Have You Plugged In a Ford Lately? EVs, Plug-ins, and Hybrids Live on in Detroit (Part One)

TreeHugger: Speaking of all these patents that are built into hybrids, Ford's first hybrid on the road was the Escape. It's often said that rather than developing your own technology, the hybrid system was licensed from Toyota. Is there truth behind this?

Gioia: That's a great rumor, but it's not true. It's Ford technology that was on the original Escape Hybrid when we launched in 2004. Again, we have well close to 200 patents that are Ford patents on that car. What we do as we go to production is we do a final patent search around the world and what we found is that some of the technology we have is similar to Toyota’s. Toyota, by the way, had technology very similar to things that we had already patented here at Ford in terms of direct injection and other fuel efficiency technologies.

So what we said was: "Well, they're close enough." So we just give each other absolutely free use and access so that we don't have to do battle over it. It's just recognized that two good companies developed technology that's similar and what's important is getting in production together. So, the original Escape was Ford technology, as is the Fusion.

TreeHugger: Fuel efficiency comes from the car itself, but it also comes from the way that people drive. With the Fusion, you guys have integrated some features intended to coach drivers into more fuel efficient driving. Can you tell us how this works?

Gioia: When we look at fuel economy and fuel efficiency we actually see three key elements. One is the vehicle itself and its technology, what the vehicle delivers. The other is the fuel you use in it. So, depending on the quality of that fuel or type of fuel, in this case we're adding electrification. The third is driving behavior, and what we found with the Fusion you can easily get that 41/36 city/highway. It's not just a label. People all over are absolutely delivering that fuel economy and higher through their driving.

What we found is that if we coached the customer, if we provided some additional feedback and they choose to use that, they could get anywhere from three to fifteen percent additional fuel economy. We thought "Wow!" there are a bunch of customers out there who would love to achieve that.

So we went out, we surveyed people, we spent days with them. We photographed them, we talked about their lives, what was important, what was not important. What we found is people would appreciate coaching. But, what they said is, first of all is, "Coach me, don't preach at me. Don't tell me I'm bad. Just help me be better. Don't take control out of my hands. I want to be in control and engaged—I still want to be in control of the driving experience. Whatever information you give me better be useful at a glance; very easy to understand and easy to use, helpful at the point that I might glance at it."

We went off and we created what we call SmartGauge with EcoGuide. It's a new type instrument cluster. You still have your speedometer, very traditional looking because people told us that was very easy to understand and they're very used to that. We added on either side of it two LCD displays that are 100% programmable and reconfigurable.

We developed feedback on braking, on engine power, on electric vehicle mode. We combined all of that into a little efficiency gauge which either tells you your instantaneous fuel economy or you can select it to display green leaves that grow on a vine. The more efficiently you drive the more leaves you get.

It makes a little bit of a game. It may sound a little hokey to some but what we find is people absolutely enjoy it. People say they really like it. And by the way, it's coaching, right? We want to give people a carrot. If you aren't driving efficiently we don't make the leaves turn brown and fall off.

They just gently fade away because, hey, maybe somebody cut you off, or you have to accelerate rapidly, or driving conditions demand you to really drive aggressively for a period. No need to penalize you for that because that's what's required. As soon as you get back to efficient mode the leaves grow back on.

The SmartGauge with EcoGuide comes with four levels. That was the other thing that customers told us is that some days they’re having a bad hair day and really don't want any additional information. They want life as simple as it can be. So we created four levels of selectable displays. If you want life real simple, it's just your speedometer, your battery state of charge, and your fuel level. If you want more information, we add it all the way up to the kind of information hypermilers told us they would like.

We did a little contest amongst ourselves in Washington D.C. recently over a 69 hour period; we took a Fusion Hybrid and on one tank of gas (it's just a 17.5 gallon tank, so there's no special gimmicks here) and the team drove for 69 hours straight. They got 1447.5 miles on one tank of gas.

It was hypermiling at its best. The D.C. police were a little upset at one point at 4:00 a.m. on the parkway, they pulled over our driver. I think the speed and the acceleration of hypermiling was not typical D.C. driving. But after explaining it they were on board and supportive.