2013 Ford Fusion arrives as Hybrid, Plug-in & with 4WD option

2013 Ford Fusion

The North American 2013 Ford Fusion has debuted as a petrol, hybrid or EV and with the option of 4WD. And it’s the 2013 Ford Mondeo.

Yesterday we ran a leak of the 2013 Ford Fusion story, which showed the new US Fusion morphing in to a Mondeo with an Aston Martin grill. And now it’s officially revealed, that’s exactly what it appears to be, with such a wide range of powertrain options Ford seems to be trying to hedge its bets on the future of automotive propulsion. Except they’ve missed the two that do have a future.

Wrapped up in the Mondeo with an Aston Martin grill body, the regular 2013 Fusion comes with 2.5 litre four-pot with an uninspiring 170bhp and standard auto ‘box. But Ford in North America has at least woken up to economy and power as a workable combination, so you can also have your 2013 Fusion with a 1.6 litre Ecoboost with 179 horses or a 2.0 litre Ecoboost with 237 horses.

Besides the regular petrol-engined Fusions, Ford has also gone a bit New Age with the option of a hybrid lump in the Fusion Hybrid. The 2.0 litre Atkinson lump setup delivers 185 horses driven through the front wheels through another of those horrible CVT ‘boxes, and Ford say the Fusion Hybrid is more economical than comparable offerings from Hyundai and Toyota – although not as frugal as the Prius (although it is much better looking).

Bringing up the rear, so to speak, will be the Fusion Energi, a plug-in Hybrid with the same 2.0 litre Atkinson lump as the hybrid with, we assume, more batteries. Ford promise it will deliver some ridiculous number of miles to the gallon, the usual ‘Not in the real World’ numbers we’re used to for Plug-ins and EVs.

The rest of the 2013 Fusion is as you would expect from Ford; stylish, well-equipped and much better than anyone will ever really give it credit for. Lots of toys, lots of safety stuff and, no doubt, prices that will tempt buyers from ‘Premium’ Marques.

But wouldn’t Ford have been better off pushing diesel engines on the North American Fusion buyer instead of overly complicated hybrids that can’t deliver the performance or economy of a decent turbo-diesel? And what about the promise of a fuel-cell Fusion to come, instead of another plug-in hybrid?

Still, the 2013 Ford Fusion looks good. We just hope that when it arrives in Europe as the 2013 Ford Mondeo, Ford manages to keep the 4WD option the Fusion gets on high-end models. And they keep the hybrid flights of fancy in check.