Ford About to Unveil 4 Tons of Controversy
When word surfaced last year that Ford Motor Co. planned to build the biggest sport-utility vehicle ever, the Sierra Club held a contest to name the vehicle and suggest a marketing slogan.
Among the leading contenders: “Fordasaurus, powerful enough to pass anything on the highway except a gas station,” and “Ford Saddam, the truck that will put America between Iraq and a hard place.”
The hands-down winner, however, was: “Ford Valdez: Have you driven a tanker lately?”
Ford, a company whose young chairman is a dyed-in-the-wool tree hugger, was not amused by the snide reference to the Alaskan environmental disaster. Nor was the world’s No. 2 auto maker deterred.
Next week Ford will publicly unveil the new nine-passenger vehicle that it calls the Excursion. The titanic SUV is nearly 19 feet long, more than 6 1/2 feet wide and almost 7 feet tall. It weighs more than 4 tons and gets as little as 10 miles per gallon before it begins to tow a thing. It may not fit into many suburban garages, and it may take up more than one parking space.
When the Excursion, with its 44-gallon gas tank, hits the market in the fall, it will become the unmistakable King Kong of passenger vehicles, by far the largest entry in the booming and highly profitable full-size SUV market.
“It’s pushing the limits of size for personal-use vehicles,” said George Peterson, president of AutoPacific Inc., a marketing and consulting group based in Santa Ana. “But it will be a big hit.”
Ever-larger luxury SUVs have appealed to affluent Americans for years, tapping into U.S. consumers’ abiding love of things bigger than life. This is reflected in the spectacular sales growth of hulking off-road SUVs, many of which never leave the pavement. Their drivers have the solace of feeling in total control--they can go anywhere and do anything. The Excursion takes this trend to a new pinnacle.
The vehicle also highlights a dilemma facing auto makers trying to balance profit with safety and environmental concerns. SUVs, pickups and minivans are their most popular and profitable vehicles, but they face growing criticism as being unsafe or highly polluting. These trucks now account for half of new-vehicle sales.
The quandary is evident in how gingerly Ford is handling the launch of the Excursion. The company is debuting the vehicle at the low-profile Dallas Auto Show rather than the major venues of Los Angeles, Detroit or Chicago.
But the Excursion, expected to cost $40,000 to $50,000 when loaded with options, is certain to have a high public profile when it hits the road.
“It’s a major example of conspicuous consumption,” said Michael Marsden, an expert in car culture and a dean at Northern Michigan University.
Ford argues that the Excursion is the natural extension of America’s growing love affair with full-size SUVs in an era of low gasoline prices. Consumers are demanding bigger and more functional vehicles that are becoming virtual extensions of their homes. The Excursion, for example, has 10 cup holders and five outlets for cell phones, laptop computers and other electronic gadgets.
“This is a needs-based vehicle,” said Doug Walczak, Excursion brand manager for Ford. “This customer is looking for a heavy-duty vehicle that will provide towing and plenty of interior space for nine passengers and their gear.”
But critics say the Excursion represents a misguided Detroit-style arms race of sorts, with auto makers rushing to outdo one another for bragging rights to whose SUV is biggest and baddest. The growing obsession with size comes despite continuing regulatory concerns about tailpipe emissions, fuel economy and safety.
“These are heavily polluting, gas-guzzling vehicles that can only bring a smile to Saddam Hussein’s face,” said Daniel Becker, director of the Sierra Club’s global warming and energy program.
‘Green’ Image Takes a Back Seat
The uproar caused by the Excursion comes as Ford is attempting to project a “green” image under the leadership of Chairman William Clay Ford Jr., an avowed environmentalist. When he was tapped in September to head the company founded by his great-grandfather Henry Ford, he vowed to make it “the world’s most environmentally friendly auto maker.”
At the same time, Ford said, “what we do to help the environment must succeed as a business proposition. A zero-emission vehicle that sits unsold on a dealer’s lot is not reducing pollution.”
The business case for the Excursion is compelling. The vehicle demonstrates Ford’s niche strategy that calls for creating low-volume vehicles based on existing platforms. In this case, Ford is using its Super Duty truck chassis to develop a new vehicle for a modest investment of about $500 million.
Ford expects to sell 50,000 to 60,000 Excursions a year. Merrill Lynch analyst Nicholas Lobacarro says the company could earn as much as $20,000 a unit.
