New Fiesta Gets 73 MPG, But Ford Says It’s Not For The U.S.
Back in July, Ford released the details of a new Fiesta it plans to begin selling this November. The new car is based on Ford’s ECOnetic platform and can get 63 mpg in the city and 73 mpg on the highway. So why is it only available in Europe? It’s a diesel, and Ford doesn’t think Americans will ever adopt diesel cars.
According to Businessweek, Ford lists a littany of excuses why they could never market this car in the US. Chief among these excuses is that they don’t think they could ever sell enough of them to make a profit. Ford says that in order to produce them for the US market they’d have to build a new plant and then make at least 350,000 of them a year.
If there’s no way to make a profit on these cars and Americans won’t buy them, why are so many European and Asian car makers bringing these new “clean diesels” to the U.S. starting next year? When I see news that Mercedes, Nissan, Volkswagen and even Honda are all building clean diesel cars with excellent fuel economy for the US market, Ford’s excuses start to seem pretty hollow.
- » See also: Teenage-Built Diesel Hybrid Does 0-60 in 4 Seconds, Soon to Break 100 MPG
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Why is it that in the face of going bankrupt, U.S. car makers are so willing to maintain the status quo and slowly die a painful and agonizing death? Look, I understand some basic economics and that a company that is doing its shareholders right won’t take unnecessary risks, but the time for trepidation has past. Get on board or risk losing everything.
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Meanwhile, all I can do is hang my head and shake it. I want to be able to buy American cars again. In fact, every time one of the top U.S. car makers has some crazy desperation sale, I go online and take a look at the line-up… but I can never find a car I’d actually buy.
It’s not that the cars are ugly, or that I don’t trust their reliability — it’s that what I’m looking for is a fuel efficient vehicle that won’t break the bank and looks nice. And when I say “fuel efficient,” I don’t mean 30 mpg. I don’t even mean 40 mpg (my puny Yaris can already pull that one off). I want something with a drastic fuel economy improvement.
I want a car that in some way shows I care about the planet and understand that our future and our childrens’ future depends on drastically changing our habits now. But I also want a car that shows I support buying locally (in this case domestically) and that supports the economy of my own country.
And I know there are millions of other people like me. That’s why I want US car makers to wake up and start selling the cars people want.
You see, in my world I have a fantasy in which I purchase a nice little chunk of farmable land — say 10 acres — grow my own oilseed (like Camelina), crush it and make all of the biodiesel I would ever need (plus some to give my friends). In my fantasy, my operation would be powered completely off of wind, solar and geothermal and I could continue to make my own fuel even if the rest of the world went to hell in a handbasket.
So please Ford (or GM or Chrysler), make my dream a possibility. Take some chances. Stop applying band-aids in a last ditch defense of crusty old shareholders and go on the offensive. That’s how you built the company in the first place, and that’s how you can save it.
Posts Related to the Re-tooling of the US Auto Industry and Clean Diesels:
- “Producible” Chrysler Plug-In Hybrid: 0-60 in 4 Seconds
- VW Clean Diesels Get $1,300 Federal Tax Credit
- Clean Diesel Cars Coming to US This Fall: 2008-2010 Timeline
- Like GM, Ford Decides They’d Better Start Producing Smaller, More Fuel-Efficient Cars
- How to Build an Electric Car Charging Infrastructure: Smart Grids, Fast Charging and Universal Access
- Prototype Ford Escape Plug-in Hybrid: 88 MPG on 85% Ethanol
- Camelina - The Next Generation Biofuel?
- Japan Finally Gets a Clean Diesel Car
Image Credit: Ford
Source: Businessweek
They’re just begging for more government money. Oh, we’re so poor, we’ll lose our shirt … the taxpayers must pay us so we can afford to make cars!
I get 36.6 cbpm (calories burned per mile) on my bike. Kill 2 birds with one stone. Buy a bike and get in shape, save the earth (and your pocketbook) at the same time… errr, make that 3 birds with one stone.
