Ford CEO: Gas tax, credits would help hybrids
Company plans Mariner SUV hybrid for 2007
Chip East / Reuters
Ford CEO Bill Ford Jr. speaks to reporters at the New York auto show
Wednesday. Behind him is Ford's hybrid Escape SUV.
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 12:54 p.m. ET April 08, 2004
NEW YORK - How do you get millions of Americans to buy gasoline-electric hybrids? Shortly after
unveiling his company's plans for a second hybrid SUV, Ford Motor CEO Bill Ford Jr. suggested this:
a combination of a new gas tax and tax incentives for consumers.
Ford said he has supported a gas tax of 50 cents a gallon, but he preferred tax breaks for consumers
who buy cars with new fuel-saving technology such as hybrids, which are powered by gas engines and
batteries to boost fuel economy.
“Even going back four or five years I used to say that I’d support a 50 cent gas tax,” Ford said at the
New York auto show on Wednesday. ”I think that a combination of gas taxes and incentives would
also be something we could support. But I don’t know how high.”
Ford said he realized a gas tax was difficult politically and noted that the energy bill debated in the
U.S. Congress included a $2,000 tax credit for more fuel-efficient vehicles.A deduction now exists for
hybrids — $1,500 for 2004 — but is being phased out over the next few years.
Current gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles cost on average $4,000 more than a comparable gasoline
vehicle, according to J.D. Power and Associates, the global marketing information services firm. At
that cost, it would take consumers years for the savings from better gas mileage to offset the higher
price.
Some other industry officials, including General Motors Corp. Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, have also
voiced support for higher gas taxes and sales incentives.
Ford: Industry pulled apart
Unlike in Europe, where high gasoline prices and government policies drive consumers to fuel-
efficient models, the relatively low gasoline prices in the United States have contributed to the
popularity of SUVs.
That puts the current U.S. fuel regulations, which require the vehicles sold by automakers to
achieve a certain average fuel efficiency, into conflict with consumer demands, Ford said.
Despite regulations, the average fuel economy of vehicles on U.S. roads has declined over the past two
decades with the growth of sport utility vehicle sales.
“Under the (U.S.) system, we’re being pulled one way by the customer, and the other way by
regulation, and that to me is unsustainable in the long run,” Ford said. “Anything that can help align a
customer’s pocketbook interest with their purchase intention” would help promote greater fuel
efficiency, he said.
“I’d like to get either federal or state and local help ... and I think it’s the responsible thing to do,” he
added. “If the federal government really wants to encourage this kind of behavior — and they should
— then that’s a way they can clearly help.”
Ford Mariner SUV hybrid
Ford earlier announced plans for a second gas-electric hybrid SUV, a move welcomed by
environmentalists who nonetheless said Ford and its American rivals could do much more to clean up
the air and reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.
Ford announced at the New York International Auto
Show that it will build a Mercury Mariner hybrid
SUV for the 2007 model year. The Mariner will join
the Ford Escape SUV and a future midsize sedan in
the automaker’s hybrid program.
Ford unveiled the Escape hybrid last year at the New
York show and plans to begin selling the vehicle in
late summer. Ford has said the hybrid system in the
front-wheel-drive Escape allows the vehicle to get 35
to 40 miles per gallon in city driving, compared with
20 miles per gallon in a 2005 Escape with a V6
engine.
A similar hybrid system will be available in an
upcoming Ford midsize sedan, also introduced at last
Ford Motor Co. via AP year’s New York show. Ford had planned to call the
Ford's 2005 Mercury Mariner, a new gasoline SUV, will have a gas-
electric version in 2007, Ford announced. model Futura, but a federal court has ruled that the
Pep Boys auto parts retail chain owns the rights to
that name.
Ford has not announced a definitive launch date for the hybrid version of the sedan. Neither pricing nor
mileage details were released for either the sedan or the Mariner.
Environmentalists' view
Dan Becker of the Sierra Club said the Escape hybrid proves automakers can make big vehicles with
better gas mileage. The Sierra Club had been critical of Ford since the automaker last year backed
away from a promise to improve fuel efficiency in all of its SUVs by 25 percent by mid-decade.
“If they can make an SUV get 40 miles to the gallon, they can make all their vehicles much cleaner
and cut our oil dependence, and we encourage them to do so,” Becker said Tuesday.
To press that point, the Sierra Club and other activist groups plan to demonstrate Saturday outside the
New York Auto Show, where the industry is displaying many of its new models.
Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda currently
INTERACTIVE
are the only ones selling hybrids, which draw power
from two different energy sources -- a gasoline
• Honda hybrid engine combined with an electric motor.
