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Ford, the first U.S.-based carmaker to sell a hybrid, is fully confident that the accelerated pace of technology will allow its new Fusion to top Toyota’s Camry Hybrid when it goes on sale this year.
The company stated that its patents related to gasoline-electric systems have risen from 30 to 461 in the last ten years, and more are on the way. The Fusion hybrid version can reach 47 miles per gallon in the city, 44 m.p.g. highway, compared to the new Camry hybrid with 43 m.p.g. city and 39 m.p.g. highway.
“It’s good for the customer, and we like to have this competition,” Chuck Gray, chief engineer for hybrid and electric powertrains said. “Engineers may not be the best athletes always, but we are very competitive people.”
The rivalry between Toyota and Ford concerning the hybrid sedan fuel-economy claims, date back to the moment when hybrid sedan fuel-economy claims. Still, Toyota remains the biggest seller of hybrids, led by its Prius models.
By 2020 Ford expects hybrids, plug-in vehicles and models powered solely by electricity, to account for 10% to 25% of global sales, with the 2013 hybrid Fusion going on sale in the second half of 2012.
