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Ford CEO on EV's: "No time Soon"

Discussion in 'EV (Electric Vehicle) Discussion' started by hill, Jun 6, 2010.

  1. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    Wow,

    D8 Video: Alan Mulally, Ford CEO, on Why Electric Cars Aren't Ready | D8 Conference | AllThingsD

    I thought only Bob Lutz could step on his own crank like that. Next time I hear the singing commercial, ". . . Have you driven a Ford ... Lately" the answer will be, "NO". I sold our 16mpg 4x4 Ford Exploader on June 2004 so we could buy the Prius. That's the best 4/5 passenger car any one had ... mpg wise. Not any more.
    ;)

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  2. FL_Prius_Driver

    FL_Prius_Driver Senior Member

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    I don't think he was that bad. I noticed that he instantly gravitated to the technical issues first, and then the sales issues second. I'm use to most CEOs having the "deer in the headlights look" when asked a question like that. That said, he really didn't answer the question asked, so that was irksome.
     
  3. evnow

    evnow Active Member

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    We don't want to hear about problems associated with BEV - we want to hear about solutions.

    <rant>Once upon a time Americans used to talk about solutions - now I only see pervasive pessimism and can't do attidtude. Only thing we are happy to do now is derivatives.</rant>
     
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  4. JimN

    JimN Let the games begin!

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    At least he knows his company's limitations. When they figure out how to keep their conventional vehichles from spontaneously combusting then they'll be ready to build an EV. They still have a long way to go to overcome:

    Found On Road Dead
    Fix Or Repair Daily
     
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    might be a savvy move, watch from the sidelines, see how things play out. jump in later if it looks profitable. too many technical issues yet. let's not count leaf eggs before they hatch, nissan hasn't proven anything yet.:)
     
  6. cycle11111

    cycle11111 New Member

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    Evasive is all I can say.

    Grab the gauntlet and run with it rather than being a chicken.
     
  7. evnow

    evnow Active Member

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    Isn't that the attitude that got Detroit into trouble in the first place ?

    BTW, Nissan says their next gen Leaf will have 200 mile range.
     
  8. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    Kind of sounds like GM, as they watched Toyota blaze an insurmountable lead with hybrids ... all the while pooh pooh'ing them too expensive ... too complex, and simply a marketing ploy ... then buying the hummer line up. Even so ... I wish Ford well, and hope this guy wakes up before it's too late.

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  9. Zythryn

    Zythryn Senior Member

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    I guess I will be purchasing a Ford 'no time soon'.
     
  10. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    I don't really care too much if Ford refuses to make electric cars. I don't trust Ford cars anyway. The only thing that annoys me is that when they go bankrupt because nobody can afford to pay the price of gas anymore and they've refused to move into building cars people can afford to drive, then the government will bail them out.

    The whole idea of the free market is supposed to be that if you are stupid you go out of business. When the government bails out all the big companies that could not compete, or that invested in the financial equivalent of Florida swamp land, it prevents the free market from doing what it does best: weed out the stupid and the inefficient and the companies that build useless crap.

    Marx said that capitalism would fail because of its internal contradictions. It may turn out that capitalism fails because the government won't let capitalism's own mechanisms eliminate companies like GM, Ford, and the big banks that invested stupidly.
     
  11. mwalsh

    mwalsh Member

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    We Irish have a name for people like these - Eejits! Sorry Ford, you're off of my list too.
     
  12. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    at least they have made an effort in the hybrid arena, more than i can say for a few dozen other auto companies. nissan was dragged in kicking and screaming, i'm not drinking their koolaid until it's in the showroom.;)
     
  13. evnow

    evnow Active Member

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    Yes - Nissan basically had to do something bold to break out. Though I'm not sure what the "koolaid" is - are you saying Nissan isn't really building Leafs or building factories to make EVs and batteries ?

    I'm actually surprised Ford is talking like this - afterall they have the Focus EV coming out in a couple of years. Recently I was invited to a focus group by Ford on EV - unfortunately couldn't make it.
     
  14. PaulRivers

    PaulRivers Member

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    You know, I watched that video twice, and I couldn't find any time that he actually said "No Time Soon".

