Ford to Cut Emissions From Its Pickups by 33%
Hoping to clean up the image of increasingly popular light trucks, Ford Motor Co. said Monday that it will reduce smog-producing tailpipe emissions from its pickups an average of 33% beginning in the 2000 model year.
The action is significant because it is being taken well in advance of any regulatory mandate. It also will be done, Ford said, without increasing the cost or reducing the performance of the pickups, one-time workhorse vehicles that are now emerging as versatile family carriers.
Ford’s initiative is designed in part to counter the growing image of light trucks--pickups, sport-utility vehicles and minivans--as gross, gas-guzzling polluters. Trucks now account for about half of vehicle sales and most of auto makers’ profits.
The move also comes as debate is heating up on proposed federal rules that would require trucks to meet the same emission standards as passenger cars. The rules would be phased in beginning in 2004.
Ford and other auto makers already sell in California low-emission versions of many of their light trucks. But Ford is the first to make such a large commitment to introducing low-emission trucks nationwide ahead of federal regulations.
“It’s a major step forward for Ford to clean up their pickup trucks before they are required to do so,” said Dan Becker, director of the Sierra Club’s global warming project and a frequent critic of the auto makers.
Ford said all its F-Series pickups--the top-selling vehicles in the U.S. with 800,000 sold annually--will meet national standards for low-emission vehicles beginning in the fall. The Ranger compact pickup will become a low-emission vehicle in the 2001 model year; annual sales are about 360,000.
The announcement comes a year after Ford began selling low-emission SUVs and minivans nationwide.
In all, Ford said, it will put about 2 million low-emission light trucks on the road annually within two years. They will emit 15% to 50% fewer smog-forming emissions--hydrocarbons, nitrous oxides and carbon monoxide--than current trucks do, according to company estimates.
The combined effect on emissions would be equivalent to removing 350,000 current full-size pickups from operation.
“This is a major environmental action,” Ford President Jac Nasser said at a news conference outside company headquarters.
Although noting that the initiative is far ahead of proposed regulations, Nasser said Ford was not driven by regulatory concerns. Rather, he said, the company determined that the technology is available and the emissions improvements can be achieved affordably because costs can be spread over a large number of vehicles.
The move also fits with Ford’s strategy of being an environmental leader and using that as a competitive advantage.
“More and more, the marketplace will demand vehicles that are truly clean,” Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. said in a statement.
Environmental groups generally applauded Ford Motor’s action, saying it will spur competitors to move more quickly to bring low-emission vehicles to market. Still, there was some concern that Ford is misleading consumers by sending the message that light trucks are no more polluting than passenger cars.
“If they are telling people these are guilt-free vehicles, they are incorrect,” said Roland Hwang, transportation analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists. “These vehicles still are two to three times more polluting than low-emission cars.”
Current low-emission standards for trucks are more lenient than those for cars. That will begin to change in 2004, when new rules begin to be phased in. By 2007 in California, all light trucks must meet the same emissions standards as cars.
Similar proposed federal regulations, which would affect all other states but California, would also be phased in beginning in five years but would not cover all trucks until 2009. The auto makers are already fighting the proposed rules, seeking two more years for compliance.
Regulators have long been skeptical of auto makers’ resistance to new emissions rules. The California Air Resources Board, for instance, formulated its new truck regulations after it successfully modified a Ford Expedition SUV with a special catalyst and air injection system. The modified truck easily met low-emission standards for cars.
Ford will make its light trucks cleaner by installing more sophisticated electronic emissions controls and catalytic converters. Computers will better control the mix of fuel and air in the engine, resulting in more efficient combustion, and advanced catalysts will trap more pollutants.
Company officials privately said the changes will cost about $100 a vehicle. The expense will not be passed on to the consumer, they said, but will be absorbed by other production efficiencies.
Nasser acknowledged that the low-emission initiative will not address criticism that Ford has the highest corporate average fuel economy among the major auto makers. This translates into high fuel consumption for its entire fleet, resulting in high emissions of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is suspected as a cause of global warming.
Shares of Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford declined $3.19 to close at $57.56 on the New York Stock Exchange.
