Get Energized in the 2015 Ford Fusion Energi and Parkour Training

Energy. Pretty important stuff, right? You need energy to get out of bed in the morning. You need energy to power your smartphones. And you need energy to power your electric and hybrid cars. So can the 2015 Ford Fusion Energi carry the weight of its name?

This Cool Hand Luke of a vehicle gets solid scores for its weight class. The Fusion Energi combines top-end features and design improvements at a decent price point. You can bet that this hybrid will catch a few looks as it zips through downtown traffic. And in an energetic activity sponsored by Ford, we’ll even get to see how I look zipping through obstacles in a parkour training session.

2015 Ford Fusion Energi Stats

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• Type: Plug-in Hybrid
• Engine: 2.0L, 4-cylinder Front Wheel Drive
• Details: Up to 195 horsepower
• Fuel Economy: 2.7L/100km with gas and electric combined; 6.1L/100km with gasoline only
• MSRP: $38,399 (CAD)

Technology in the Fusion Energi

At a glance, the Fusion Energi is packed to the rims (literally) with a brilliant stack of Ford’s best technology to date. You’d be crazy not to think this car is built to tempt you into trusting cars to drive for you. With fully-autonomous cars just around the corner, you’re not too far off by thinking many of these advanced bells and whistles are meant to slowly get you to trust machines with our safety on the road. But for now, lets take a look at what makes this magic carpet tick.

Charge it up with your household power outlet

You read it right, folks. Plug the Fusion Energi into a 120v current overnight and in the morning you’ll have a full tank o’ electricity. While you can achieve faster recharge times with a level 2 charger (within 2.5 hours), you won’t need to plug it in with regenerative braking bringing in up to 90% of kinetic energy.

Lane-Keeping System and Adaptive Cruise Control

Keep the car within the lines on the road, while allowing the car to speed up and slow down depending on the traffic ahead. While I didn’t get a chance to fully test this feature out more, on paper it does exactly what you think it will do: keep your car between the lanes. I didn’t find it as simple from the get-go as other Lane-Keeping Systems on the market, but there’s no way you can find this feature as easily on similar models.

Active Park-Assist

I’m a huge fan of what Ford has done to get the nightmares of parallel parking off our conscience. Available on nearly all of Ford’s newer models, park assist is one of those features that one day will be a standard everywhere. After trying this feature dozens of times, it’s clear that this is an absolute must when deciding your feature add-ons.

SYNC with MyFord Touch

“I’m hungry” you might say out loud while driving the Fusion Energi. This car loves you so much that it’ll search the nearest places for you to eat. Yep, taking a page from the bible of Siri, audible commands are available to get you where you need to go, faster.

Need to get off the grid for a bit? Assuming your phone is synced, the “Do Not Disturb” button will push all calls to voicemail and silence all incoming texts. Perfect for when you need some peace and quiet on the road.

Aesthetic of the Fusion Energi

You’d be crazy not to like the look and feel of this car.

While there have been numerous debates about the front design of the Fusion Energi, which features a large fishmouth grill, it’s clear that Ford learned something during its previous ownership of Aston Martin. Pulling into a lot with those big grills just screams, “Eat it, chumps”. Every single Fusion Energi owner must have made the grill part of their primary buying decisions. Must.

Not sure if it’s just me, but the sporty design has a tinge of European to it, but doesn’t veer away from its domestic roots. It’s not trying to be something it’s not. It’s learned what works and how to best wow onlookers. The sleek design of the Fusion has always been flying under the radar; it’s not out to break people’s necks, but it can easily hold its own in a lot full of luxury cars.

The interior is spacious – both front and back – and contains a ton of useful features like cooling seats and a dual USB console. My only disappointment was the trunk space, which sucked out half of the original Fusion’s 16 cubic feet to support the 7.6-kwh battery. You can, however, fold the backseats down if you really need that extra storage.

Driving the Fusion Energi

I’ll be honest – I didn’t need to refill the gas or plug the car in for an entire week. I used it every day for short haul drives under 20 miles (mainly because I was moving), and surprisingly the digital fuel needle rarely budged. The plug-in hybrid works exceptionally well within the city and while travelling under 136 km/h. Easily one of the most fuel efficient hybrids I’ve driven to date.

Accelerating has a growl “ish” tone, but it doesn’t have that fury of Ford’s most horsepower heavy cars. I almost got excited when it let out an early roar, but was quickly reminded that the Fusion Energy is still runs with a conservative horsepower, which tempered my expectations almost instantly.

The Park Assist will always be a favourite feature, which I put to use as much as possible. Not because I suck at parallel parking, it’s just an incredibly consistent and mind-blowing feature.

Ford Experience: Parkour at the Monkey Vault

The Ford Fusion Energi has some slick and energetic moves, so Ford put my own skills to the test in the Monkey Vault, a parkour gym in the city’s west end. Packed in the Fusion Energi, my parkour team headed for the Vault and caught the tail end of the style trio’s session, Sharad Mohan, Lance Chung, and Jonathan Cavaliere.

Parkour training tested our body control in an assortment of obstacle leaps, tumble rolls, bar swinging, and wall scaling. While we weren’t diving between 40-story buildings like Daredevil, it seemed like every active parkour member was at that expert level and have already graduated in Rooftop Back Flips 101.

TIL I’m a lot like a poor man’s cheetah. We both share quick bursts of energy but literally have zero stamina. Wall scaling and obstacle hopping is crazy fun, but becomes far more strenuous when you’re barely in shape. Until I get back my stamina back up, it’s probably best to leave the building jumping and back flips for Temple Run or the Assassin’s Creed games.

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It’s safe to say I need me more Energi.

Do you have any questions or comments about the Ford Fusion Energi? Or would you love to comment on my embarrassing attempt to parkour? Hit the comments below, buster.