Test drive: All-electric Mini and Ford Fusion Hybrid
It's not every day that you get to drive an all-electric car and a brand new gas-electric hybrid. But that's just what I did last week when I took both the Electric Mini Cooper and 2010 Ford Fusion for a spin.
The two cars represent two technical approaches to gaining fuel efficiency through bigger car batteries.
Like the Toyota Prius, the newly released Ford Fusion is a gas-electric hybrid that drives primarily on the gas engine, supplemented by a nickel-metal hydride battery. By contrast, the Mini Electric, which will start to be leased to drivers next month as part of a trial, runs entirely on lithium-ion batteries, the latest battery technology.
The trade-offs of both approaches are pretty apparent. The Fusion gets over 40 miles per gallon and it's more or less like any other car you've driven: you fill it up with gasoline and it goes.
The Mini Electric, on the other hand, sacrifices the entire back seat for its battery pack. That allows it to go 100 miles on a charge--sufficient for most daily driving. But two of its advantages are that you never go to a gas station and there are no emissions from the car itself.
Meanwhile, there's yet another technology in the mix--what General Motors calls a range-extended electric vehicle or what engineers call a series hybrid (as opposed to a parallel hybrid). In that case, an internal combustion engine does nothing but charge the batteries that propel the car.
On the road
There's a lot of focus on how lithium-ion batteries are paving the way for cars with a longer range (although cost is still a serious concern). But in both the Ford and the Electric Mini, there are a number of other fuel-saving tricks at work.
The big one is regenerative braking, where the battery charges when the driver presses the brake. The Ford Fusion didn't feel very different from any other automatic transmission car. But the regenerative braking in the Electric Mini was different. When I took my foot of the accelerator, the car slowed significantly. It's noticeable but something that I got used within a few minutes of riding.
Automakers say a key component to mainstream electric car adoption is an in-board feedback system that lets drivers know how to maximize their efficiency. This is probably old hat to Prius drivers looking for ways to save on gas. But it becomes particularly important in all-electric cars, as automakers don't want drivers getting stuck with an empty battery and no place to charge.
The Ford's dashboard LCD shows when you're using the gas motor and when you're running on battery. The way to optimize for efficiency is to get to cruising speed and then tap the brakes to charge the battery, I was told. The car also has an on-dash rating system that displays a plant sprout. More leaves distinguishes the hypermilers from the lead-foots.
The Electric Mini feedback system is pretty simple: how much juice you have left is on the front dash while another meter shows whether you're drawing from or charging the battery.
How did these autos drive? For somebody with admittedly pedestrian taste in cars, I thought they both were great to drive.
If I had to pick, I'd say the Mini is more fun simply because it's a small car with a lot of pep. But then again, without a back seat to speak of, you're not going to bring your Saint Bernard to the beach in an Electric Mini.
Representatives from Ford and BMW were kind enough to hold the video camera while I drove these cars around the block in California last week and to answer my questions about what's under the hood. You can see the Ford Fusion video here and the Electric Mini video here.
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld. E-mail Martin. 
When the battery is fully charged and you start gently from a stop, the electric motor works by itself up to ~20 mph. Then the gas engine kicks in, and they actually both work together for a while. When the battery begins to get low, it will alternate between doing work (discharging) and allowing the gas engine to rotate it (charging).
When you just coast, or when you press the brake pedal, then electric motor recharges the battery much more aggressively (the prius also has a braking mode that causes alot of engine drag on the car and recharges the battery very quickly - it's mostly for going down big hills and is roughly equivalent to downshifting in a stick shift).
You can also do things like feather the gas pedal at less than ~45 an hour to run on electric motor only (it mostly just lets the car keep it's momentum - no acceleration). I hope that helps you understand how it works a little better.
I have an 05 Mustang V6 and on a 100+ mile trip to San Diego, going between 65mph to 70mph, I maxed at 26mpg. Carrying little to no cargo, I weigh 130lbs, car's curb weight is around 3300lbs, tires inflated to ~37psi. Found that once I hit 26mpg at those speeds, even feathering the gas would cause it to drop.
Driving like a grandma, I easily get 27 mpg with 60/40 mixed driving (60-highway). This is traveling on the highway from 55-65 mph. Diving aggressively and averaging 70 mph on the highway will reduced my mpg significantly.. down to 22 mpg. These cars have the aerodynamics of a brick.. so your mpg drops precipitously after 60 mph.
Please, understand that I'm not bragging, or proud ('Vettes are a 'dime a dozen' where I live), but if I can get _almost_ 30 MPG on the highway with 350 foot lbs. of torque and 350+ HP (and awesome braking power), what's so great about 30+ MPG in a 'tuna can'? And, FYI, I'm just over 6' tall, 250 lbs., and can sit with my legs (almost) extended (read: comfortably on long rides; South Florida to Cape Cod, for instance).
