Ford's Mark Fields wants more flex-fuel, less California regulations
Ford's President of the Americas, Mark Fields, wants the company to build more E85 capable flex-fuel vehicles but he doesn't want to have to deal with state level fuel economy or carbon dioxide regulations. The former should be no surprise as every car and truck so equipped gets a credit of 1.2mpg towards its mileage rating. Fields also wants to see mileage mandates done at a national rather than at the state level. Like other car-makers, Ford's issue is apparently not so much with having to meet whatever mandate is enacted. They just don't want to do the paperwork and testing repeatedly for potentially dozens of states. Fields hasn't said where Ford stands relative to meeting the new CAFE rules but it's a safe bet that new Ford products will probably be coming with wider tracks and longer wheelbases to increase their footprint. As a result they will have a lower mileage standard to meet. Ford's upcoming EcoBoost engines will also be getting flex-fuel capability to help meet the new rules.[Source: Ward's Auto World]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rob 8:57PM (4/30/2008)
We all want things we can't have. He's just going to have to learn to live with disappointment.
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Lad 9:13PM (4/30/2008)
Without a mpg mandate, do you think the market would move auto makers to spend money on R&D to improve mileage or on PR to sell the idea that it can't be done? Their record shows they move the money to PR.
One must realize the American Auto Market is not a free market in any sense of the meaning because the so called free market has been greatly modified by the oil, Augra, and auto industries paid lobbyists and their influence on the federal government. It is not a fair or free market because it is a politically skewed. As a result you need regulations to guide the industries to do good for the people.
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fnc 10:21PM (4/30/2008)
Malarkey. All the PR and lobbying in the world won't get people to buy that gas guzzling SUV when gas is costing twice what it did in recent memory. Maybe some company executives are too stupid to realize that, but their companies will be the ones that go out of business because they didn't adapt to changing market conditions. Have a little patience and high gas prices will make attempts at CAFE look like a drop in the bucket. Frankly I'd rather all the effort and expense that went into CAFE instead was just funneled into alternative fuel and efficiency research programs, but I guess politicians just need something to distract us with.
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GoodCheer 11:00PM (4/30/2008)
Reading this all I could think about was where we would be right now if the CAFE standards of 1975 had not come into force. About 4-5 years ago (just about one design cycle) gas was at near record low prices. Would there now be ANY vehicles today that get more than 20mpg? Would the big three be totally driven out of their North American markets by companies with more invested in European/Asian markets?
In other words, did the CAFE regulations of 20 years ago just save GM and Ford from going bankrupt in the last 5 years?
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RIck 11:41PM (4/30/2008)
The answer to that is likely yes. If they had 'been left alone' and CAFE not implemented back in 1975, we would still have 20 ft long land barges with huge V8's in the, getting single digit fuel mileage.
Would you buy such a vehicle in today's climate? So yes, CAFE saved their rears. The question is, can they respond quickly enough to deal with the new market conditions (high gas prices), customer's needs (high mileage cars) and the new CAFE requirements?
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Chris M 12:09AM (5/01/2008)
His complaint is a stretch: worse case scenario would be having to meet exactly 2 standards: Federal, or California and states following California. Moreover, vehicles meeting CA standards would also exceed Federal standards, as the Federal standards are bound to be weaker.
No, the real reason the Automakers prefer the Federal standards is that it is much weaker and requires less improvement.
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James Bowe 9:05AM (5/01/2008)
E85 cars mileage gets a 20% bump under CAFE rules? That's insane. Well, there's one good reason the carmakers stopped complaining, I knew there was a catch in there somewhere.
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EVan 9:58AM (5/01/2008)
Don't kid yourselves guys, the CAFE regulations had almost no hand in preventing US automakers from going bankrupt. I'd argue the CAFE regulations had no impact at all.
Crysler doesn't even make a small car right now. Ford has one (Focus). GM has one, but it's essentially a Deawoo. Clearly the old CAFE rules weren't forcing automakers to sell fuel sippers. Now that the price of gas has gone up, every one of the big three has a whole slew of fuel efficient cars on the drawing boards.
The market, not regulations, is the determing factor in what product businesses produce.
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jeffzekas 11:20AM (5/01/2008)
If Ford can meet European standards for fuel efficiency, then certainly they can meet US standards!
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Sam Abuelsamid 2:01PM (5/01/2008)
Jeff, Europe doesn't have government mandated fuel economy standards. What they have is consumer demand for efficient vehicles that is driven by high fuel prices. Automakers would like a similar policy here that would drive demand for smaller more efficient vehicles so that they don't get caught out (if fuel prices drop) building those vehicles while consumers go for larger vehicles. They just want some assurance that if they invest billions of dollars in new vehicles that there will be a market for them.
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superdart 1:16AM (5/02/2008)
Europe has a lot of small cars by design. They have more densly populated cities, narrower streets, blah, blah, blah which make larger cars impractical in the first place. The fuel prices are also sewed thanks to high gov't taxes.
I thik people who herald California's standards need to realize they are just trying to justify their existance. The Feds could mandate 45mpg CAFE and California would STILL come out with something higher...because if they ever agree with the Feds, they would immediately put themselves out of a job. Bureaucracies are self-perpetuating...always redefining themselves to justyify their budget line item...and I think we all know California is better at wasting taxpayer money than any state in the nation.
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Ben Green 11:27AM (5/28/2008)
The reason that E85 cars get a boost in mpg is because mpg is not a good measure of value when there are different priced fuels available. What counts more than mpg is mpd, miles per dollar.
Example: I converted my 1999 car to flex-fuel. Now I get 15% MORE mpd than on gasoline, while my mpg rating is 15% LESS. In the end, I care more about mpd than mpg.
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