More proof that the claim, “We can’t meet CAFE standards!” is bullshit.
I don’t know where they get the “140 MPG” figure on the top of the page. The Ford rep says that the car will get “about” 120 MPG in the city and “about” 70 MPG, which is a bit better than what Chevy’s claiming for the Volt. No word on what it’ll cost when it goes on sale in 2012. I have to say that the LEDs around the power port is pretty danged slick looking.
The Ford ECOnetic gets 65 mpg.
(So why not build it here?)
The Volkswagen Polo gets 60-70 mpg and (according to the 2007 article) sells for under $20,000 in Europe.
Mother fucker, stop building them in SUVs! Some people really just don’t *want *that much car!
I’m sure they’ll have other vehicles with the technology, Ford’s just showing this particular model off at the moment.
You could always buy this Chinese plug-in hybrid that gets better performance. Or get one of Ford’s BEVs which will start going on sale soon.
They actually answer that question in the article. Importing the engines from the UK is cost prohibitive, and building a plant for the diesel engine here in North America is even more so with the economy so screwed. Plus the image problems diesel has here in the States.
I saw a commercial the other day saying the Volt is going to be released in fall of 2010, not 2012.
Those 70 or 120 “mpg” numbers are meaningless because the car doesn’t entirely run on gasoline, it also runs on electricity from the wall.
Exactly. I would like to see a few studies about how expensive it would be to recharge the batteries before I would consider buying one. Electricity isn’t real cheap around here.
Sounds like excuses to me. Ford has access to the automotive bailout funds, and IIRC there are also funds available for carmakers to build more efficient cars. If some of that money was used toward building or retooling a plant to build the diesel engines in the U.S., that would put a lot of people to work; not only building the engines, but building or retooling the plant itself. That would help the economy.
As for the image problem, maybe it’s different in Ohio. But here in Washington (state) they seem to be rather popular, and people poudly proclaim their use of biodiesel.
Bio-diesel is fairly recent, not in origin but in widespread use, and you are in the Pacific NW, where that would be more popular. And most diesel is not bio-diesel. Most people think of semi-trucks hauling trailers when they think of diesel. Or maybe some farm equipment in this area. Diesel is expensive, smelly, and you have to worry about it freezing so you can’t even start your car in the winter.
Ford did not take any of the bailout money, and it is doubtful they could get it right now with the way things are going in Congress. There is money from the feds for re-tooling for more environmentally friendly cars, but that is also not available yet. I agree it would be good for them to use it for something like this. Maybe they will, the article is old, from before they got that loan guarantee from Congress. Which will be shared with GM and Chrysler, if they survive. 
They’ve been “showing off” the Escape Hybrid, or when they didn’t sell them all to New York City to use as cabs. No, really, my girlfriend’s mom was in the market for a car because her lease was up and she really liked my girlfriend’s Prius. She looked to see if there was an Escape Hybrid, and there was 1 in all of Metro Detroit. 1. Metro is fucking HUGE and encompasses Ford World Headquarters. You’d think that some of the original dealers would have some. Nope.
It seems that every single article I’ve read about any Ford product that was either smaller or fuel efficient ended with the phrase “but Ford doesn’t plan to sell it here in the US”. Ford apparently thinks no American would buy a car that’s smaller than an Explorer. The last straw for me was when they produced a new, highly rated Focus, based on the Mazda3 - and then declined to bring that to the US and instead retooled the old Focus, based on the 1997(!) Mazda Protege, to sell here instead. Stupid stupid stupid.
No argument from me about the stupid. Some of the decisions they make are probably correct, but too many of them have been short-sighted and entirely focused on the wrong thing.
There’s a station less than 10 miles from my house that sells 20% biodiesel fuel. VW has had good luck selling diesels in the US in recent years.
Ford got a line of credit from the Feds, meaning that all it takes is a phone call and they can get the cash. As for the retooling money, there’s a variety of government sources that Ford can tap to get it, without waiting for the big contribution. And I don’t exactly buy the “its not cost effective” excuse. Shipping costs are pretty low right now, with fuel prices having dropped and the economy being in the toilet, Ford just doesn’t want to do it. I’m sure any paperwork hassles could be solved by a call to a Kongress Kritter. Nor is it likely that all they could use the engine in would be a single car. Even a small car diesel engine would be useful in different model small cars and things like the Ranger and Escape.
That’s true; they didn’t. That’s why I said ‘have access to’. I assume they still do under their agreement. As for retooling, it seems like a no-brainer. They’ve already developed the product. It’s not like they have to start from scratch. So when the funds are unlocked, they’ve already got a head start.
Widespread use of biodiesel is fairly recent, but diesel cars have been popular in the five years I’ve lived up here. I didn’t mean to imply that diesel cars are popular here because of the availability of biodiesel, but that diesel cars are popular here and many drivers choose to fuel them with biodiesel (and proclaim it).
From what I understand, the government money is relatively expensive.
Also, Ford loses money on the Escape Hybrid, or they did when they started producing them, hence the lack of availability.
This is not to say they aren’t also pretty stupid. They took a sexy looking car like the Mazda6 and made it into a fat turd called the Fusion.
That’s odd. Last year Paul’s company in A2 bought four of them with no wait. Supply and demand, though, goes up and down and we’re not great about predicting that. They cut a shift at the Kansas City plant right before the gas prices shot up last year, and they’ve been playing catch up ever since. AFAIK, the wait was never more than a few weeks, though. Call me next time someone’s in the market, eh?