Yes, lowering carbon emissions is a high-priority goal (I hope to afford a Tesla Model S when they are available), but in the year 2009 it seems (almost) laughable that we have _futuristic_ 'sonic weaponry', can replace a man's heart with a pig's or baboon's (experimentally, anyway), but we can't develop an inexpensive, long-life battery?
Two, or so, words: Huh? Duh! Or, 'Doh'!
I'm HIGHLY skeptical that you're getting better than rated MPG going at a faster speed in real-world driving conditions... especially with a car like that. I used to drive a Porsche 928... and while being VERY careful I could sometimes get descent mileage... once you do anything else, the mileage drops like a rock. Go to a gas station on either level ground or in the exact same spot for both fill-ups. Fill the tank.. push your trip odometer.. then do your driving (the more of the tank you use, the more accurate)... fill the tank again, and divide the miles by the gallons. If you're going by some instrument in the car, etc.... sorry, those usually aren't that accurate.
That said, the other posters are correct in that there is quite a difference between under 30 (my guess is you're getting more like 27 even on highway) and 40-50. However, I also take your point that the difference in cars is quite extreme as well. I think the car companies should be able to do much better than they are doing. I'd probably use a small engine with a turbo with hybrid technology.... or use an engine only to do charging and run the driveline off fully electric. DId anyone ever see that 700 HP 4wd Mini some company converted in Europe? That's more what I'm talking about. Couple that with an on-board, highest efficiency gas engine for charging on trips... and electric only for short commutes.
> Our fuel station was offering up B20
biodiesel, 20 percent veggie oil, which
means that from an environmentalist?s perspective
the German diesel didn?t just beat
the Japanese hybrids, it trounced them.
Not only that, it had more than half of its
14.5-gallon tank left at the end?it could
have made the same trip again without
refueling! Our example was pretty much a
stripper, absent even the usual VW trip
computer, so we had no instant feedback
loop on our performance. Maybe if we?d had
that, we could have nudged the economy
from 49.9 mpg into the 50-mpg range.
As it was, we just drove gently, stayed
with the caravan and employed the manual
mode on the six-speed automatic transmission
when it seemed useful. Spoiled by the
Vette, perhaps, we sometimes screwed that
up because first gear in the Jetta is so low
that pulling away from a light runs you up
beyond 3000 rpm rapidly, turning fuel into
roar with not much accelerative reward.
Most of us ended up slotting it into ?D? and
leaving it there.
At about 11 seconds to 60 mph, the
Jetta?s published road-test numbers are not
as good as the Prius? (around 10 seconds,
thanks to massive electric motor torque at
0 rpm), but at highway speeds its 177 lb-ft
at 1800 rpm and 100 hp at 4000 rpm feel
stronger than the Toyota and smoother than
the Honda. The diesel spins harder than the
Vette at 80 mph, running at 2500 rpm or so,
but still it is a long-legged German car with
autobahn-able credentials.
For comfort, quiet and highway handling,
our drivers found the TDI had significant
advantages over every other car in
the test. It would have been our choice, in
other words, for an easy daytrip on the interstates,
regardless of fuel economy. And
we topped the hybrids by driving with just
a little attention to fuel economy, not
making it an obsession. Maybe this
German family sedan was inspired by our
mission?we understand VWs make a lot
of beer runs in their homeland.
Although we had our qualms before
the storm, we think our little road trip
shows the technologies are out there to
promise massive gains in fuel efficiency
in short order, should circumstances
warrant it. Imagine a Prius-like hybrid
that ran on biodiesel instead of gasoline.
We may not be there yet, and adapting
diesels to use the cylinder-cutoff technology
found in the Jeep and Honda
might be a tough task, but look how far
we?ve come already.
How can you compare vehicles without addressing the basic car questions: Cost, safety, driving dynamics, and day-to-day living?
Recharge time from 0 to 100% if by three different means using different amp boxes, provided when you lease the Mini, or can use a convention wall plug for 20 hour charging.
Watch the videos.
Jay Leno, who really knows cars, did a drive review where he interviewed some engineers of the Electric Mini. It's worth watching for more details.
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/video_player.shtml?vid=1052621
There are similar issues, though, in regard to the % of American parts in these cars. That money goes overseas, too.
Yea, I think we're going to have to think more along those lines... of do some kind of better charging ability for long trips. Most driving normal people do could easily meet the 100 miles on a day-to-day basis (if you're commuting more than 50 miles... time to find a new job). There are a couple solutions..... one would be to put a small gas engine to as efficiently as possible generate a recharge to extend the mileage... or recharge where no charging is available. In bigger cars, this could be in-car... or maybe a super small trailer which could be added and plugged in for the long trip.
Longer term... maybe the batteries will get better... or go hydrogen, etc. The big short-term problem is how we produce the electricity in the first place. Until we get more solar, etc. utility scale energy plants on-line... it is questionable much more greener these electric vehicles really are. While electricity probably beats gas by some amount... they aren't as green as being advertised. I can't tell you how many times I've seen articles that count electric use as zero.
