Report: Ford not rushing to offer diesel models in the U.S.

Ford has long been offering diesel passenger cars in Europe and diesel SUVs and pickups here in the US. Despite Ford’s efforts to globalize their car lineup, the Dearborn, Michigan make still doesn’t know if introducing diesel passenger cars will work out.

“I love diesels and want them to be a solution,” said US Ford’s director of Powertrain Research. “But it’s a tough economic challenge because turbodiesels typically add 10% to 15% to a vehicle’s cost, and diesel fuel currently runs about $0.20 higher than regular gasoline,” which I think is their way of saying that the oil companies are preventing diesel from being standardized in the US because that means less fill-ups for the drivers and that translates into less dough in the oil companies’ pockets.

Kapp said that Ford may offer diesel passenger cars in the US if there’s enough market demand and there should be since most Americans don’t know that 2/3rds of the world use diesel as the standard.

“Will customers pay more for a diesel? Will they get a payback?” he added. “Diesel fuel may continue to go up in price, so we’re looking at it. It may be that diesels will be a choice electric vehicles.”

Diesels would certainly help Ford reduce their overall Corporate Average Fuel Economy and would ease some of the trouble of reaching the US’s new CAFE mandate of 54.5mpg by 2025. However, Kapp also added that whether Ford will import diesels to the US is dependent on the technology.

– By: Chris Chin

Source: WardsAuto