No Ford diesel cars in America
Posted By RichC on January 11, 2007
According to AutomotiveNews, Ford will not be selling diesel cars in America. Unfortunately for diesel advocates, many who have been
looking for domestically produced diesel vehicles, we will be left high and dry by the Ford Motor Co. Hmm … what about those “Bold Moves?” According to Mark Fields, Ford’s U.S. division president, “diesels will be limited to Ford’s truck offerings in America” because Ford would be unable to price diesel cars fairly. According to Derrick Kuzak, Ford’s product development boss, Ford has “done a lot of assessment from a customer perspective, looking at what diesel offers in terms of fuel economy and performance versus cost and at this point in time, we would say that GTDI (gasoline turbocharged direct injection) seems to be the better alternative.”
Although Ford sells efficient diesels in Europe — including the 50 mpg Focus — they are not able to meet the new emission standard in place in the US and because they would be unable to be profitable after adding the appropriate emissions reduction equipment. Instead, Ford will focus on turbocharger and gasoline direct injection as well as hybrids. Toyota is taking a similar stance, suggesting that the new US regulations make diesels less cost effective than hybrids. (link) I hope they are both wrong and I won’t be surprised to see them banging out a ‘slap together diesel’ well after other companies are growing this smart and exciting automotive segment.
EDIT from Autobloggreen: “Honda and Nissan, Toyota’s main Japanese competitors, have committed to bring clean diesel models to the U.S. by the end of the decade. Toyota, which has been quick to capitalise on hybrids but slow to jump on the diesel bandwagon, is hoping that its agreement with Japanese truck maker Isuzu Motors in November will give it a jump start. But it now seems that Toyota may not pursue a diesel strategy in the short term while plug-in hybrids are the flavour of the month.”
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