The vehicle is aimed at General Motors Corp.’s twin Chevrolet and GMC Suburbans. Sales of these vehicles, bestsellers since 1935, have nearly doubled since 1990. The Suburban is being redesigned for the 2000 model year for the first time since 1992.
The Excursion, aimed at small businesses and affluent families, is 7.2 inches longer, 3.3 inches wider and 5.8 inches taller than the current Suburban. Ford would not provide demographic data about targeted buyers, but analysts said the profile will be much like the Suburban’s: 44-year-old, college-educated, married males with children and annual income of $80,000.
Its arrival is expected to spur incremental growth in the heavy-duty SUV segment. Ford expects to take some customers from GM and pull some from smaller SUVs, including its own Expedition.
“It will cut into their own sales more than it will cut into ours,” said Chevrolet spokesman Kevin Rose.
The Excursion will be offered in two-wheel and four-wheel-drive versions. The two-wheel-drive model will come with a standard 5.4-liter V-8 engine. The four-wheel-drive version will have a standard 6.8-liter V-10. A diesel 7.3-liter V-8 will also be available.
Ford says the gas-powered versions of the vehicle will get 10 to 15 mpg and the diesel model 16 to 18. But since the vehicle weighs more than 8,500 pounds, it is classified as a medium-duty truck. That means the Excursion’s low mileage will not be included in federal calculations for Ford’s corporate average fuel economy for light trucks.
Anticipating criticism, Ford notes that the Excursion will meet California’s low-emission standards and will emit 43% fewer emissions than allowed by federal law. About 85% of the vehicle by weight is recyclable, and 20% of it is made from recycled metals and plastics. Ford also makes the case that the Excursion is more efficient because it burns less fuel hauling nine people and their luggage than would two mid-size cars.
Environmentalists point out that even as a low-emission vehicle, the Excursion is allowed to emit three times the smog-producing pollutants as a car. But the SUV’s low fuel economy is even more troubling to critics. The Sierra Club’s Becker estimates that each Excursion will emit 130 tons of carbon dioxide--the result of hydrocarbon combustion and a cause of global warming--during a 120,000-mile vehicle life.
“It’s just bad for our environment any way you look at it,” he said.
John DeCicco, transportation program director for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, credits Ford for adding technology to meet low-emission standards for its light trucks. But he worries that the Excursion is clearing the path for ever bigger, more powerful vehicles.
“This is the antithesis of green leadership,” DeCicco said.
Vehicle’s Size Is Safety Concern
Safety is another concern. Ford touts the vehicle as extremely safe to its own occupants, with energy-absorbing crumple zones in the vehicle’s front and steel side-door beams for enhanced side-impact protection.
Ford is also the first maker to introduce a “blocker beam” to prevent override of a smaller vehicle in a frontal crash. The beam is a hollow steel tube that rides lower than the Excursion’s bumper.
Clarence Ditlow, president of the Center for Auto Safety, said the blocker beam may be helpful in preventing intrusion in frontal crashes but will do little to stop the battering-ram effect in more deadly side impacts.
“With a vehicle that size, it’s going to crush any other vehicle it crashes with,” he said. “They need to make vehicles lighter, lower and softer.”
Ford is not likely to let the strident criticism stand in the way of an opportunity to tap into the lucrative market for heavy-duty SUVs. The Excursion could add $1 billion in pretax profit to Ford’s bottom line, analysts note.
“The only downside we see for Ford,” analyst Peterson said, “is on the public relations side.”
* HIGHWAY 1: New worries over SUV safety may do little to deter consumers. Classified, G9
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A Growing Trend
How the new Ford Excursion compares with the next- biggest SUV, the Suburban C/K1500, and one of the biggest-selling passenger cars, the Honda Civic.
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Length height Weight Fuel cap. Ford Excursion 227” 80” 8,600 lbs. 44 gal. Chevy Suburban 220” 74” 8,050 lbs. 42 gal. Honda Civic 175” 55” 3,330 lbs. 12 gal.
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Note: Weight is for the vehicle including passengers and gas.
Sources: Ford, General Motors, Honda
Compiled by SCOTT WILSON / Los Angeles Times
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Riding High
Sales of full-size sport-utility vehicles have exploded in the 1990s. Annual sales, in thousands:
1998: 559,649
Source: Autodata
