Featured As gas prices have dropped, so have owner's EV/hybrid loyalty

Yes, I've noticed a ton of both Range Rover and RX Lexus in the EU' which shure flies in the face of the average smaller cars over there. Around here it seems like over ½ the vehicles on the road are large cars. As to the Ford, except for the Teeny badge, it would really be hard to tell the hybrid from the standard Escape. You may have been staring one down, and never realized it.

 

The Ford Maverick (what they called the first-generation Escape in Europe) didn't get a hybrid option, just a 2.0 4-cylinder Zetec and a 3.0 V6 Duratec gas engine, it appears.

 

Aa-ha! Then they would have really really been hard to find.

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Not surprising that you didn't see one in Europe. It likely would have been an import, with that tarriff added on top of the price increase for the hybrid system. Such is more acceptable to buyers of luxury brands. Back then, and even now, Europe is a smaller market for hybrids. So servicing another market that would likely have limited sales, may not have been practical at the time. Then during the Escape hybrid's production run, Ford had supply issues for transaxles from Aisin, and maybe even for batteries. In hindsight, staying out of Europe may of avoided issues of even getting the SUV shipped there. We are experiencing the other side of that with the Outlander PHEV.

 

Ford Mondeo hybrid is not even advertised, selling badly.
The opposite is happening with Lexus/Toyota with increasing sales. Currently 80% of Lexus numbers is hybrid.

 

not even advertised, and selling badly ... who'da thunk.
EV1 DejaVu.
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But how do Ford to Lexus total sales numbers compare? Not to be a downer, but 80% of tiny is still tiny. Asia then North America are the big hybrid markets. Great that they are making strides in Europe, but outside of Japan, and maybe a couple other Asian countries, they are still a small segment of the market.

I see that the Mondeo is now built in the EU. Yet Ford's hybrid line up also includes what else there? We only have the C-max which would have an ICE and 7 seater model for direct comparison in Europe.

I'm sure you'll correct me, but don't the Ford diesels have a better reputation than Toyota's?

 

The other thing with the Mondeo hybrid is that it's a sedan - the difference between it and the Fusion hybrid is the badge.

Conversely, a normal Mondeo is actually a liftback (the only visual difference between the Mondeo and the Fusion is the rear wiper, mind you), and is far more useful for cargo.

 

Hatchbacks and wagons are just generally more favored over sedans as a rule in Europe.

 

Hold a bit your horses, or shoot slower.

Lexus here sells less than a tenth of Ford sales. None would expect to be otherwise, given the premium-brand-overseas-manufactured.
Ford here offers no other hybrids than Mondeo. Lexus offers all models in hybrid solution.

Diesel? Well, Ford shares its diesels with PSA (Peugeot Citroen) and sell a lot, and light commercial vehicles...but that does not mean better reputation. Taxi fleets here have as much Toyotas as Fords/Peugeot/Citroens, so I would say Toyota has reputation enough, most coming from Hilux/Land Cruisers good job. And recently Toyota asked for BMW diesel blocks 1.6 and 2.0, slowly driving away from this technology in passenger cars. Currently, diesels under Toyota seem "compliance cars", since they don't invest much in it, and I must agree.

 

Ford only offers the C-max in addition to the Fusion and Lincoln version in terms of hybrids, and Lexus, and perhaps Toyota, offer less hybrid options than what you get.

Ford just avoided bankruptcy a couple of years before the recession occurred. They couldn't afford to make the investment Toyota did in hybrids during those times. Because of the supply issues with Aisin, they shifted transaxle production in house for the gen2 Fusion. At the same time they switched to Li-ion. Likely because they couldn't beat Toyota on cost, and concerns of supply issues.

Then Toyota has far more hybrid options. So it shouldn't be a surprise their hybrid sales are growing faster. While Europe hybrid sales are growing, they are still a fraction compared to North American hybrid sales.That could be why Ford doesn't advertise the Mondeo hybrid. i could also be because they think the dedicated hybrid that will likely replace the C-max hybrid here, will be a better fit for Europe, and they rather focus resources on it.

