Even With Hybrids Ford is Still Dead Last
Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally released its long overdue 2005 fuel economy report. Obviously, the leadership inside the Beltway has chosen (once again) to ignore automobile fuel efficiency regulations.. And no surprise here: which automaker has (once again) the worst fuel efficiency ratings on the planet? Ford Motor Company.
Danny Hakim’s article in the New York Times which appeared in the Thursday edition, speculates that the EPA report may have been held up to avoid impacting the energy bill vote currently in Congress. The bill ignores the excessive oil consumption by American automobiles and fails to confront auto mileage regulations. The report acknowledges “that fuel economy is directly related to energy security,â€? because consumer cars and trucks account for about 40 percent of the nation’s oil consumption.
The lack of progress in addressing automakers’ failure to produce fuel-efficient cars and trucks endangers our health, our environment and most importantly our national security. At just 19.1 mpg the 2005 Ford fleet, including their SUV hybrids, rank dead last in fuel efficiency among the top automakers in the world. Bill Ford Jr., CEO of Ford, continues to lead the company and the nation deeper into oil addiction by skirting his leadership, and responsibility to the American business traditions of innovation and technological advancement. By continuing to manufacture vehicles that get worse gas mileage than cars Ford made over 20 years ago he reveals his disdain for the very foundation of what Ford Motors stands for: serving the American public with affordable, clean and safe transporation. .
Rising gas prices caused by peak oil fears and global warming pollution caused by growing tailpipe emissions point to the lack of modernization within Ford and other American car companies. So what happens when America loses the car market to companies like Toyota and Honda? What happens to Detroit when GM and Ford become junk companies? More importantly, what happens to the American economy if Ford can’t recover?
Thanks to Nile in San Francisco for pulling together this piece!
11 Responses to “Even With Hybrids Ford is Still Dead Last”
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August 2nd, 2005 at 9:58 am
And don’t forget to check out the other great article the New York Times recently published, called “The Green Machine That Could Be Detroit.”
http://www.jumpstartford.com/news/newsitem.php?id=1551&area=ford
It lays out a great vision for what Detroit and the American auto industry could be if it truly embraced fuel efficiency rather than just greenwashing.
Here’s a taste:
“What if a major automaker decided to reinvent itself as the world’s first and only green car company, producing only hybrid, clean-diesel and other high-efficiency vehicles? Not Birkenstocks on wheels, mind you, but enjoyable, functional cars that get great mileage.”
August 3rd, 2005 at 7:14 am
So automakers (i.e. businesses that require sales to fund themselves and pay their employees) should no longer care about making money and should only sell what a minority of buyers want? Hmmm. That would be the end of which ever major automaker decided to do it. Take Toyota – if they moved to ONLY selling hybrids, clean diesels (which don’t exist in the U.S. yet) and ultra-efficient gas engines (which I assume you mean 4-cyl and less), they would essentially go out of business, resulting in thousands of jobs lost and devastating effects on the economy. You guys need to realize that it isn’t the automakers you need to focus your efforts on, it’s the consumers. Automakers sell what people are buying. If people stop buying trucks and SUV’s, they’ll stop selling them and spending money to develop them. You guys need to take some simple economics classes and realize how business works before making unrealistic idealistic goals like these. Your campaigns should revolve around educating the general public about the rewards of fuel-efficiency. The Jumpstart Ford campaign is a ridiculous waste of energy. Everything Ford does wrong (according to you) is being done by EVERY automaker. If anything, singling out Ford will just give people a negative image of them and hurt their business, not help them improve it. Stop being extremists and do some actual thinking.
September 11th, 2005 at 8:19 am
I totally agree with Scott on this one. Don’t take offense RAN, because you seem to be a very involved network, but also a very negative one. I think we could go about the whole oil ordeal quite differently if we really study it.
September 23rd, 2005 at 10:56 pm
I think that saying Ford only sells what people are buying is letting them off the hook too easily. My mom told me the other day that she wants to buy a hybrid but also wants to buy American. Unless she wants to get on a two-year waiting list to buy an Escape or a Mariner, she’s outta luck.
