The Car Connection

Ford Set to Dump Excursion

 

By Joseph Szczesny,

For The Car Connection, 7-30-05

 

Ford Motor Co. is preparing to halt production of the oversized Excursion sport-utility vehicle at the end of September.

 

George Pipas, Ford spokesman, said the automaker had been planning to phase out production of the Excursion, and that it wasn't exactly "new" news. The final shutdown had been in the works for sometime, though Ford didn't pin down the final date for the last Excursion to roll down the assembly line until recently, he acknowledged.

 

Sales of the Excursion actually peaked its first year in showrooms back in 2000 when Ford sold 50,786 of the giant SUVs. Sales have steadily declined since then, Pipas said. So far this year, Ford has sold 7572 Excursions through the end of June, he added. In 2004, Ford sold 20,010 Excursions.

 

Ford officials set the last day of production for the Excursion at the Kentucky truck plant near Louisville for September 30.

 

A report in the Detroit News, meanwhile, suggested that Ford is looking at replacing the Excursion with the stretched version of the Ford Expedition. Dubbed the Expedition Max, the stretched version would be about 16 inches longer than the standard Expedition and could go into production next as a '07 model only about six months after Chevrolet launches a new Suburban, the News reported.

 

Overhaul For CAFE Standards Coming

 

Meanwhile, the fuel economy performance standards for pickups, SUVs and minivans are expected to undergo a major overhaul by the Bush administration starting next month. Dale Kardos of Dale Kardos & Associates, who keeps track of legislative and regulatory matters in Washington D.C., said everyone in the auto industry is waiting for the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) to publish the details of the changes.

 

The plan could be so complex that he would not be surprised if the Big Three decided to oppose and it and wind up advocating a continuation of the current CAFE system, he said

The Bush administration's proposals already are drawing heavy fire from environmentalists who fear that the new rules could prompt domestic carmakers such as General Motors and Ford to abandon small-car segments, while giving them a break on the fuel economy of heavier vehicles such as SUVs and pickup trucks.

The National Resources Defense Council noted in a statement attacking the administration's proposals sight unseen, that the administration's plan is unnecessarily complex.  "While details remain vague, most observers say it will involve complex new vehicle classification schemes. It will be easy to get lost in the details."

 

Roland Hwang, the NRDC's chief auto analyst, said lost in the complexity will be the issue of the whether the rules actually force automakers to improve fuel economy and reduce American's dependence on foreign oil.

 

"Ignoring this challenge puts the country at grave risk on multiple fronts -- economic, security, and environmental. Automakers have cost-effective technology right now that could easily save at least one million barrels of oil a day if they were used more widely," said Hwang. "That is the minimum benchmark for any new performance standard," Hwang said.

 

The Bush administration proposal is expected to offer a new series of weight- or size-based vehicle categories in place of today's single light truck classification, making it harder to draw apples-to-apples comparison with current rules, Hwang said. Without safeguards, this could also give carmakers a perverse incentive to bulk up their vehicles to push them into a higher class with weaker performance standards. NRDC will be watching this closely, and providing a detailed assessment as soon as the rules are publishes, he added.

Hwang said the best solution would be to raising gas mileage standards for SUVs and other light trucks by 1 mpg per year for five years-to 27.2 mpg by 2012. America would save one million barrels of oil per day by 2020, according to NRDC, with such a plan.
 

"Passenger vehicles consume 40 percent of the oil we use-a staggering eight million barrels per day. If no action is taken to improve performance, that consumption will balloon to nearly 12 million barrels a day by 2020," Hwang noted.

 

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