Ann Arbor ? Ford Motor Co.'s chief operating officer said Monday the automaker is prepared to act quickly should there be a spike in demand for diesel-powered automobiles.
"If we see diesels start to take off here in the U.S., we can react very quickly," said Mark Fields, speaking to students and faculty at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. Fields attributed the flexibility to the fact Ford sells diesel-powered vehicles in other regions, particularly Europe, and Ford's global platform strategy.
Diesels made up just about 3 percent of retail passenger vehicle sales in the United States last year, up 25 percent, according to data from Edmunds.com. In Europe, diesel sales comprise about half of the overall new-car sales total.
Here in the United States, Ford offers diesel engines on its heavy duty pickups, but has not announced plans to add diesel engines on new products - aside from the all-new Transit commercial van - but other automakers appear to be taking a step toward more diesel-powered engines.
General Motors Co. last week debuted the new Chevrolet Cruze Clean Turbo Diesel compact car. Chrysler Group LLC will also offer a diesel variant of its Grand Cherokee SUV.
Fields said Ford will stick with its turbocharged EcoBoost engines as a source of fuel-efficiency gains.
"There's still a consumer bias, to a certain degree, against diesels," Fields said.
But if market demand rises for diesel-powered vehicles, which he said come at a $3,000 to $4,000 premium compared to gasoline-powered engines, Ford is in a favorable position because of its diesel-heavy European lineup.
Diesel is approximately 50 cents more expensive per gallon than gasoline here in the U.S., according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, but the Diesel Technology Forum predicts the number of diesel cars, SUVs and pickups will grow to 54 from 23 by 2017.
khenkel@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2504
Source: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130211/AUTO0102/302110431/1148/rss25
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