In the press release accompanying Ford's announced production cutbacks was this little gem from Ford CEO Mulally:
"We view the move to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles as permanent, and we are responding to customer demand," Ford CEO Alan Mulally said in the statement.
Permanent? I read this as an indicator that Ford believes the price of fuel is going to remain high for the foreseeable future. In the automotive industry, for which product cycles are in the half-dozen-year range, this statement implies that Ford does not see gas prices dropping any time in the next decade. The only thing missing from this announcement is any mention of a next-generation vehicle from Ford - plugin-hybrid, hydrogen fuel cell or all-electric. By the time Ford figures this out I should be driving my Aptera Typ-1!
