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Once again, Detroit reaches for the low-hanging fruit.

 

Someone has to ****** defeat from the jaws of victory.

Bob Wilson

 

Yup, looks like Ford has seen the light. Instead of building hybrids that do something now, build a whole bunch of cars that can burn E85 and pat themselves on the back for their efforts. It's the same sort of successfuly thinking that GM is using so it's gotta be good. The oil companies are of course hurting from having to sell gasoline, so will be rushing to install E85 fueling capabilities at their gas stations so Ford doesn't have to worry about being hardly any E85 being available.

Now, sarcasm aside, I think E85 is a great idea and getting more E85 "capable" cars on the road might help get E85 infrastructure rolling, but when you have cars that can just as easily fuel up on gas and if E85 doesn't get rolling you have accomplished nothing. My gut feel says E85 will slowly roll out over the next 5 to 15 yrs. In the mean time, another 10 yrs of hybrid development will make them even more efficient and cost effective, + probably also include E85. Sounds like a firm committment by Ford to stay in the shadows.

 

That doesn't surprise me that Detroit would think "cheap" instead of "smart". They're also abusing a loophole in the CAFE standards that basically only count the 15% gasoline in E85 -- even though these vehicles will be running on 90-95% gasoline for the foreseable future. This loophole lets Detroit build gas guzzlers that are then categorized as "efficient".

Let me predict that the average car buyer isn't going to be impressed with the little green leaf on the side of a monster-SUV that gets 7 MPG on E85.

Thanks, but no thanks. Even on a positively lousy week, my HCH manages to get 36 MPG.

 

Give me a few minutes, my head is filled with stuff that would get me kicked from here.

....


Okay. First of all, I've been more than annoyed at Fords lackadasical approach to their hybrids, so much so I have been meaning to send a letter to good old Bill. They have the worlds most fuel efficient SUV in a market that loves SUV's, yet barely informs anyone it exists. They have all these hybrid engineers and patents, yet instead of filling hybrid niches no one else does, station wagon, minivan, full size van, etc. they wimper about poor sales of their behemoths. Well, they have poor sales because they don't do much to advertise when they make a quality product, and try to tell the consumer what to buy, rather than build something that the consumer is drooling to get.

They've been playing both sides of the fence so long, they can't do anything anymore. At times, they tout the hybrid as their shining beacon, other times they almost seem embarassed they make it. Then they try to compete with an automaker that's practically heaving it's death cries instead of the automakers that are dominating the market.

Then, they start believing their own PR, which is worst of all as to why they aren't doing well. When you've got a record of broken promises, gas guzzlers, and QC problems, why bother blaming legacy costs?

 

Someone asked me the other day if E85 made hybrids redundant. I pointed out that my hybrid will need less than half the acerage to run compared to a non-hybrid. "Do you want to run on 100 acers of corn or 30?"

This is not either / or but "and" as the resources needed for E85 are independent of those making vehicles, gas or hybrid. I say:

DO BOTH

This is a false delima.

Bob Wilson

 

ARGH!

We need a Scaled Composites (Burt Rutan) type company to hit the U.S. auto industry by storm and show them how you actually innovate (Spaceship One and the Global Flyer, etc.); capitalize on one's strengths; publicize new products/endeavors and capture the public's interest ("buzz" marketing and early adopters' passion); and bring it all to market.

...sigh...

 

Burt for president!

 

I'd vote for that. He's the most down-to-Earth guy you could possibly imagine. I was at the Smithsonian in D.C. the day he dedicated Spaceship One to the museum. I didn't get to talk to him, but he stayed well over an hour after the short press conference, just chatting with museum-goers and such.

 

At least Ford is honest.



I agree, the FEH is a fantastic car. Too bad CHEVRON OWNS THE PATENT on the batteries we need for automakers to make a REAL EV. Or plug in for that matter.

Again, thank GM FOR SELLING THE PATENT TO TEXACO (chevron)

At least we got these hybrids, even though they are super watered down versions of what automakers could be doing if oil companys didnt buy up alternative fuel patents.

and thankyou master and all powerful CHEVRON (until 2014 or someone gets another type of battery) for allowing Honda , Toyota and Ford to at least make low yield batteries for hybrids. Its better than nothing.