DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford Motor Co. plans to offer a full line of vehicles, including trucks and sport utility vehicles, in 2020 despite tougher federal fuel-economy regulations likely to take effect that year, chief executive Alan Mulally said Monday.
“Our commitment is to improve the fuel efficiency of all the vehicles no matter what the size,” Mulally said after signing a new four-year contract with the United Auto Workers.
The auto industry’s fleet of new cars, sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and vans will have to average 35 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving by 2020, according to the agreement that congressional negotiators announced late Friday.
That compares with the 2008 requirement of 27.5 mpg average for cars and 22.5 mpg for light trucks. It would be the first increase ordered by Congress in three decades.
The commitment may be difficult for Ford, which doesn’t have a single vehicle in its 2008 model year lineup that meets the new standards.
Its most efficient vehicles, the Escape and Mercury Mariner hybrid sport utility vehicles, get 32 mpg in combined city/highway driving. And the company has many truck-based vehicles that get relatively poor mileage. A V-8 powered Expedition large SUV, for example, gets 12 mpg in the city and 18 on the highway.
“I think it’ll be a challenge for them. But it’s not impossible,” said Bruce Belzowski with the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute.
