Test drove Fusion Hybrid and Plug-In Prius
At the Green Drive Expo in Madison last weekend, I had a chance to meet other hybrid owners, including Insight owners, Prius owners, Escape owners, etc.
There were test drives available for Ford and Toyota vehicles, I test drove the Fusion Hybrid and Plug-in Prius hybrid. The Fusion hybrid seemed to be configured for the average person who isn't out to get the maximum fuel economy but it was a blast to drive and is probably the most fun option out there, it bugged me that the Insight has more regen potentional and that with the Fusion Hybrid, you dig into the friction brake a little while getting regen instead of getting it all without friction braking like the Insight, the Insight slows the car down more without the friction brake under its regen, afterwards I tested the same hill and it was a noticable difference with the Insight providing a great deal of additional slowdown. The Fusion hybrid was also doing a background charge from 40% soc back to 50% soc and seemed to be putting the power back into the pack rather quickly. The Plug-in Prius test drive didn't provide an accurate feeling of the car, the person in the passenger seat said to not go over 7mph so he could explain how a hybrid worked even when I told him that I already know how one works, he didn't know any technical details and talked like a robot reading a script, meanwhile getting a subpar experience with the car while taking sharp 90 degree turns at a mere 7mph feeling the appliance-like steering. At first he refused to let me turn off the AC so I could listen to the motor instead of the engine. I told him that since I didn't even get a change to have a single hard acceleration and the speed was so slow that I didn't feel like I gained anything from the experience, he said to let the people who do the survey of your experience afterwards that he said that he wanted me to come back, but when I told those people what I experienced(or didn't)in the two minutes inside the car, nicely, they said they couldn't do it, so I filled out the survey accordingly including that reaction they provided. I really didn't get anything out of test driving the plig-in Prius and it seemed no different than a normal one due to not having it at highway speeds to see if the engine really doesn't start or to get a real feel for it. I'm not sure how they plan to sell the car when you don't get much of an experience other than going in a circle once. I'm not sure if anyone can give me their experience test driving any other hybrids at the Green Drive Expo, or any other hybrid cars for that matter to explain how they felt when driving them. I did see 2 Tesla Roadsters while I was there and got to sit in the EV1 that the University of Wisconsin brought in, I hugged the EV1 and was thrilled to see it. They had pulled the original drivetrain and it had a Siemens AC motor with integrated controller bolted on in the engine bay. I got some of the original promo materials for both the 1st(lead-acid) and 2nd gen(NiMh) EV1, including a big poster of the car one of the pieces of literature lists an MSRP of $33,995 even though it was lease only for 36mo/36k miles. It also had a list of all of the California and Arizona Saturn dealerships that leased it out of.
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2000 MT Insight "Silver Sipper"
2000 MT Insight Silver "Clone"
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