Posted on 07/06/2009 4:46:23 AM PDT by RangerM
In a recent op-ed piece published in The Wall Street Journal, Alan Reynolds of the Cato Institute starts by making a few decent points about fuel taxation and fuel economy rules. Unfortunately, he undermines himself with some blatant errors and misinformation. In discussing how Detroit automakers will deal with new fuel efficiency requirements, he makes the all-too-common mistake of referring to Ford's hybrid system as licensed from Toyota ("Similarly, Ford has the Toyota-licensed hybrid Fusion and will soon produce the European Ford Fiesta in Mexico").
The reality is that Ford independently developed its own hybrid system at the same time Toyota was masterminding its own. The basic architecture of both systems is the same and both are based on the concepts developed and patented by TRW engineers in the late 1960s. When Ford introduced the Escape Hybrid, Toyota went after the Blue Oval for infringing on its patents. Ford had patents of its own on the technology that Toyota was using. Eventually, the two companies reached a cross-licensing agreement that gives both companies the right to build their own systems. Such cross-licensing agreements are common in these kinds of cases, but Ford did not use the Toyota hybrid system. The only other company that uses Toyota's system is Nissan for its Altima hybrid, and they actually buy hardware from Toyota.
(Excerpt) Read more at autoblog.com ...
Call it "Corporate Welfare" done right.
This blog implies that the fleet average is a true weighted average based on volume. So, if the market decides it likes less fuel efficient cars than the manufacturer planned, couldn’t that change the fleet average?
hh
That’s where the taxes will kick in.
$4.00 gasoline should do it nicely, don’t you think?
It would not have hurt Ford’s reputation if they had told this story instead of waiting for a blog to do it. Anyone that wonders why republcians are so bad at their message to the voters need only look at Ford to see how bad really looks. Ford killed the #1 car name in America, the Taurus, in order to rename all their cars with the first letter being an F...that is their grade in business savy. then they brought it back after 2 years of 0 advertising - gee can anyone think of why Camry and Accord are at the top of the sales list. See republicans for equally stupid selling concepts.
The averages will probably be based on production, which means that the more popular lower milage cars will run out early in the year, and they will not make more of them.
Only one problem - Ford is known to have bought a license from Toyota for the HSS hybrid drive. And the Escape Hybrid was known to be using the Prius system. And then Ford announced this to the world.
Now, the Fusion may be using Ford’s own system (and almost certainly is, due to its greater efficiencies over the Camry’s system) - but the Escape, Ford’s first production hybrid, still uses the Prius system.
Then they distort the market to achieve the outcome they desire. Perhaps taxes on "bad" cars and tax credits for "good" ones. The gubmint will now pick the winners.
Also, the Taurus was NOT the number one car name in America at the time of its demise, having been destroyed by the Camry and Accord for the decade prior. At the time it was dropped, Taurus was synonymous with “crappy rental car that you would never buy for yourself in a million years”.
It does - but it is not a car, and more problematically for Ford’s bottom line the vast majority of F-150s are fleet sales of stripped models.
Erm... many are sold at a loss at end-of-year sales, you know.
So are the Hondas and Toyotas. Your point?
Few of those get sold at a 50% loss at EOY. Lots of left over fleet F-150s *are*.
Last year, the local Ford dealer had leftover MY07 F-150 fleet trucks going for $7995. And he had a lot of them.
Yea, right...lol.
“I’ll help Ford as much as I can, as the last free automaker. “
I think it is more helpful to Ford to be associated with Toyota technology than not.
I was told personally by a Ford engineer working on the Hybrid Escape that the Escape uses Toyota’s system (they attempted to develop their own, but anything that worked infringed on Toyota’s patents, so they had to license it.)
The article claims that Ford and Toyota both created a hybrid and that the Fusion uses Ford patents that toyota and ford settled via a joint aggreement. I had the same view as you that the Escape was a toyota power system and taht is why I said maybe Ford needs to do a better job of promotion IF THE ARTICLE IS CORRECT.
I disagree, if you are saying that all Toyotas are more reliable than all Fords.
I’ve owned two Toyotas (Corolla, Highlander)and one Ford (Ranger) in my life. I still own the Ford and one of the Toyotas (Highlander).
The Ford has actually been the most reliable of the three.
Again, as he explained in the article, Ford is not using the “Prius system.” They cross-licensed with Toyota because of the potential of patent infringement. This is done all the time in the software industry.
Ford developed the system for the Escape hybrid independently. They simply got the right to use what they developed without Toyota suing them. In return, Toyota gets to use some diesel and direct injection technology that Ford developed.
Now...whether the whole idea of hybrid technology makes any sense is another question. I believe it makes sense about 5% of the time (delivery vehicles, taxicabs, people who drive within urban centers all the time, etc.).
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