Ford hopes its new Fusion will be Camry crusher

Ford is enlisting "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest to introduce the redesigned sedan alongside CEO Alan Mulally in New York's Times Square Tuesday. It also is holding events in Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, and on the lawn of its headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.

The publicity blitz underscores the importance of the Fusion to Ford, which is rolling out the car to U.S. dealerships later this month. The midsize car segment is the biggest in the U.S., making up half of all car sales so far this year. It's also one of the most hotly contested. Three of the Fusion's biggest rivals — the Honda Accord, Nissan Altima and Chevrolet Malibu — are also new this fall.

Here's more about the 2013 Fusion:

PRICE: The Fusion starts at $21,700, which is less than the current Camry and in line with the new Altima and Accord. But the price rises quickly. A top-of-the-line Fusion with Ford's automatic parking system, lane departure warning, navigation and other goodies is $34,580. An Altima with similar features is $31,950.

POWER: The base engine, a 2.5-liter four-cylinder that gets up to 33 miles per gallon on the highway, is carried over from the old Fusion. But there are four new engine choices: a 1.6-liter, four-cylinder EcoBoost that's expected to get 37 mpg; a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder EcoBoost in its top-of-the-line Titanium model; a hybrid that gets an industry-best 47 mpg in the city; and a plug-in hybrid, called the Fusion Energi, which runs for longer on the battery and should get the equivalent of more than 100 mpg.

EXTERIOR DESIGN: The Fusion has a more aggressive look, borrowing the chiseled, aerodynamic profile of Ford's other new cars, the Fiesta and Focus. Its shuttered grille is gone, replaced by a diamond-shaped one at the end of a sharply creased, pointed hood.

Ford wanted the car to have a premium feel, so it took the extra — and more expensive — step of embedding the Ford badge in the hood instead of attaching it to the grille. Designer Chris Hamilton said the company wanted the car to look like it was worked on by hand.