EDITORIAL AND COMMENTARY WRITING

Ford and the Power of Choice

I started pondering the new Ford Fusion Hybrid today after reading the Hybrid Car Wars on Jalopnik. The car cognoscenti have been making hay of Ford's effort; it's definitely come as a surprise, not so much because it's a hybrid (Ford has had its Escape Hybrid for a few years now) but because as a car, it's really quite good. But Toyota has released a new Prius as well, timing the release to a good month or so after the Fusion was unveiled, and Honda has a new hybrid, the Insight, coming out as well, which looks like nothing more than an attempt to keep the old Prius popularity alive; it looks and is sized almost like a clone of the outgoing Prius, but undercuts the pricing by a few thousand dollars.

Pricing is one interesting element of the hybrid shootout. Obviously, Honda is aiming low, maybe even planning to sacrifice profit in the name of publicity. It wouldn't be a surprise...Honda admitted as much when the original Insight two-seater was released. That car was as much a science experiment as a usable car. Two seats, very aerodynamic (the rear wheels were faired in and not as far apart as the fronts), and pretty spartan, the original Insight soldiered on until a Civic Hybrid was released that gave the science experiment a more useful carlike wrapper. The new Insight could have been more distinctive looking...it could easily have been more like Honda's popular Fit, but it's almost defiantly Prius-esque. If it weren't for the sub-$20K price point, I'd see it as a massive blunder, but I think they're onto something.

Honda pulled a massive hybrid blunder before. The other really notable Honda hybrid was its Accord Hybrid, which traded the concept of max efficiency for performance. What Honda wrought was the most powerful Accord ever at that time, with a hybrid-boosted V-6 that put out a remarkable 255hp (more than the standard V6) while turning in slightly better fuel efficiency numbers than the four-cylinder version. It was also the most expensive Accord, loaded with features and technology, and by any standard, it was at best a lukewarm seller. I remember "greenies" blasting Honda for releasing a performance-oriented hybrid and wasting an opportunity to save the world or whatever. My guess is that between the price and the negative response from early adopters, it just wasn't ever going to be a winner, and it's surely why Honda has declined to hybridize the new Accord (which could certainly use the same concept of electric "boosting" to add some oomph to the modestly powered four-banger).

So what does this have to do with Ford and the Fusion Hybrid? I think a couple of things. First, Ford has clearly ceded the greenest part of the market to Toyota and Honda. Ford isn't even beginning to make a space-pod of a car wrapped around a hybrid powertrain...that's a statement vehicle, and everyone who watches the hybrid market knows that if you want to make your "Saving The World One Mile At A Time" statement, you're going to do it in a Prius. That's the power of several years of brand equity and celebrity endorsement, and I don't think it would do any good for Ford to try to fight the battle. Second, the lesson of the Accord Hybrid certainly hasn't gone unnoticed. And yet, here's the Fusion Hybrid priced a few thousand above the Prius and about $10K above the Insight. What gives?

Well, I think Ford has done something rather clever here. I've played with pricing the Fusion Hybrid and also non-hybrid Fusions, and here's the thing. If you equip a Fusion Hybrid and a V-6 powered Fusion essentially the same, option for option, the cost difference between the two is minimal...about $1000, maybe $1200, with the Hybrid coming in slightly higher. However, the difference is less than the federal tax credit for hybrid purchases, basically making the driveaway cost more or less a wash. So...same vehicles, same equipment, same cost...just pick your powertrain.

And that's where Ford has been clever. The company isn't asking its buyers to make sacrifices. They're not trying to put drivers into spacepods in order to drive green. They're providing us with a choice between decent (certainly adequate) power and high efficiency from the hybrid powertrain and a stouter, sporty V6 powerplant (which, it's worth noting, does pretty decent MPG numbers itself).

Personally, I'd never buy a Prius...I don't like how they look, I don't like how they drive, and I have issues with the whole Prius "scene". But given the option between a V6 Fusion and a hybrid Fusion with the same equipment and at the same price, I'd be hard pressed NOT to take the hybrid. If nothing else, it'd be an easy resell if six months from now, I realized it wasn't for me, but since Ford has been diligent to make sure that the platform has retained its "driver's car" characteristics, I would be surprised to find myself finding downsides. I think this is Ford's goal...to reach drivers who don't want the Prius "lifestyle/stigma/experience", who want a car that seems like a car, and it doesn't hurt that it's a domestic manufacturer in these days of embattled carmakers.

I do think (expect) that Ford has to remember that there are buyers who can't stretch to the upper $20s, and that there is something in the works to fill the lower echelon. A less-well equipped Fusion Hybrid for $22K or a Focus hybrid at $18K ought to be on the product planner's schedule, but Ford needn't telegraph that move too much in advance. They've got a solid year or so to market the hell out of the Fusion Hybrid, get the cars into dealerships and customers' hands (and dear God, please don't let the dealerships screw this up), and REALLY cement their position as the dominant American car maker.