Ford Looking at Two New Hybrids for Next Year

Ford plans to introduce two gasoline-electric hybrid early next year, based on the redesigned 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan sedans. Both hybrids were unveiled at the recent Los Angeles auto show, and will go on sale in the spring. The move comes just in time to show Washington lawmakers contemplating a bailout of the industry that it is working on rolling out alternative-fuel vehicles.


These are the first hybrid sedans from Ford and they will join two similar models from General Motors, the Chevrolet Malibu and Saturn Aura, and the Toyota Camry as the only hybrids offered in the mass-market midsize sedan class.

Nissan, makes a hybrid version of its midsize Altima sedan at its Smyrna plant. But the car is built in very limited numbers and sold only in California and a few Northeast states that have smog rules that are more restrictive than the rest of the nation's.

Toyota still has the best-selling hybrid on the market, the compact Prius hatchback, and is building a factory near Tupelo, Miss., so it can assemble those models in the United States rather than importing them from Japan.

Honda had a hybrid version of its popular midsize Accord sedan, but dropped it last year for lack of consumer interest. The car had a relatively thirsty V-6 gasoline engine, and a purchase price of well above $30,000.

Ford's only hybrids now are the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner compact crossover utility vehicles, which entered their second generation this year. Ford said at the Los Angeles rollout that the Fusion and Milan hybrids would have best-in-class fuel economy, beating the Camry hybrid by at least 6 mpg in the city.