Cleanest-Burning Car to Go on Sale : Environment: The gasoline-powered vehicle beats smog rules by four years. It is expected to be in California showrooms next month.
The cleanest gasoline-powered car ever put into production will be sold this year by an American auto maker, four years before a strict California emission control standard takes effect.
Enthusiastic state officials said Tuesday the car will produce six times less smog-forming hydrocarbons than the cleanest models on the road today while running on regular, unleaded gasoline.
The vehicle, a Ford Escort, began production last week at Ford’s plant in Wayne, Mich., and will be in showrooms by the end of next month. Ford said it will build 30,000 Escorts and 4,000 Mercury Tracers, which will only be offered for sale in California.
“It is the cleanest car that we have ever approved for mass production,” state Air Resources Board Chairwoman Joanne Sharpless said. The vehicle is certified to not exceed emission limits for 100,000 miles, which is twice the current mileage standard.
The fact that a car maker could turn out the vehicle so quickly appeared to vindicate the ARB, which came under fire two years ago when it voted for the tough standards. The tailpipe standards--the world’s most stringent--become progressively tighter over the years and are a cornerstone of efforts to reduce air pollution in the Los Angeles region, the nation’s smoggiest.
“There were some who said we had gone too far in 1990,” Sharpless said during a news conference with Ford executives at the board’s emissions laboratory in El Monte. “Today’s announcement shows that these goals are definitely within reach.”
Donald R. Buist, director of Ford’s automotive emissions and fuel economy office in Dearborn, Mich., said: “Once the ARB finalized (the new emission standards) in late 1990 we concluded they were serious. So we went back home and did the best we could as quickly as we could.
“We’re happy to be the world’s first and we’re thrilled to be able to do it here in California where the need is obvious,” Buist said.
The announcement was certain to put pressure on other automobile manufacturers to quickly follow suit. “Ford has clearly set an example for other car makers who need to meet the public’s demand for environmentally superior products,” Sharpless said.
Car buyers usually are more concerned about safety, reliability and performance than emission characteristics, said Don Engle, sales manager at Los Feliz Ford in Glendale. But he said the fact that the car is cleaner should boost sales.
“When they come into the dealership, (environmental concerns) are not one of the buying signs they’re giving to us,” said Engle. “But I think it will help sales. People are conscientious. I think people want to do the right thing.”
Ford is readying a major marketing campaign touting the car’s low emissions.
Sticker price of the car will range from $8,700 to $12,300, depending upon options, Engle said. Buist said the price of the new emission system, which he said will cost Ford $100, will not be passed on to the customer.
The car’s improved emission performance represents no technological breakthrough, Ford and the ARB said.
The lower emissions are achieved by adding an exhaust gas recirculation valve and making the catalytic converter more effective by loading it with greater amounts of precious metals such as platinum and rhodium.
Also, Ford said it recalibrated the engine to reduce the amount of engine emissions before they pass through the improved catalytic converter. Recalibration involves changing the spark timing and constantly altering the air-fuel ratio.
In addition, the size of the four-cylinder engine, 1.9 liters, makes it easier to achieve greater emission reductions, Buist said. He said he did not know how quickly Ford will be able to apply the Escort’s technology on larger vehicles.
The added emission controls will reduce gasoline mileage by about one mile per gallon, bringing average fuel economy to an estimated 34 miles per gallon. Engine performance, such as acceleration, will be equal to this year’s model, Ford said.
The car is certified by the state as meeting the tougher 1994 standard. It also outperforms the even more stringent 1997 emission limits for hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide, and nearly meets the 1997 cap on nitrogen oxides, another ingredient of smog.
But Ford said it was not clear that the car would continue to stay within the tougher 1997 standard for the full 100,000 miles of service required by the state. For that reason, the car was certified by the state as meeting its 1994 standard for 100,000 miles, but not the 1997 standard. Emissions usually increase as a car ages.
Sharpless said that because Ford will be turning out the Escort four years ahead of schedule, the company will be given credit against the 1997 state quota that at least one out of every four cars built that year meet the tougher emission standard.
Emission statistics for the Escort are impressive, the ARB said. It reported that emissions of smog-forming hydrocarbons such as unburned gasoline fumes are 0.062 grams per mile, compared to the 1994 standard of 0.125 grams per mile and the 1997 standard of 0.075 grams per mile. The current standard is 0.39 grams per mile.
Levels of smog-forming oxides of nitrogen are half that of the 1994 standard of 0.2 grams per mile and are close to levels required in 1997. Carbon monoxide emissions are 1.3 grams per mile, compared to the 1994 standard of 3.4 grams per mile, and the 1997 standard of 1.7 grams per mile.