[...] same amount of CO2 as the much smaller Polo BlueMotion. It also undercuts current main rival, the Ford Focus ECOnetic by [...]
Ford won’t release it in USA because it would be something the public demands, desires and would go crazy over…they are too interested in padding their pockets at the upper corporate level with sales of inefficient trucks, SUVs and cars thinking the American public is illiterate and ignorant…well that is why American car makers are failing…people have wanted for a long time efficiency and reliability and now buy foreign because that is who is providing it…Americans are not all into being mesmerized by Madison Avenue advertising showing trucks, SUVs and cars that get crap for miles per gallon and pollute like crazy…I want an American made car that gets fantastic miles per gallon that is reliable and comfortable without being outrageously expensive.
OK, since my last comment I’ve done some (basic) research.
The issue appears to be that there are two sets of auto regulations in the world. One set of regulations for the US (NTSA) and one for the rest of the world — called ECE. The ECE regulations are used by 52 countries, including the European Union nations and Japan.
Check out Wikipedia entries for ECE auto regulation or NTSA — the facts are all there. ECE regulations have actually produced SAFER cars than the US-only NTSA regulations over the past 30 years (as measured by passenger fatalities per mile driven).
Why is NO ONE in the mass media discussing the stupidity of only the US requiring NTSA regulations, while the ENTIRE world can make do with ECE regulations? And oh, yeah, our Federal Government and the EU have been trying to “harmonize” these two sets of regulations since, oh, 1958, with no discernible progress…huh?
Given that the Feds are about to pass a $50 billion bail-out plan for Detroit, I don’t think that there’s a conspiracy afoot to make consumers pay more at the gas pump. I do see massive incompetence at a basic level — like the inability to adopt ECE regulations. Or at least, to let auto manufacturers choose either NTSA or ECE regulations to manufacture their cars under.
As for diesel not being popular due to its higher price per gallon, that doesn’t make any sense. If I can drive a car that get 3x the mileage per gallon, and pay 25% more for each gallon, why wouldn’t I?
Nick, I think this is one area that bloggers like yourself have to cover in more detail — it’s time to scrap the US-only approach to regulations that has plainly failed, and adopt ECE regulations — in other words, regulate car manufacturers like every other country on earth does. Only then can we start seeing all those great overseas cars come into the US market.
BackFromItaly,
There’s certainly seems to be some momentum here, so I’ll get on that when I have some time to do a little more in depth research. But I love the topic and am sure there’s a wealth of issues out there to discover related to how screwed up the US system is.
Thanks again for your input and story idea. I love it.
Use the above link to contact Ford and tell them what you think about this issue! We can change their mind!
Yeah,
Wouldn’t want to switch production at a plant they already have, gotta open a new plant, can’t run off 10,000 and see how they sell.
I really think the US is going to be without a major auto manufacturer soon. When you lose close to your market cap in 1 quarter well, I’m not a genius but I don’t think that is heading anywhere but to be acquired. Maybe Uncle Sam wants to build cars as well as make home loans?
Why would you possibly want a car that gets more than 30 MPG? Isn’t it actually easier to send young men and women overseas to fight and die for oil?
If everyone acted as you do, this war thing would dry up and our economy might focus on (gasp) real jobs. We might have to actually stop sending all our money overseas to Saudi Arabia and China, and start spending it at home. Are you *sure* you want to do this? Sounds risky…
Instead of loaning several billions of dollars to the auto comapnies, perhaps teh US government can fund building the infrstructure for this type of vehicle. In ohter words build a factory that makes 2 or 3 variants of these clean diesel engines and offer them for sell to all the car makers including the ones who employ americans in the manufacture of cars (BMW, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Mazda) as well as “american” manufacturers. Remember that the only thing uniquley american about Ford, GM and Chrysler is where thier headquarters are located.
The engine could be sold at cost and the car manufacturers worry about transmissons and the rest. It will make these engines easier to maintain and probably less expensive.