The Dearborn based company yesterday announced that the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid team managed to achieve that goal, while still having nearly one-third of a tank of fuel remaining.
Led by Nascar driver Carl Edwards and including world-record breaking hypermiler Wayne Gerdes and several Ford hybrid engineers, the 1,000-Mile Challenge started at 8:15 a.m. on Saturday, April 25, from Mount Vernon, Va. and ended this morning in Washington, D.C.
The 1,000-mile threshold was reached yesterday, but Edwards drove for an additional 445.7 miles on the aforementioned one-third of a tank. Apart from the obvious publicity benefits, the 69-hour long drive also raised funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Ford fans will be pleased to know that the Fusion Hybrid used for this task was a regular production version with no tweaks or tricks that would constitute cheating. Overall, the car delivered over 80 miles per gallon or 34 kilometers per 1 liter of fuel.
The US company also talked about some of the techniques used to reduced fuel consumption. Here are some of the most important: slowing down and maintaining even throttle pressure, gradually accelerating and smoothly braking, coasting up to red lights and stop signs to avoid fuel waste and brake wear, minimize use of heater and air conditioning to reduce the load on the engine.
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