Take a close look at Toyota, Japan’s biggest automaker, was the first in
the first hybrid sold the world to commercially mass produce and sell
in the United States, hybrid cars with the Prius in 1997. It intends to sell a
Honda's two-door hybrid Highlander SUV next year and its luxury
Insight. Lexus division plans to sell a hybrid SUV by the end
of 2004.
Honda will offer its third hybrid late this year when
it offers the technology on a version of its popular
Accord sedan. It already sells the Insight hybrid and a hybrid Civic.
FACT FILE Greenest and meanest
Source: ACEEE • Print this
1. Certain other transmission and emission standard configurations of these models
score nearly as well. CVT stands for continuously variable transmission.
2. Compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle fuel economy given in gasoline-equivalent
miles per gallon.
3. These vehicles, classified as Heavy Duty Trucks, are exempt from fuel economy
regulations.
4. These vehicles are twins — the same base model carrying different names.
[D] denotes diesel fuel.
[P] denotes premium gasoline.
Auto stk designates manually adjustable automatic transmissions.
Escape details
Ford has touted the Escape hybrid as the world’s first “no-compromise SUV,” combining the fuel
economy benefits of a “full” hybrid along with the cargo capacity and on- and off-road capabilities of
the traditional Escape.
Pricing for the Escape hybrid has not been released.
Ford also is expected to announce in New York that
Mary Ann Wright, chief engineer of the Escape
hybrid, will lead a new group as director of Ford’s
sustainable mobility technologies and hybrid vehicle
programs. The group will be responsible for all of
Ford’s fuel-cell and hybrid vehicles.
GM, for its part, said late last year it will focus its
most advanced hybrid technology on its largest,
least-fuel-efficient models first. The automaker said
it also had scrapped plans to place a full-hybrid
engine in a future compact sport utility vehicle.
The first of the automaker’s advanced hybrids —
those that can achieve a fuel-economy improvement
Ford Motor Co. of up to 35 percent, compared to one-third that
This illustration shows the Escape's gasoline engine at front and
connected to a battery pack at rear and below the cargo area.
amount with mild systems — is scheduled to reach
showrooms in 2007.
Demand, supply and luxury
Toyota and Honda have reported strong demand for the vehicles. Last week, Toyota said it would raise
the price of its Prius hybrid sedan by $300 or 1.5 percent, after increasing its targeted annual U.S. sales
volume to 47,000 last December from its previous target of 36,000.
Hybrids, however, remain only a small fraction of
UPCOMING HYBRIDS
overall U.S. sales, which are expected to total 16.7
million vehicles this year.
Still, demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles such
DaimlerChrysler as hybrids could grow if gas prices continue to
Late 2004: diesel-electric Dodge Ram steadily climb, J.D. Power and Associates, a
pickup with 15 percent mileage boost. California-based research group, said following a
Ford study of 7,126 consumers released this week.
Late summer 2004: Escape SUV, front- Toyota's Lexus RX 400h will usher in a new era of
wheel-drive version will double mileage hybrids that offer a racy ride without the guilt. The
to 35-40 mpg in city driving. RX 400h will accelerate from zero to 60 miles per
2007: Mercury Mariner SUV, no details hour in 7.5 seconds, about half a second faster than
yet on mileage. the RX 330 SUV, but will get more than six miles
General Motors per gallon better fuel economy.
Summer 2004: GMC Sierra and “When you talk to SUV buyers, the number one
Chevrolet Silverado pickups that increase dissatisfaction is fuel economy,” said Dennis
fuel economy 10-12 percent. Clements, a Lexus vice president. “So I think that
2006: Saturn Vue SUV, with 15 percent (RX 400h) will resonate. The luxury SUV business
mpg increase. continues to grow, quite dramatically.”
2007: Chevy Tahoe, GMC Yukon, up to
35 percent mpg boost. Chevrolet Malibu,
15 percent increase.
2008: Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra
pickups that get up to 35 percent mpg
increase.
Honda
Late 2004: Accord that company says
will deliver V6 performance with fuel
economy equivalent to a four-cylinder
Civic.
Toyota
Late 2004: Lexus RX 400h SUV, nearly
double mileage of comparable RX 330.
February 2005: Highlander SUV, no mpg
estimate but Toyota says it will travel 600
miles on tank of gas.
RELATED STORY
Diesels get another chance
Looking to hydrogen, fuel cells
Even as the popularity of hybrids grow, automakers have said gas-electric engines are a transitional
technology that will eventually be replaced by hydrogen-powered fuel cells that emit exhaust
containing nothing more toxic than pure water.
However, experts say the nation is at least a decade or two away from that, as the infrastructure
needed to fuel up with hydrogen is virtually nonexistent.
Ford, like others, is working on long-term research related to hydrogen-powered vehicles. The work
includes a Ford Focus with a hydrogen internal combustion engine and a hydrogen hybrid research
vehicle.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.