As for “economics classes”, it seems that RAN knows how business works better than Ford. Afterall, Ford’s stock is under ten bucks and they’re losing money like crazy. RAN’s only offering some tough love. My last car was a Ford and I sold it because I felt guilty driving it. I’d love to feel proud about my country’s automakers again someday.
October 7th, 2005 at 3:41 pm
You may have all of these ideas and suggestions as a Gift from me. I will make no claim or attempt to patent any of these ideas. I suspect that others have already patented some of this, but since I have no plans to produce any of these devices commercially, I haven’t bothered to check.
I started sharing this with everyone I could several years ago. It looks like a few are beginning to catch up. Mitsubishi has produced the wheel drive system. Their design uses only LI batteries. It is strictly plug in. When you open the engine compartment, there is just a big open space.
I really think this is the way to go. With a strong commitment by the feds, we could grow and process all the biodiesel we need from algae grown around the Salton Sea.
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For about the past year I have offered anyone who would listen the following info: One of the American automobile companies has responded. I have had some positive response from several educational institutions but – as far as I know – none have done any experimental work to verify my claims.
Here is what I have been proposing:
In one scale or another every one of these systems have been proven.
Like to produce a vehicle that can burn rubber on takeoff on all four wheels and get 90+ mpg?
What I would like to see the automakers working on would have:
1. A turbocharged, two cylinder opposed, 2-cycle, air-cooled diesel directly driving a generator. (It would not be running most of the time.)
2. A 111 volt Lithium-Ion Polymer battery pack.
3. Nothing but wires going from the controller to every wheel, except for the necessary additional friction brakes (of course).
4. An added advantage of this would be the ability to recharge from the electrical grid while at home, saving even more on fuel.
Each wheel, depending on the feedback to the controller from wheel speed sensors would drive with just the right power depending on the accelerator position. You would get recharging from deceleration just as you do in today’s hybrids. You would also use this feedback to stop the wheel from skidding.
Each wheel would have a stationary stator and a series of fixed magnets closely adjacent all around the inside of the wheel. In a sense it would operate each wheel in a very similar fashion that the maglev trains use, except the motion would be circular, of course. Something very different about this type of motor is that the stators are fixed to the axles and the magnets are driven around them. This gives a significant increase in mechanical advantage. That’s like turning an ordinary electric motor inside out.
There would be no need for ordinary electric motor brushes. In fact, many electric motors operating today are brushless.
Such motors already exist in the model airplane field and their efficiently is amazing – approaching 90%. I’ve got a couple and doubt that I would ever buy any other type.
It’s possible to hang the model on the prop right out in front of you and accelerate straight up, like a rocket, with this type motor.
In the vehicle the motor/generator would not turn on to recharge the batteries until they needed it. There is already experimental Lithium-Ion driven cars that can get in excess of 200 miles before they have to be recharged by plugging them in. You would top off your batteries overnight by plugging them in. Some cutting edge research by Toshiba -employing nano-technology – indicates that recharging can be done so fast that you could top off while eating lunch.
Lithium -Ion battery technology is so new that I doubt that very many automotive engineers have even heard of them, much less thought to use them in this manner. Their energy density exceeds that of any other form of rechargeable energy storage.
The Lithium Ion battery is the most efficient battery available right now. So is the outer rotor electric motor the most efficient motor.
Build an Automobile right and it will weight less and have simpler, easier to repair/replace modules.
Lets see what we can eliminate while improving performance and efficiency.
Transmission – None
Ignition system – None
Liquid cooling – None
Valves and valve train – None
Use bio-oil/fuels for both fuel and lubrication.
Feel free to pass this along to anyone you know in the Transportation business.
I bought a Honda Civic Hybrid last summer. I enjoy it more than any vehicle I’ve ever owned. I will Never buy another vehicle that isn’t a Hybrid and doesn’t get at least 50 mpg.
As far as I can tell, Detroit isn’t even thinking the same way I and the vast majority of its potential customers are.
Mitsubishi has produced the wheel motor/drive I mentioned above. You can see an illustration at: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/08/new_mitsubishi__1.html Scroll down and click on illustration. You can get it to fill the page by a second click.
Good Luck!
William Lucas Jones
490 Mauldin Rd.
Sautee, GA 30571-3159
(706) 219-3333
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