    It's true that he had a kind of bumbling answer. And that it was basically "bla bla bla electric cars aren't ready for primetime bla bla bla".

    It's not encouraging that his answer was all like "Well after someone builds on the infrastructure, and the battery technology gets better, and everything is all set up, etc etc etc THEN Ford will be there".

    But at least he was familiar enough with some of the issues to list them off. His big mistake was really just that he didn't say "they're not ready because they're way to expensive right now" in the first place.

    At least Ford has made progress in the last several year - according to consumer reports the ford fusion is a really solid, reliable, and fuel efficient car. And it comes in a hybrid version, before anyone else jumped on board.

    It seems like Ford has made a lot of progress - not hard when they were at the bottom of the barrel to begin with (I'm reminded of something a friend of mine in high school said - "It's pretty easy to go from getting a D to getting a B, it's way way hard to go from getting A-'s to A's"). But still, at least they've made some improvements.

    Toyota is the only car company that's really carried the hybrid/electric car banner. Everyone else has been sorta second rate, but Ford was at least in the second rate hybrid category.

    Ford has made the Ford Escape hybrid for a long time. Not the best hybrid, but they've kept making it and selling it. Better than the latest Honda Insight, from the reviews at least. Recently they've made a Ford Fusion hybrid, which seems to be a pretty good car (consumer reports says it's very reliable and ranks it pretty high, at least).
     
  15. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    Too expensive you say. Um, the Excursion? ... it weighs over THREE TONS, and cost over $50,000. The bumbling ford CEO rambled about "heavy batteries". THREE TONS is heavey. THREE tons, so mom can go grocery shopping (shaking head) or pick up a pizza at shakies.

    THREE tons was also a way to defraud CARB, that would otherwise FINE auto manufacturers, if they make guzzler cars. But if it's over 3 tons ... CARB couldn't count 'em ... even though the monster guzzlers were most in need of being counted for average fuel economy. And ... if that' not enough irony ... many residential roads 'prohibit' vehicles if they're over 3 tons, because it breaks down the asphalt quicker. Ford's CEO doesn't seem too worried about that either. When's the last time you saw a cop pulling over a 3 ton Hummer, Escalade 4x4, Range Rover, or Excursion for THAT violation?

    Yep - no one worries that Range Rovers cost $90,000 ... but BOY! Look how much the industry wants to feed you what's wrong with EV's.

    ;)

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  16. PaulRivers

    PaulRivers Member

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    haha, well actually I don't disagree with you. :-D

    Was just trying to point out that nowadays, Ford totally makes like - 2 or 3 actually reliable and fuel efficient vehicles out of their entire fleet. ;-) And no matter what kind of things their CEO says, the company itself does actually make a couple of hybrids. And not cheap, craptastic ones like GM made (wow, a 2mpg increase! it's totally a hybrid!).
     
  17. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    He says batteries are too expensive, and he can't build EVs until they're cheaper. New technology is ALWAYS expensive. You build it first for use in applications where nothing else will work, or for people who are willing to pay more than the old technology costs. (Tesla Roadster: Faster than anything less than double it's price!) The economies of scale and advances in the technology bring prices down and eventually it reaches a price where it displaces the old technology.

    Companies that refuse to enter the opening market, narrow though it be at first, get left behind. I'll be happy to see the Big 3 get left behind.

    When people are building EVs in their garages, you KNOW the big companies could build them, and probably for half the cost.
     
  18. mwalsh

    mwalsh Member

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    You know, now I come to think of it...Ford has pretty much dropped off the radar when it comes to EV production, even for the Transit Connect version.
     
  19. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i'm simply saying that they havn't done anything yet except for a fairly poorly executed altima hybrid not sold everywhere. the proof is in the pudding, if/when the leaf is out, how it sells and how real world specs match anticipated. don't get me wrong, i want ev and i know we have to start somewhere. i'm just not sure ford is all wrong about this. and i'm not a ford suckup, but i do think they are doing a much better job than previously.
     
  20. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    Interesting that you'd judge the Altima hybrid (a VERY nice ride, btw) by its being poorly executed (meaning limited to sales in 8 states I presume?) . . . . um, how many states will Nissan begin selling the Leaf in?
    ;)
    sorry ... i couldn't resist
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