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Published July 29, 2008
What does it take to make a four-seater car that equals the gas mileage of hybrids sold in the States, but without the expensive battery pack and electric motors? Many cars made for the European market use a simple formula: Put a highly efficient turbocharged direct-injection small diesel engine into your basic super-mini, or “B” segment, car—one size smaller than a Volkswagen Golf—and then make every possible tweak to improve its mileage even more.
The latest example from this recipe is the Ford Fiesta ECOnetic, introduced at the 2008 British International Motor Show in London. And it’s instructive because Ford will offer the Fiesta to North American buyers in 2010, the first of several European small cars that Ford will make and sell in the US. Two days after the show’s press preview, Ford announced a stunning quarterly loss of $8.7 billion and a plan to build several of its European car models, the Fiesta among them, in North America.
Italics mine! Ford's 8.7 billion dollar lesson | 
