CONSUMER REPORTS SAYS FORD HYBRIDS FAIL TO ACHIEVE MPG CLAIMS

(The following is a reformatted version of a press release issued by Consumer Reports and received via electronic mail. The release was confirmed by the sender.)

Consumer Reports Tests show Ford Fusion, C-Max hybrids don’t live up to 47-mpg claims

Ford has been making some eye-opening claims about the fuel economy of the redesigned 2013 Fusion Hybrid sedan and new C-Max Hybrid wagon: “47 city/47 highway/47 combined mpg.” After running both vehicles through Consumer Reports real-world tests, CR’s engineers have gotten very good results. But they are far below Ford’s ambitious triple-47 figures.

In Consumer Reports tests, the Fusion Hybrid delivered 39 mpg overall and 35 and 41 in city and highway conditions, respectively. For the C-Max Hybrid, we got 37 mpg overall, with 35 and 38 for city and highway. These two vehicles have the largest discrepancy between our overall-mpg results and the estimates published by the EPA that we’ve seen among any current models

The details of the tests are available at: http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2012/12/video-tests-show-2013-ford-fusion-c-max-hybrids-dont-live-up-to-47-mpg-claims.html.

For Interviews please contact: Douglas Love 914-378-2437, Dlove@Consumer.org or C. Matt Fields, 914-378-2454, cfields@Consumer.org,

(bjh) NY

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