As I composed this entry, the WH announced the funding package for the B3. Here's the NYT story.
Not a bad write-up on Ford's contribution to the burgeoning hybrid market. (links at the bottom) The Fusion will appear in 2009, but, as far as I know, there hasn't been an official date. Car and Driver called it "shockingly good," "wipes the floor with Toyota Camry hybrid," and, something the author writes the Camry is not, "reasonably entertaining to drive." Like you, I might have wondered why didn't we hear more about this? The Volt is nothing new, but the Fusion swam under the radar. The LAT correspondent answered the question:
"What they did fail to do was sufficiently commercialize this technology so that it was ready and waiting at dealerships when people got stampeded this year by spiraling gas prices.
Had Ford made a few hundred thousand of these cars available in June -- along with the financing to sell them -- we'd be erecting 50-foot equestrian statues of William Clay Ford and Alan Mulally in city squares, and the streets of Dearborn, Mich., would be repaved with diamond cobblestones."
I don't know if anyone would go so far to apotheosize Ford as the reporter suggests, but their situation could be remarkably different had they marketed the Fusion better. For instance--when the B3 drove hybrids to DC--Wagoner drove a Malibu and a Volt but Mulally drove an Escape. Why not the Fusion? Overall, the two assessments are positive and could (if drivers across the country agree) improve Ford's market share. But, of course, no one is buying so there is a larger, systemic dilemma the B3 face.
Fwiw, I don't know if the Fusion's or the Volt's designs appeal to me on an aesthetic level.
Go Getter (LAT)
Car and Driver
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