Ford Wants To Out-Hybrid Toyota. It Will Be Tough Slogging
Ford is “seeking to challenge Toyota Motor Corp.’s dominance in gasoline-electric vehicles,” says Bloomberg.
According to the report, Ford “has rolled out the new C-Max hybrids and electric versions of its redesigned Fusion sedan in the past year to take on Toyota, which has dominated with its Prius hybrids since the early 2000s.” Some say, Ford already subjugated Toyota.
Ford left Toyota in the dust, says Seekingalpha, which reports that in April, Ford delivered “35,034 Fusion hybrids compared to the 3,257 Camry and 19,889 Prius hybrids Toyota moved. “ That of course is complete baloney.
U.S. Hybrid sales for April 2013MfrModelAprilYTDShareFordFusion Hybrid3,62513,8918.47%FordC-Max Hybrid3,19711,7087.47%LincolnMKZ8841,6072.07%Total Ford7,70627,20618.01%LexusES Hybrid1,2375,2762.89%LexusCT200h1,1714,4162.74%LexusRX 400 / 450 h6883,1131.61%LexusGS 450h341620.08%LexusLS 600h15630.04%LexusHS 250h020.00%ToyotaPrius Liftback12,43247,41329.04%ToyotaPrius C3,48613,3518.14%ToyotaPrius V3,37211,8977.88%ToyotaCamry Hybrid3,25715,6917.61%ToyotaAvalon Hybrid1,4235,4403.32%ToyotaHighlander Hybrid4951,8651.16%Total Toyota 27,610108,68964.51%Nobody keeps better track of hybrid sales than our sister publication Hybridcars, which runs a monthly report. According to Hybridcar’s tally, Ford is far away from taking on Toyota. However, sales of Ford’s Fusion hybrid are up, whereas Toyota’s hybrid sales are mostly down.
Toyota’s Americas chief Jim Lentz blamed falling U.S. gasoline prices and said last month that Toyota may not reach its U.S. sales target for Prius hybrids of about 250,000 this year.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Ford had better figure out how to fix their failed hybrids. With terrible MPG figures that are FAR below the printed figures, people are going to catch on quickly that Ford Hybrids are garbage. The last generation Fusion had NO PROBLEM meeting the fuel economy figured printed on the sticker. So Ford is clearly pencil whipping the figures for their new Hybrid appliances.
Ford has always been spotty in their supply of hybrids to their dealers. It has improved somewhat. Until the current generation of Ford Fusion hybrids, whenever I went to a Ford dealer to look at cars, the dealer either had no Fusion hybrid in stock or one. Usually that one would be equipped to the max and $10k higher than the basic model. Lately the dealers seem to have 1 or two of the C-Max Hybrids and 1-2 of the C-Max Energi (plugin) with similar inventory for their Fusion counterparts. I had to special order my C-Max. It took 2 months to come in but I got exactly what I wanted. It helps that the C-Max is made in the US. I kind of chuckle when I see the C-Max being compared to the Prius-V. Although Ford says the C-Max has 24.5 cubic feet of storage behind the back row, you can only use about half of that if you want to see out the back window or if you don't want missiles flying toward your head when you stop suddenly. The Prius V probably has double the usable cargo space as the C-max. The C-Max is much closer to the regular Prius hatchback in cargo space. The Prius V and the C-Max are very close in passenger space. By all reports though,the C-Max is much quieter than the Prius-V and much quicker. Even if the Prius-V gets better mileage than the C-Max, the difference is less than one tank of gas per year. In terms of performance, the C-Max compares most closely to the, popularly-priced hybrid sedans. The C-Max has roughly the same passenger space as the Fusion Hybrid, Camry Hybrid and Sonata Hybrid. It has similar or slightly superior cargo space as these sedans with the back seat up. The C-Max delivers comparable performance and fuel economy as these sedans. Similarly equipped though, the C-Max is likely to be a couple grand cheaper than the hybrid sedans. Ford has hidden a lot of technology in the C-Max including active noise reduction (ala the Honda Odyssey)and anti-roll and anti-yaw control. Like the Chevrolet Cruze Eco, the C-Max uses active grill shutters to block off airflow when it is not needed for the engine. Supposedly the cruise control on the C-Max will reference GPS data to plan throttle settings for upcoming grade changes.
Autoweek 5/1/13 CMax 31.8 mpg average http://www.autoweek.com/article/20130501/CARREVIEWS/130429799
Hybrid buyers actually care about MPG. So if Ford is fudging numbers, they'll avoid the product. Toyota's hybrids deliver the goods and have a stellar reputation for durability, so Ford really has an uphill battle.