of the car, massaging the aerodynamics, recalibrating the engine controls, altering the algorithms. They desperately wanted to break the 40 mpg barrier. And man did it work!
The Fusion will be officially rated by the EPA at 41 miles to the gallon in the city and 36 highway. That’s 8 miles to the gallon better than the Toyota Camry hybrid, a huge number. And while Toyota will probably come roaring back with its next generation Camry hybrid this is a very impressive accomplishment for the Ford Motor Company. Oh yes, for our metric viewers 41 miles per gallon is 5.7 liters per 100 kilometers.
On the news we reported yesterday that Toyota is going to post an operating loss in this fiscal year and the next, reports out of Japan, say the company is also going to replace its president. The Asahi Shimbun says Katsuaki Watanabe will be stepping down and will be replaced by Akio Toyoda, who is the grandson of Kiichiro Toyoda, the company’s founder. It’s been 14 years since a Toyoda was running Toyota.
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