Ford wants a new mileage standard

Life accordingly to Ford Motors

 

Which reminds me of that old saying...
If you can't lower the river you raise the bridge

 

Virginia and Washington state legislators are not tuning out to the Ford claims of 47 MPG. They are acting to penalize hybrid owners. Maybe if Ford had been more forthcoming that they were not getting 47 MPG maybe we wouldn't have the legislative panic.

 

Spin!!! the previous version of the Fusion hybrid did fine with the old(current) epa standard.

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46762.

 

I'm still waiting to hear why the c-max numbers are so far off from EPA.

 

^^^ Oh Sergio said what I am worried about, Ford politically active manipulating legislators. Call me paranoid, but I even wonder if Ford is behind the scenes lobbying for the hybrid fees. They are on my list of suspects, but admittedly some of my suspects may turn out to be be innocent.

 

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Soon or later, this matter will have to be addressed just as Hyundai/Kia did. But, does Ford really believe it's a problem for all hybrids? or do we need to change the test procedure even though it's working for everyone else just fine?

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C-Max Hybrid on Fuelly​

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DailyTech - Ford C-Max Hybrid Fuel Economy Fails to Meet Promises in Another Test
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I suspect Ford knows exactly what it is doing with the numbers.

 

So far the only thing accomplished is controversy.....

 

Thanks for the insight. Ford's prior hybrid cars did not have this problem. Did Ford change it's procedure for the C-max ?

 

That is contrary to what the EPA, and many magazines have said. EPA says that the prius and civic hybrid are the cars were the biggest complained about cars on the test. The tests, at least according to the epa may give hybrids an advantage in the city test. These new fords also get an advantage on the highway test. I would be careful about self selected data, but we can see where drivers also try hyper miling like in prii, and report, efficient gas and diesel cars get higher self selection

Compare Side-by-Side
Note that non-hybrid civic owners reported 6 more mpg than epa, the jetta tdi a crazy 11 mpg, and the prius owners slightly less. This doesn't prove anything but.... it may mean a couple of things. People reporting mileage to websites, don't drive like the epa. YMMV. Still the epa test are much better than european and the japanese tests. They may need some significant changes though.

Are you saying toyota wanted 50 and gave the epa numbers to hit it exactly? I doubt that, I think they tried to get 50 and had the epa rules when designing the gen III.

 

Cleanmpg.com puts the C-Max hybrid real mileage at: 41/37/39 mpgUS city/highway/combined.

 

I think cleanmpg does an excellent job testing cars, and giving insights to best possible hyper miling results. I would call it a fairly unbiased comparison number to the other hybrid's epa figures and a good correction for highway mpg, but 41 still seems optimistic compared to diesels in the city. Car and driver also has looked into the situation a great deal. I would keep Consumer reports away from the EPA on devising any new procedures, they seem to have it in for hybrids in the way they test, claiming no bias, but the testers clearly show it.

Interesting read on the epa tests if you never have seen them. This is from 2009 before the ford ecoboost and hybrid spats with
Measuring Fuel Economy

 

It seems clear that if you are about to be caught fudging the old test, it is time to distract as many folks as you can with calls for a new test.

 

I don't think ford thinks is will get caught cheating. If it did, it likely would have changed mpg figures by now. Hyundai that was caught cheating, was fined, but it seems to have not hurt sales.

It is likely the EPA has suggested this, and Ford is announcing this to have influence on the new tests. Look back a month. This is better from a public policy point of view.
EPA evaluating how it rates gas mileage for hybrids

Ford also has a public relations problem and customer relations problem. They have been advertising the epa mileage claims, even after the controversy started. That seems like a blunder on multiple fronts.
Ford Amasses Driver Data to Improve on Mileage Ratings - Bloomberg
Changes in comunication could help on both fronts. From a crm point of view though, they need to handle complaints like those from acdii much better. IMHO ford has a lot of work to do on that front, although it does seem to designing cars people want to buy.

 

^^^In our market, right now Ford is pushing pretty hard on the CMax @47 MPG is better than Prius v add.

 

The Bloomberg piece said they were going to stop and go with best in class. It is incredibly inept to continue advertising 47 mpg.