I ask because back when Ford needed to get access to a tenth of the Prius patents, part of the deal was a patent swap. reports were Toyota got a hold of some diesel and emission control patents that they had wanted from Ford. With toyota's current partnership with BMW for FCEV, it is probably easier to use BMW diesel, though there are reports that they will be making use of some SkyActiv technologies too.

 

Bankrupcy was a sign of bad investments done earlier, like Volvo-adventure.
I have never heard of Aisin supply issues as being a reason to Ford shift production, many of the other conventional transmissions were from Aisin...doesn't match, does it?...maybe other causes came along, like yen currency...

There is always some reason for every manufacturer to explain the hybrid defeat You name it.

 

I'll NEVER buy a battery powered power drill. Think it's sad that corded tools are becoming a rarity.

 

I think it's because people like the portability of them. Don't have to lug around a heavy cord in areas that may not have power yet, or the workspace may be a little cramped.

Sure, they're more expensive, but people will pay for convenience.

There's also news that gas prices are slowly creeping back up due to slowly increasing demand combined with supply gradually diminishing.

My guess is we're not going to see $4 a gallon widespread in the US despite this news, short of a war breaking out in Middle East countries with high oil production, demand surging wildly worldwide, several refineries going down simultaneously, or enough N. American oil producers are knocked out before the end of this year.

But many OPEC countries are also hurting badly economically speaking, so it'll definitely be an interesting to see who "blinks" first.

But would higher gas prices suddenly cause a surge of interest in hybrids and plug-ins again?

Gasoline demand rises in U.S., China, and India; more growth expected

 

The why of the bankruptcy was in the past, but those specifics doesn't the fact that it had an effect of Ford's ability to invest in products like hybrids.

Ford Concerned About Reliability of Its Hybrid Parts Suppliers - EVWORLD.COM
"Ford suspects it may be getting squeezed out by its Japanese rivals. With the fall launch of the gas-electric Mercury Mariner, Ford is tripling its hybrid SUV lineup over three years. But its transmission supplier, Aisin Seiki Co. Ltd., can boost deliveries by only 20 percent, to 24,000 transmissions annually.
...
Analysts say it's not surprising to see bottlenecks in the supply chain: Hybrid technology is new and costly, demand is surging, and the number of automakers that want to offer gas-electric cars is growing.

"The pitfall of non-Japanese automakers making these kinds of deals for component technology that isn't widely used is the lack of capacity," said Lindsay Brooke, an auto analyst at CSM Worldwide, a Farmington Hills forecasting firm.

"There's a small universe of suppliers of key hybrid components, and many have keiretsu relationships with Honda and Toyota," he said, referring to the Japanese networks of affiliated companies.

Because Toyota and Honda were the first to develop hybrids, "they were able to assign capacity to component suppliers like Aisin, Panasonic and Sanyo," he said. "They're going to get served first." Currently, Aisin is the only supplier offering hybrid transmissions -- and it will soon be adding Nissan Motor Co. to its list of customers."

The Escape hybrid was a popular model, and many were surprised Ford canceled it with the gen3 Escape. The claim was that those wanting a hybrid would be happier with the better fuel economy of the C-max, and those wanting AWD would be happy with the fuel economy of the new Ecoboost engine. I suspect Ford may not have wanted to risk in house supply problems.

On another tangent, "The two automakers struck an accord last year that included anexchange of patents: Toyota gave Ford license to use some of its hybrid technology, and Ford gave the Japanese automaker diesel and direct-injection engine technology."

 

really? i couldn't go back to corded tools after trying cordless. sure, if i need to drill hundreds of holes through quarter inch steel...

 

I have both. It is hard to beat a battery drill for a quick project and driving in a few screws.
And it is hard to beat a corded drill for some heavy duty drilling.

I use the battery device ~95% of the time

 

Our wives are taking notes.

Bob Wilson

 

don't use the corded in the bathtub.

 

I wonder if your battery chargers are cordless...