Ford ships thousands of aluminium pickups after extra checks

Ford Motor Co has shipped thousands of aluminium-bodied F-150 pickups, and their introduction isn’t being delayed by extra quality inspections for the re-engineered model, the company said.

“We’ve shipped more than 5,000 all-new F-150s to dealers across North America, and we’re shipping more each day,” Kristina Adamski, a Ford spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement. “We are on plan to be at full production at Dearborn Truck Plant by the end of this month.”

Additional inspections have led the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker to park hundreds of finished trucks in lots around Detroit. While automakers sometimes stockpile models that need repairs, Adamski said that isn’t the case with the new F-150, which is lighter and more fuel efficient.

Ford is taking special care to ensure its top selling and most profitable product is “absolutely perfect” before shipping them to dealers, Adamski said.

“They are doing extra quality checks on the first part of the launch,” she said. “All the feedback we get from dealers is very, very positive.”

Ford sold 763,402 F-Series pickups last year, 18% more than in 2012, making it the top-selling vehicle line in the US for a 32nd straight year and helping boost Ford’s North American pretax profit to a record $8.78bn.

Ford rose 0.8% to $15.28 at the close in New York. The shares declined 1% so far this year while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 10%.

The benchmark price for US crude oil dropped below $60 a barrel yesterday for the first time since July 2009 as Saudi Arabia questioned the need to cut output, signalling its priority is defending market share. West Texas Intermediate oil for January delivery dropped 99¢ to close at $59.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gasoline prices in the US have fallen for 71 days to $2.62 on December 10, the lowest in more than 4.5 years, according to AAA. The prices have been lower than Ford anticipated, chief executive officer Mark Fields told reporters today in Dearborn.

“Gas prices and the price of a barrel of oil will be down from what we originally expected,” Fields said. “It does not diminish at all the consumer’s desire for more fuel efficient products and that’s why we’re going to continue to have them.”

Falling gasoline prices help stimulate the economy like a tax cut, Fields said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. And Ford has “ratcheted down” its forecast on the price of oil, Fields told reporters.

One downside of the lower prices is that selling the fuel-efficient models necessary to meet US government regulations of an average fuel economy of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 is “harder now with gas prices being lower,” he said.

Ford looks forward to having a “robust” discussion with regulators about that when those rules are reviewed in 2018, Fields said.

“That’s a very important opportunity for us to work with the government and look at the demand for these products,” Fields said. “It’s a great opportunity to talk about the feasibility.”