Ford's Mulally won't set fuel-saving deadlines
LOS ANGELES -- Hoping to march Ford Motor f onto the future-fuels stage, Ford CEO Alan Mulally provided a broad outline here Wednesday of the automaker's plans to cut petroleum use and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Hoping to march Ford Motor f onto the future-fuels stage, Ford CEO Alan Mulally provided a broad outline here Wednesday of the automaker's plans to cut petroleum use and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
He provided few specifics or timetables, however, and an outline provided by Ford mainly dealt with what the car company already has done to boost mileage, rather than laying out a timeline for the future.
In the keynote speech, Mulally told reporters here for the annual Los Angeles Auto Show that it is "absolutely" wrong to set deadlines. "It's about managing expectations," he said. "Through the years we sometimes didn't deliver" on promises for mileage improvements and pollution reductions.
He did note that Ford's plan would include both gasoline- and diesel-electric hybrids, the latter unknown in the U.S. personal-transportation market currently. Hybrids save fuel and cut CO2 emissions because they rely on electric power part of the time. Diesel engines get 20% to 40% better fuel economy than similar-size gasoline engines.
And he emphasized a basketful of fuel-saving technologies for internal combustion engines, including direct injection, which Audi and General Motors gm are using. It allows an engine to be tuned for higher performance while using less fuel.
Ford also plans to boost its use of turbochargers, a tactic widely employed in the 1980s to save fuel. Ford says smaller-displacement, turbocharged, gasoline engines are "the cornerstone of Ford's near-term plan" to save fuel and cut emissions. The automaker promises the new engines will cut fuel use 10% to 20% without cutting performance.
Turbochargers can boost power quickly when needed but don't hurt mileage when not in use, such as when the driver isn't pressing hard on the throttle pedal.
Ford didn't spell out the fuel needs of its turbo engines, but automakers usually recommend using premium gasoline. Premium averages about $3.42 a gallon today nationwide, according to AAA's daily fuel price update. Regular is about 31 cents a gallon cheaper, at $3.11, AAA says.
Mulally also promised to use diesel engines and other technology to improve the fuel economy of its popular but fuel-thirsty F-150 pickups, which are the best-selling vehicles in the U.S. "We're going to keep improving the fuel efficiency of those wonderful vehicles every year, forever," he declared
In a separate session with journalists, Mulally said he doesn't expect Ford to begin selling hydrogen fuel cell cars soon, even though several rival automakers have announced aggressive plans to get the petroleum-free, pollution-free vehicles into showrooms in the next few years.
"I think it will take awhile before we see commercialization of fuel cells," he said, forecasting "10 years or more."
Honda says it will begin leasing as many as 100 of its FCX Clarity, a sleek compact sedan powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, early next summer in this area. Public hydrogen filling stations are available here and Honda plans to set up a service facility here for the cars. The lease rate will be $600 a month for three years. Honda hasn't laid out its plans beyond that.
General Motors is beginning to distribute about 100 Chevrolet Equinox SUVs modified to run on fuel cells to drivers for three-month stints, and hopes to have a purpose-built fuel cell car in showrooms by 2011.
Hyundai says it will start selling fuel cell vehicles in the U.S. as soon as 2012, and no later than 2015.
Mulally dismissed small-scale efforts as ineffective. "It's not about a production run of a particular vehicle," he said. "It's not hundreds or thousands, but millions" to make a difference in petroleum use and the emission of greenhouse gasses such as CO2.
A much-discussed technology tied to the success of future fuels is the lithium-ion battery pack. It stores more energy in less space than other batteries. Mulally said those batteries aren't fully developed and are volatile, making it unlikely they could soon be employed in a fuel cell vehicle, a gasoline-electric hybrid or an electric vehicle.
But Ed Peper, general manager of GM's Chevrolet brand, said in an interview, "We're comfortable about using them" in the Chevy Volt, an electric vehicle scheduled for production in 2010. Volt promises up to 40 miles before its batteries need to be recharged via a conventional 115-volt outlet or the small gasoline engine in the car, which only comes on to charge the batteries. The gasoline engine doesn't power the car.
Peper said that Volt's expected 40-mile range is enough to cover 80% of Americans' daily commutes.
While acknowledging that lithium-ion batteries "are still emerging," Peper said they aren't as risky as portrayed. "You don't know who is promoting the backlash on lithium-ion. Is it a competitor who doesn't have it? Is it oil companies who see it as a threat? We're feeling comfortable" that lithium-ion batteries will be reliable, he said.
The batteries are developed enough to go into mass production, according to Mary Ann Wright, in charge of hybrid systems for Johnson Controls, a major supplier to the auto industry. Wright is CEO of a joint venture between Johnson Controls and French battery maker Saft Advanced Power Solutions, and she previously was in charge of the Ford Escape hybrid program.
Wright says a factory that's being completed in Nersac, France will be able to mass-produce lithium ion batteries beginning in January. Mercedes-Benz has announced a contract with the factory for lithium-ion batteries for a hybrid S-class car. Johnson Controls says it has other contracts, but the automakers involved have not yet announced them.