Ford Motor’s head reportedly put a positive spin on higher US petrol prices on Thursday, even though they could hurt sales of some of the fuel-hogging vehicles that generate much of its automotive profits in North America.
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Ford chairman and chief executive Bill Ford Jr., who has advocated higher US petrol taxes in the past, told the company’s annual shareholder meeting that surging pump prices could change the tastes of US car buyers and help drive the country toward a more fuel-efficient future, according to Reuters.
The news agency said Ford had been asked what he was doing to improve what he readily acknowledged to be the poor average fuel economy of his company’s current US vehicle fleet.
“We’re in the business of giving customers what satisfies their demands,” he reportedly said.
Until recently, he said according to Reuters, because of “very cheap gasoline” in the United States, what customers were saying was: “We want bigger engines and we want bigger vehicles.”
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By GlobalDataIn Ford’s case, as with other Detroit carmakers, satisfying that demand has meant a disproportionate dependence on sales of big sport utility vehicles and full-size pickups, the report noted.
Now, however, as Ford reportedly told one environmental activist who questioned him at the meeting, petrol prices could “help drive customer behaviour the way you’d like to see it.”
“In the rest of the world you don’t have this disconnect as much,” Ford reportedly said, speaking of the clash between consumer preferences and a society’s overall environmental goals.
“In Europe where gasoline prices are very high you have a CO2 reduction path that is coming down quite nicely,” Reuters quoted Ford saying, referring to carbon dioxide emissions.
“It’s because there’s a convergence of pocketbook [wallet] issues with society issues,” he reportedly added, saying the same thing may soon prove true in the United States.
If it does, he added according to Reuters, cleaner-burning vehicles will be not just a social imperative, but also “a business opportunity.”
The news agency said Ford, who has sometimes been criticised as an unfaithful ally of the US environmental movement, said the company founded by his great grandfather was already spending more than half of its research and development money on environmental issues.
He did not elaborate, but said the company was “pouring enormous resources” into the development of petrol-electric hybrid vehicles and other alternate fuel vehicles as it prepares to help lead the way toward a greener US vehicle industry, Reuters added.
