After Farago's good news yesterday from Ford corporate, we can bounce to even more good Blue Oval news today and I'm pretty much about to stroke with excitement. Ford has confirmed that the US will get its Fiesta compact car as a hatchback, not just the American-friendly and eye-unfriendly sedan. Since importing anything from Europe (cars, wine, cheese, deodorant) is currently cost-prohibitive, Ford will build the Fiesta in Mexico at – get this – a factory that previously built Ford F-Series for the Mexican market. Since pickup truck sales there are in the toilet as much as they are in the US, the factory is being converted to build the Fiesta and new Ford I-4 engines. That's right, they stopped overproducing a truck because sales weren't too hot and instead will be using it to make fuel-efficient cars and engines. Ford hasn't confirmed whether the hatchback Fiesta will be the three- or five-door version, but I'd bet dollars to donuts (really what does that mean) that it'll be the three-door. The biggest downside? It's coming in the proverbial "year 2010" as a 2011 model. That's two years away; Honda and Toyota will continue to chow down on Fit and Yaris sales (up 1.2 gazillion percent this year). This Fiesta is a car Ford needed in America yesterday last year two years ago and whether the ever-facelifted Focus can keep them afloat for that long, I don't know. But hey, if we make it to 2010, a Ford showroom with a Fiesta hatch and European-style Focus (also to be built in Mexico), and 350 horsepower Taurus will be hotter than Tricia Helfer. In Vegas. Meanwhile, hero of the day award to Alan Mulally. (source: Ford)

The Ford Escape was the world's first hybrid SUV. Contrary to popular belief, The Blue Oval's gas – electric trucklette does NOT use Toyota's Synergy Drive. FoMoCo's hybrid cute ute shares some patents with ToMoCo, and that's it. And there's another idea floating around: Ford is artificially restricting supplies to limit their loss-per-vehicle. True dat. Until and unless Ford can find a way to reduce its costs, the automaker has capped production of "the most fuel-efficient SUV on Earth" at 25k special order units per year (so much for Bill Ford's 250k hybrid pledge). Tales of three month waits are not unknown. The question is, what, if anything, are we missing?

GM's plans to sell 27k light hybrid vehicles this year have hit a snag. They've had to use one third of the battery packsearmarked for new car production to replace leaking battery packs in their 2007 model year mild hybrids. Automotive News [sub] reports the leaking nickel-metal hydride batteries, made by Cobasys, caused the hybrid system to shut down; the vehicles still ran in gas-only mode. A123-Cobasys is one of the companies developing the lithium-ion batteries for the Volt and plug-in hybrid Vue. If they can't build NiMH batteries that work, the more complex LiIon batteries could be something of a… challenge.

The DAY AFTER a team of Honda-promoting skydivers performed a formation for a live UK TV advertisement, the plane used for the stunt has crashed. The accident killed the pilot and a skydiver. According to The Daily Telegraph, a total of ten skydivers attempted to exit the stricken plane as "one of the aircraft's wings snapped off and it plunged to the ground, where it burst into flames." The paper also reports that "Honda and Channel 4 said they did not believe any of the skydivers involved in the accident had taken part in the filming of the advert." Clearly, our warning that the stunt could prove a human and PR catastrophe had a firm basis in reality. Whether or not the tragedy will prevent future live stunts remains to be seen.

"Some people may buy E85 because it burns cleaner than gasoline, while others may want to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil," American Automobile Association (AAA) spokesman Eric Escudero told The Denver Post. "But to succeed, the fuel needs to offer drivers an economic incentive, something it has failed to do even after the surge in gasoline prices." Yes there is that.The trip-A is now monitoring and listing E85 prices nationwide. And here's the really sucky part (if you're an ethanol producer): they're adjusting E85 prices to take into account its relative lack of energy efficiency. "After adjusting for its lower energy content, E85 cost an average of $4.32 a gallon in the U.S. on Friday versus $3.96 for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline." Oh dear. In fact, E85's rep is now so bad that the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association is playing pig pile on ethanol. "E85 is not the silver bullet, it is the red herring," claims Prez Charles Drevna. No really. "U.S. taxpayers subsidize ethanol to the tune of 51 cents a gallon, and the fuel provides significantly lower mileage. If that E85 is not 25 percent to 33 percent less than… regular gasoline, you are getting snookered." Snookered? I think there's a better word for it.

As readers of our General Motors Death Watch know, GM e-rotweiler and junket dispenser Christopher Barger thinks TTAC is WAY too negative. At least we're not double negative. Check out the Director of GM Global Communications Technology's response to a CNBC poll. Phil LeBeau asked readers to choose one of four culprits– management, unions, SUVaphilia or Toyondissan– for GM's sagging stock price and rapidly declining fortunes. Barger sent a "now hold on a god damn minute" email to LeBeau which tells us exactly how GM's spinning their [death] spiral: it's the economy, stupid. "In fact, these economic headwinds are taking their toll on virtually every American business and industry — and consumers from all walks of life too. Singling out one company for criticism when the entire economy is struggling seems a bit unfair, don't you think? It's kind of like blaming one person for being out of work when unemployment is on the rise." (Tell that to Honda.) There's a lot of B.S. to wade through, from GM strengthening its brands, to the fact that the automaker sells eight (count 'em eight) hybrids, to "our products can go toe-to-toe with anything on the market today." Barger's central message: fuck the past. "I think it's more constructive to look forward and to try to continue improving things, don't you?" As the old saying goes, those who don't learn from history have a bright future in corporate PR.

We've been saying 2010 is the domestic industry's Holy Grail since 2007. Official confirmation comes at the bottom of a Detroit Free Press article entitled "Detroit 3 ready to focus on future." In fact, the TTAC narrative is all over this thing. "U.S. automakers didn't really adapt after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 sent gas prices above $3 a gallon and consumers started changing their purchasing habits — and it's costing them now. 'That's enough time to change, said Mark Warnsman, an auto analyst for Calyon Securities.'" And now… "All eyes are on 2010." Yes, "If the automakers can make it to the end of the decade, they should at least have a chance to start making money again." If? At least a chance? Seems Detroit's cheerleaders are running out of pep. "By 2010, economists are forecasting recovery in the U.S. housing market and that the economy, hopefully, will be back into growth mode… But after seeing record losses at Detroit's public automakers — $50 billion at GM over the last three years, $15 billion at Ford over the last two — optimism about 2010 is guarded. 'That's a make-or-break year,' economist at the Center for Automotive Research Sean McAlinden said. '2010 is the big question mark.'"