Ford has high hopes for new Fusion

The dramatically redesigned 2013 Ford Fusion, which makes its regional debut this week at the Philadelphia Auto Show, demands one's attention intellectually as well as aesthetically.

Midsize family sedans like the Fusion have long been citadels of conservatism, largely because conservative styling sells in this segment. The Toyota Camry has been the sales king in this category for years, and no one would accuse that car of having look-at-me motives. When Toyota redesigns this automobile, adjectives like evolutionary, gradual and incremental come to mind.

The same could be said for the past and current Fusion. Not a bad-looking sedan, just not a very memorable one. But radically redesigning it was not an easy decision because it has been such a sales success (number three in the segment, behind the Camry and Nissan Altima). And automakers, like most manufacturers, don't like to mess with a good thing.

"Fusion had its best year ever in 2011," said Zack Nakos, product marketing manager for the Fusion. "We sold 248,000 of them."

Ultimately, the impetus to reinvent the Fusion rather than simply update it came from the top. It was Ford CEO Alan Mulally who urged the designers to start with a clean sheet of paper.

The idea was to come up with a fresh, appealing sedan that would give Ford more of a presence in the car market here. (Like the other domestics, Ford makes most of its money on trucks and SUVs. The three automakers account for 60 percent of U.S. truck and SUV sales, but have only a third of the car bazaar.)

And the fact that Ford will expand its Flatrock, Mich., assembly plant to augment Fusion production in Hermosillo, Mexico, suggests the company expects to sell significantly more Fusions.

The Fusion makeover was complete, from the exterior and interior design to the plethora of new technologies and fuel-sipping powertrains, which include a hybrid, a plug-in hybrid, two EcoBoost four-cylinder engines, and a base normally aspirated four.

The gas-engine cars and the hybrid will go on sale in the fall, Nakos said. The plug-in hybrid, which Ford says will be the most fuel efficient midsize sedan in the world, will hit the showrooms at the end of the year.