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348 comments on DrumBeat: July 24, 2008

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Gwydion on July 24, 2008 - 9:23am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

The company also announced that it will bring six European small-car models to North America by the end of 2012 as it deals with a market shift from trucks to cars brought on by high gasoline prices.

It's almost as if they read theoildrum.com. :) Now let's see if they survive until 2012, I guess they will. Incidentally, I was examining a late model Ford Fiesta yesterday before dinner (I'm in Munich right now) and my thought was that it was a very good looking car. Quite stylish, it was reminiscent more of a Honda than a Ford. I bet it will sell decently well here barring that things do not return to the former era of cheap oil.

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Will on July 24, 2008 - 10:13am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Too little, too late. Figure on $200/barrel oil or more. Figure on Mitsubishi (and others) marketing EVs with 100 mile ranges.

Who's going to invest in gasoline/diesel when they can get good EV?
Between now and 2012... they have NOTHING.

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aangel on July 24, 2008 - 12:07pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Given that Toyota is apparently having difficulty meeting demand for batteries for their Prius, don't you think batteries in general may be an issue and that many people will be forced to choose a high-mileage ICE vehicle as their second choice?

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vtpeaknik on July 24, 2008 - 2:46pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

People "underwater" on their gas guzzler and in debt to their utilities will not buy any new car.

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aangel on July 24, 2008 - 3:34pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

That, too.

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Datamunger on July 24, 2008 - 11:16am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Nothing makes the point clearer than this chart from the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-autosales.html?mod=mdc_h_ec...

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Nawaralsaadi on July 24, 2008 - 2:58pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Oil down $20 bucks from the high, and CNBC hosts today talking about buying SUVs, one of them had her husband buying a minivan today, and the other wanted to buy an SUV because they were getting so cheap…

I guess a lot of people still think that the climb in oil prices is a just a blip, and all will be fine in a couple of years with technology and the artic oil reserves! …

The reality of peak oil remains illusive to the absolute majority of the people, and oil prices have a long way to go before people “never ever” think of buying an SUV!!!..

Regards,
Nawar

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jteehan on July 24, 2008 - 5:30pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I still cannot help but think the 3,566,138 trucks and SUVs are going to seriously be offset by 100,000 Prius's. Even if you include the 200 to date that have plugs.

It still looks like denial to me, at least for the 2,017,941 driving brand new SUVs. Those guzzlers are going to be guzzling for the next 20 years.

Nice graph, though. Thanks.

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Datamunger on July 24, 2008 - 12:02pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

This entry at AutoBlogGreen gives some more details on Ford's plans:

Ford to retool 3 truck plants for small cars starting in December

Starting in December of this year, three truck plants will be retooled so that they can build cars instead. In addition six new models will be coming over from the European lineup and Mercury will live on. Like other automakers Ford will be consolidating production of large trucks into fewer plants..... The Michigan plant will retool to build to build a vehicle based on the European Focus platform. As previously announced the Cuautitlan Assembly Plant in Mexico will shift from building F-series pickups to the new Fiesta at the end of next year. A second plant in Louisville that currently builds Explorers will switch over to building Focus based vehicles as well.

The European Fiesta ECOnetic (which I mentioned a couple of days back) gets 75mpg on highways according to the EU test cycle. Hopefully that's what will be built in Mexico.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4330#comment-383619

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348 comments on DrumBeat: July 24, 2008

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