Advertisement

Electric Pickups to Keep Truckin’

Share
Times Staff Writer

Six months after public protests prompted Ford Motor Co. to stop demolishing the last of its electric vehicles, the auto giant announced a plan Monday to return the surviving electric Ranger pickups to erstwhile owners.

Ford officials said about 200 of the last electric pickups would be sold to former leaseholders selected in a lottery.

“It has taken a little bit longer than we wanted or expected,” said Niel Golightly, Ford’s director of sustainable business strategies.

Advertisement

Electric vehicle advocates welcomed the announcement but said it was little more than a symbolic gesture.

“What we really need is for Ford to restart its EV program, to acknowledge that America is addicted to oil and needs to get off it,” said Jennifer Krill of Rainforest Action Network in San Francisco. “Their customers are clamoring for smart, pollution-free vehicles.”

Her group was among several that joined Ranger EV owner Dave Raboy, a Mariposa County rancher and software consultant, in a weeklong sidewalk vigil in January outside a Sacramento Ford dealership.

The automaker agreed to sell Raboy his truck for $1. Golightly said about 21 other electric Ranger leaseholders also took advantage of the offer as lease terms ended for their trucks.

Under the program announced Monday, the last of the pickups set to come off lease between now and 2006 will be refurbished by a Sacramento firm, Blue Sky Motors, and then offered to their current leaseholders for $6,000. The fee would pay for the costs of refurbishment.

Any unwanted trucks will be sold to former Ranger EV owners who gave back their trucks before Ford reversed course in January and began offering them for sale. Most of the 1,500 electric Rangers produced by Ford were scrapped.

Advertisement

Ford will hold a lottery on Sept. 23 to establish a list of who gets first choice for any unwanted trucks as they come off leases.

Golightly said he suspects there will be a big demand by former owners of the trucks but that any left unclaimed after the lottery will be offered for sale by Blue Sky Motors on the open market.

Advertisement