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WITH SIERRA CLUB'S HELP, FORD PUSHES A NEW HYBRID
By Danny Hakim
New York Times
July 11, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/automobiles/12ford.html

DETROIT - When the Sierra Club approached the Ford Motor Company last year
and offered to help promote the company's first hybrid electric vehicle, the
company spurned the olive branch.

The Sierra Club has long been a nemesis of Detroit automakers and a critic
of Ford's chairman and chief executive, William Clay Ford Jr. But when Mr.
Ford later heard of the decision, he was said to be angry that an
opportunity had been missed to buff the company's image in the way that
Toyota has done so deftly with its hybrids.

Ford is not letting the chance slip a second time. On Monday, Ford and the
Sierra Club said they would jointly promote the company's second hybrid, a
version of its Mercury Mariner sport utility vehicle that went on sale this
week and will be sold almost exclusively online. The Sierra Club will
promote the Mariner in a newsletter sent to 300,000 members and has invited
Ford to bring the Mariner to a September environmental conference that will
also feature hybrids from Toyota and Honda. The Sierra Club and Ford will
also work jointly on a campaign to teach consumers how to drive hybrids for
maximum fuel savings.

"Hopefully we'll come away with an understanding that neither side has horns
on their head," said Niel Golightly, Ford's director for sustainable
business strategies.

But while the Sierra Club was offering a carrot to Ford, two smaller groups
based in San Francisco, the Rainforest Action Network and Global Exchange,
said on Monday that they would continue to wield the stick with the company
that has been their main target in the auto industry.

In the past, they have financed newspaper advertisements, including one that
depicted Mr. Ford as Pinocchio and accused him of reneging on a commitment
to improve S.U.V. fuel economy. On Monday, they said they would run a new
newspaper ad aimed at Mr. Ford sometime this month. The ad has a picture of
Mr. Ford next to images of Vice President Dick Cheney and Crown Prince
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

"What do these men have in common?" the ad asks, "They all love gas
guzzlers."

Ford's new cars and trucks had the lowest overall average fuel economy of
the six largest automakers, at 18.8 miles per gallon, according to
Environmental Protection Agency data for the 2003 model year, the most
recent data available. That was in large part because the company sells so
many pickup trucks and S.U.V.'s.

As a result, Mr. Ford has had a tortuous relationship with
environmentalists, in part because many groups feel he is the only auto
executive who will listen. In Detroit, he has been outspoken on issues like
global warming and had his company's storied River Rouge plant rebuilt with
a grass roof to mitigate emissions. At the same time, his environmental
commitments have been tested by the rocky business climate of domestic
automakers. Although Ford is profitable, unlike G.M., its debt is rated at
junk status by Standard & Poor's. Environmentalists have not been patient.

"My fear is that Bill Ford is showing his true stripes as just another
short-sighted auto executive with no interest in the environment, our oil
dependence, or the truth," said Daniel Becker, the Sierra Club's top global
warming strategist, in an interview in March 2002. Mr. Ford took over in
late 2001, the year his company posted a $5.5 billion loss.

Now Mr. Becker says the company deserves credit for the steps it has taken.

In the newsletter to Sierra Club members, he said the group would still push
Ford to significantly improve gas mileage and to stop fighting environmental
regulations.

But he also said "the Ford we challenged at the beginning of this campaign
is different from the one we face today." He added: "It's easy to run a
campaign against a target that is ignoring you. The hard part comes when
they start doing things that you want them to."

For the Sierra Club, the campaign is acknowledgment that Ford has been more
aggressive on hybrids than its European and American competitors. Last year,
Ford became the third automaker, after Toyota and Honda, to offer the public
a hybrid electric vehicle on par with those offered by Toyota and Honda - a
version of its Escape S.U.V. Ford will be about three years ahead of General
Motors and DaimlerChrysler in offering Americans a hybrid comparable to the
Toyota Prius.

Mr. Golightly of Ford said the company was trying to reach out to
nongovernmental groups "to explain to them where we're coming from."

He added: "I think that Sierra Club has always had a very strong point of
view on automotive companies and our company in particular, and they've been
candid about presenting that point of view. One of the things we've realized
over time is it probably makes more sense to have face-to-face discussions
about these issues and understand where each of us is coming from."

Michael Brune, the executive director of the Rainforest Action Network, is
not ready to pat Ford on the back, saying Ford will produce so few Mariners
that it will not make much of an impact on the company's fuel economy
numbers. Ford plans to produce 2,000 Mariner hybrids for the 2006 model year
and expand to about 4,000, on top of 20,000 Escape hybrids it produces
annually.

"It's a nice gesture, but we think it's more P.R. than progress," Mr. Brune
said.

Mr. Becker said, "we have not sheathed our sword, but we're recognizing that
they're making some cleaner vehicles."

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Published by David Sunfellow
NewHeavenNewEarth (NHNE)
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