DCT? I must have left that out of my list of technologies that are stripping the spirit from driving. Pushing a button or paddle to change gears does not constitute driving IMHO. A computer is still doing all the work for you, which inevitably removes you from the driver?s seat and determines how the car should perform. Personally, I want to control the power-bands and synchronizers. Heel-to-toe; you got to try it.
@SteveW928
I wish more people would approach the topic of pollution vs consumption as you have. And Hybrid owners get a tax break?
sheez.
I hope Ford uses Ricardo UK's new clean diesel technology so we can have the upcoming 2011 Fiesta with the turbodiesel option--we're talking Prius-like fuel economy without the complications of a hybrid drivetrain!
Case in point: L.A. - Tucson, AZ (500 miles), Toyota Camry 4-cyl
Variant A: Speed limit plus 10 (approx.250 miles @ 75-80mph in CA, 250 miles @ 85 mph in AZ)
Net driving time 6h 10m, mileage 30 mpg ($35 at $2.10/gal average in CA and AZ)
Variant B: Speed limit minus 5 (250 miles @ 60-65mph in CA, 250 miles @ 70 mph in AZ)
Net driving time 7h 40 min, mileage 35 mpg ($30 at $2.10/gal average in CA and AZ)
Your savings: $5 for 1.5 hr ($3.33/hr for your weekend or vacation time)
Enjoy!
What happens when a lithium car has an accident? What happens when it does run out of battery power? Call AAA for a tow home?
If 10% of the drivers had electric cars, would the electrical infrastructure be able to handle that many more 50amp demands?
Right now we do not have the transmission lines to get wind power from the places where it can be generated to the place where it is needed. No one wants high-tension lines in their neighborhood.
What I don't understand is why every environmentally-friendly vehicle *has* to be a tin can? Before I relocated to Tennessee, I always owned smaller vehicles powered by four-cylinder engines, but because the composition of vehicles here seems to consist of a much higher percentage of trucks and SUVs than where I'm from, it became a real safety issue for me to be on the road in such a small car. After several near-misses and finally an accident, I gave up on small cars and traded up to a 2008 Nissan Xterra with 261 HP under the hood, before which I owned a small yet peppy 2007 Nissan Sentra with a fuel-sipping 4-cylinder engine and a CVT transmission. Now I'm averaging a mere 17 MPG, yet I still wouldn't trade the size/height, extra power, and improved safety - at least from a mental perspective - of the Xterra for a tin can with better mileage.
At the same time, I'm not "anti-Earth" by any stretch of the imagination ... I just want to live! Since I bought the Xterra, I was rear-ended at high speed by a Ford Explorer and suffered relatively little damage and no injury. I can't imagine how that accident would've turned out in my Sentra! So revisiting my previous question, why must every environmentally-friendly vehicle be a kitten coffin with wheels? I would be one of the first buyers at the dealership if Nissan came out with an Xterra with a hybrid powerplant or another automaker came out with something of comparable size and performance while producing significantly reduced fuel consumption and emissions. Given my horrendous commute, I'm just not willing to give up the size and perceived safety of my SUV for a fuel more MPGs.
Sorry, but this is a very wrong-headed kind of thinking that won't ultimately help. The problem is not energy consumption, but pollution. We need to implement technologies to generate our energy in a better way, not necessarily limit the consumption of it. The sun provides the earth with way more energy than we could foreseeably use. We actually have pretty good technologies to harness it (utility grade solar concentrating). We just need to build plants and get transmission lines in place. There is no reason cars can't still be FUN and GREEN.
@ bwest33 -
A couple points... there is an actual limit to how efficient they could make a gas car with X horse power. The car designers aren't exempt from the laws of physics. The hybrids extend it a bit... but don't let some of the claims fool you. Many of the big claims are only counting gas used... they seem think the electricity is free (both in cost and pollution). This is non-sense. Our best solution is going to be find green ways to produce energy... then better ways to store and use in a vehicle.
Second, I'm noticing you say 'perceived' safety. That is fairly accurate. There are a few situations where you are safer in the SUV, but just as many where you aren't. Kind of depends on the accident. That said... the same technology advances would apply to an SUV just as well as a 'kitten coffin.' Some of the better electronic drive systems can produce a couple-hundred HP per wheel. You could have an all-electric (or hydrogen) vehicle with way more power than your current SUV, but producing no emissions on its own. Then, we just have to produce that energy you're using in a good way (which we can do as well with utility scale solar concentrating plants).
Most of what is going on is just green-washing to environmentalists at this point.... no so much real green technology. The problem is the average environmentalist or environmental-minded consumer doesn't know enough about it to understand the difference.
- by CaptHe13 May 1, 2009 11:44 AM PDT
- the gentleman running the camera is WRONG!!! according to FORD's website the Fusion Hybrid has an eCVT transmission NOT A 6 Speed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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