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Bill Ford says carsharing helps Ford, EVs need to be clean

To most people, Bill Ford is most famous for being the great-grandson of Henry Ford. But, as the executive chairman of Ford Motor Company, Ford has also been leading the company into greener and greener territory. At the morning plenary session for the 21st World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in Detroit today, Ford discussed a wide variety of topics, including connected cars (of course), plug-in vehicle and how Ford's collaboration with Zipcar came about because of he liked what the Zipcar CEO was excited about getting cars off the road. Given that the conference has a big focus on communication between cars this year, it's no surprise that Ford talked about his company's work on that front. He's looking at the long term, though, and says that despite announcements like the one General Motors made yesterday about Super Cruise, when fully autonomous vehicles get here, it won't be headline news since the ground work is being laid by technologies coming to cars in bits and pieces now. In other words, your adaptive cruise control is getting ready for bigger and better things. "My fear is that we electrify the fleet and our impact is not what it could be." – Bill Ford On the zero-emission vehicle front, Ford said that while he's in favor of electric vehicles, "My fear is that we electrify the fleet and our impact is not what it could be." He was discussing the emissions reality of coal-powered electricity, and said that, "We've got to have a national discussion about what we want our grid to look like." As for the work that Ford is doing with Zipcar (which is just one of the many automaker carsharing operations out there today), Ford said that he first approached Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith after hearing Griffith talk at a green conference four or five years ago. Griffith was surprised, Ford said, because he had just given a talk about ways to reduce car ownership. "Did you hear my speech? I talked about taking cars off the road," Ford remembers Griffith saying. "Yeah, and what's going to happen without us," Ford responded. Today, the partnership allows Ford to get cars to people that have traditionally been "hard to reach," like college students on campuses. Ford's vehicles are currently available on 250 colleges campuses. Ford then spoke favorably about other challenges to the traditional car ownership model, like Lyft and Relay Rides. "Rather than being frightened by that, we need embrace it and help makes their companies better," he said.

Ford cuts F-150 fuel use through CNG-capable fleet sales, EcoBoost

The possibility of $1-a-gallon fuel would make a lot of US governmental entities sit up and take notice. The state of Oklahoma and the city of Dallas are making that happen. Those two entities are buying up a bunch of Ford F-150 pickups retrofitted to run on compressed natural gas (CNG), all in the name of cost savings and emissions reduction. Oklahoma is buying 256 of the F-150s, while Dallas is buying another 65. The trucks, which cost between $6,000 and $9,500 to retrofit (on top of the original price), can run on either CNG or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). And while that's a substantial hit, conversion costs are typically paid back in three years thanks to lower refueling costs. CNG prices are as low as $1.07 a gallon in parts of Oklahoma. How much lower? The national average price for CNG is about a buck and a half less than the $3.67 average per-gallon cost of gasoline. And CNG prices are as low as $1.07 a gallon in parts of Oklahoma, where CNG is plentiful. CNG also cuts tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions by about 20 percent compared with gasoline, while the retrofitted trucks can go as far as 450 miles from their CNG tanks in addition to the 300-mile range from their conventional tanks. That's useful in a bit state like Texas. This week, the US Energy Department trumpeted a $5.9-billion loan program that Ford accessed to upgrade its factories for production of its EcoBoost engines, noting that Ford has sold a half-million F-150 trucks with EcoBoost engines. Those trucks have collectively cut fuel use by almost 57 million gallons of gas during the past three-plus years. Check out Ford's press release on the F-150 purchases below and the Energy Department's statement about its loan program here. OKLAHOMA, DALLAS ORDER 300-PLUS CNG-CAPABLE FORD F-150 PICKUPS AS DEMAND GROWS FOR ALTERNATIVE FUEL OPTION The state of Oklahoma and its agencies to buy 256 Ford F-150 trucks prepped to run on compressed natural gas; Dallas orders 65 for its fleet 2014 F-150 available with gaseous-fuel prep option on 3.7-liter V6 engine; can run on CNG or liquefied petroleum gas (also called propane autogas) By summer, Ford will offer eight vehicles that can run on clean-burning, affordable CNG; the company is on track to sell more than 15,000 such vehicles in 2014 The state of Oklahoma, its agencies and the city of Dallas have ordered a total of 321 Ford F-150 pickups that can run on compressed natural gas.

Enterprise customer billed $47k for Mustang stolen from rental lot

A weekend rental of a Ford Mustang GT Convertible sounds like a nice, relaxing way to burn some gas, but one Nova Scotia woman's two-day rental is turning into a months-long headache. In early October, Kristen Cockerill picked up the Mustang from Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and she returned it the following day as stipulated by the rental contract. Unfortunately, she dropped the car off on a Sunday - a day on which the particular Enterprise office is closed - and the car ended up being stolen overnight.
Now, two months later, CBC reports that Cockerill received a bill from Enterprise for the full replacement of the car totaling $47,271 (a base 2014 Mustang GT Convertible currently costs $40,349 in Canada). As it turns out, the fine print in the contract says that the renter is responsible for cars dropped off after hours until it can be inspected the next business day - this is also reflected on the key drop seen in the news report video, which states "vehicles returned after hours are the responsibility of the renter until inspected on the next business day."
It's not clear how much, if any, of that amount Cockerhill will be responsible for once her insurance company gets involved, but if the insurance company refuses to pay, Enterprise will bill the amount to the credit card she provided during her rental. While this ordeal is far over for Cockerhill, it's a good reminder for the rest of us to always read the fine print.