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
Wow. And you wonder why the American car makers are getting there asses handed to them daily. I am a Republican small business owner, and I would buy this car in a heartbeat. Silly.
Well, I have always preferred Fords, but if they won’t sell me a passenger car with a diesel engine, I’ll go elsewhere.
No more gasoline engines with their inherent pumping losses for me.
Goodbye Ford, You’re gone.
COST EFFECTIVENESS,
The cost effectiveness of diesel engines was well documented in a comparison by Diesel Power Magazine. They compared two 2007 Ford F-250s. One a “Power=Stroke” 6.4 liter turbo diesel and the other a “Triton” V-10 gasoline engine. They ran multiple performance tests. In each test the diesel won the performance. It also got better fuel mileage, as little as 20% better in one of the tests, and (sit down) in the best mileage result over 19 mpg for the diesel vs. less than 10 mpg for the gasoline engine.
The payoff break even point for this comparison on a $7000.00 engine addition and about another $1500.00 for heavy duty equipment specific to the truck diesel, the break even point for the cost difference was computed to be near 7 years.
The magazine was, I believe, the June 2007 issue. The performance and mileage differentials should remain similar in equally sized passenger cars. The British auto press has several tests of the Jaguar XF2.7-D which uses a Ford built diesel that has been in production since 2004 at Dagenham, England. One of the British testers didn’t know he was driving a diesel until he looked at the engine after his test. He did comment on the low RPM of the engine in a high revving Jag. The straight line performance of the diesel was comparable to the larger, but non-supercharged XF 3.0 gasoline engined car. The reported mileage for this 4780 pound luxury car was 37.9 Imperial MPG. That’s about 31.5 US MPG.
As far as diesel refineries are concerned, FORGET THEM. Biodiesel is the correct way to go. Biodiesel is less polluting all the way and if we make it from algae it will use no land that is currently used for human or animal food, but even better, algae eats CO2 and releases O2 as it grows.
In India Ford Diesel gives good mileage for the diesel cars. Ford has got reputation globally and their Products through their R & D gives good products and as EU norms. I do not know why USA wanted to go in for Petrol cars only is still a mystery in the minds of Indians.
They have always said that. They had a similiar car back in the 80s that got amazing gas mileage and they said no one would buy it. Though I do think no one bought it back then. But I believe it was only a test study they did. More Suvs I think it was called
Hmmmm, yea, we American’s won’t buy an American car that get’s great mileage. . . . . guess that’s why we have to keep buying VW’s TDI’s. If we have only one choice then we’ll only buy one product.
i dont care if the car runs on toilet water …if it gets 65 miles per gallon people will buy it. I have been a ford buyer(4 brand new full sized f150 4×4s since late 90’s) all my life and would continue to be but with their stuborn decision to keep this car out of are market because there execs or shareholders are all in bed with big oil is absolutely insane…as long as ford continues its hard line against such a fuel efficient car that would help tens of thousands of people in our country, i will never buy another.
I think that it would be a mistake not to market this car in the U.S. It looks great and has good mileage too.
[...] hasn’t been enraged to read about how Ford and G.M. can make perfectly good little gas sippers in Europe, but just can’t bring themselves to make a fuel efficient car for us back [...]
Prakash: “Here in India…Fiesta gives better mileage than 75mpg…..Ford claims a mileage of about 22km/litre…which I guess is about 84mpg….yeah this figures are for disel cars”
Your numbers are wrong. 22 km/litre is the same as 52 mpg (US gallons) - or 62 mpg if you are using the British definition of a gallon. This is because a British gallon is 20% bigger than a US gallon.