Ford cuts fuel economy ratings for six vehicles
Automaker blames anomaly in testing
DETROIT – Ford Motor Co. has lowered fuel economy ratings for six of its vehicles, mostly hybrids, and will reimburse about 215,000 customers after the automaker applied test data incorrectly.
This is the second time in the past year Ford has had to lower mileage figures on some models, a setback to its reputation as a leader in fuel economy.
Affected are most 2014 Ford Fiestas as well as 2013-14 hybrid models of the Fusion, Lincoln MKZ and C-Max, and plug-in hybrids Fusion and C-Max Energi. Most see a drop of 1 to 5 miles per gallon. The larger and heavier MKZ has the biggest drop: from 45 to 38 mpg in combined city and highway driving.
The Environmental Protection Agency has given Ford 15 days to correct its labels.
About 200,000 customers are in the U.S. with 13,000 in Canada and 2,000 in markets where vehicles use U.S. testing results, Raj Nair, Ford head of global product development, said in a call Thursday with reporters.
They will receive “goodwill payments” ranging from $125 to $1,050 for the estimated cost of the difference between the previous and revised fuel economy labels. The amount varied by vehicle, miles driven and whether it was bought or leased.
Nair would not provide figures on the cost to the company, but said the amount will not have an impact on overall financial guidance.
Ford first found an anomaly in testing last October, but did not know if the issue was with the test or the vehicle, Nair said. Ford confirmed the problem in March and notified the EPA.
The error was in a portion of the testing where a vehicle-specific resistance level is figured into the dynamometer testing. The load figure is determined using engineering models but is validated on the track in “coastdown testing” to measure the forces on the car as it rolls down a slope.