Ford’s Sport Utility Vehicles to Get Cleaner

DETROIT — Amid mounting criticism of light trucks by environmentalists, Ford Motor Co. said Monday it will introduce sport utility vehicles and minivans this fall that pollute no more than passenger cars.

The vehicles would cut some smog-producing emissions by 50% over the existing Ford models and put an estimated 800,000 cleaner vehicles on the nation’s roads next year.

The announcement made at the North American International Auto Show is the latest environmental initiative pushed forward by the nation’s auto makers, which are under increasing worldwide pressure to build cleaner and more efficient vehicles.

Just last month, the California Air Resources Board proposed subjecting light trucks, sport utilities and minivans to the same smog controls as passenger cars by 2004 when stricter regulations are expected. Federal officials are considering similar rules.

Auto makers fear that such regulatory changes--mandating far more than Ford offered Monday--could threaten their golden goose by forcing them to install new engines that would increase prices for trucks and potentially hurt their image with the public.

Sport Utilities Fuel 60% of Big 3’s Profits

Light trucks now make up nearly half of all auto sales and are the most profitable to manufacturers. Sport utilities alone account for more than 15% of sales but fuel 60% of Big Three profits, analysts estimate.

Ford is cutting its truck emissions in half by installing more sophisticated electronic engine controls and catalytic converters. Computers will better control the mix of fuel and air in the engine and cut added pollution by burning the fuel more efficiently, while the advanced catalytic converters will trap more emissions. The company said the new equipment costs less than $100 per vehicle, but it does not plan to raise prices.

“This is a major breakthrough,” said Ford Chairman Alex Trotman.

The company said its 1999 minivans and sport utility vehicles, including the popular Windstar and the Explorer, will meet existing federal and California low-emission vehicle standards. Already, Ford is selling several sport utilities in California that meet state pollution regulations, which are tougher than federal standards.

Honda became the first company to sell a vehicle nationwide that meets California’s low-emission standard when it began selling the Accord LX in September. Ford is the first to offer trucks that meet the lower passenger car standard.

Ford officials said the development should help allay criticism that sport utility vehicles are emission-spewing gas guzzlers that ought to be more heavily regulated.

“This should neutralize the debate in some circles about SUVs,” said Jacques Nasser, Ford president.

But that is unlikely. Environmentalists said that while Ford’s move would lower emissions of smog-producing pollutants, like nitrous oxide, it would have little effect on reducing global warming compounds, such as carbon dioxide.

Steven Pedery, a global warming expert for the Sierra Club, said that sport utility vehicles continue to be the least efficient in the nation’s fleet, some getting a mere 12 to 16 miles per gallon of gas.

“Ford’s initiative will help air quality, but will do nothing to curb global warming,” he said. “These vehicles are horrible on carbon dioxide emissions.”

Environmentalists regard the Ford move as a preemptive strike designed to stave off efforts to tighten emissions and fuel-economy standards for light trucks.

“Regulators are already looking at holding trucks to higher standards,” said Roland Hwang, director of the transportation program for the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Ford is just trying to get ahead of the curve.”

Global Warming Pact Has Raised the Stakes

The auto industry has long resisted pollution and fuel economy regulations. Last month, Steve Douglas, a spokesman for the American Automobile Manufacturers Assn., the Big Three’s lobbying arm, told California regulators it would be nearly impossible for auto makers to produce trucks as clean as cars by 2004, when stricter pollution regulations will be in force.

The stakes have been raised by the global warming treaty recently negotiated in Kyoto, Japan. It requires developed nations to substantially reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, a major tailpipe pollutant.

The auto industry strongly opposes the global warming treaty, saying it doesn’t impose the same requirements on undeveloped countries and is based on questionable scientific data. “We don’t think it was a good agreement,” said Trotman on Monday.

Environmentalists, however, are hoping the treaty will prompt Congress to strengthen the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards for cars and trucks. The CAFE standard now is 27.5 mpg for passenger cars and 20.5 mpg for trucks. The auto makers must pay fines if the average of all the cars and trucks they sell fail to meet the standards.

The lower level for trucks was set in the late 1970s when those vehicles made up only 20% of sales and were largely used for commercial purposes. But today the majority of minivans and sport utilities--which generally are larger and heavier than cars--have become surrogate passenger cars.

Ford officials said the threat of regulation had nothing to do with the decision to offer low-emission vehicles. Rather, it was a perception that customers want cleaner vehicles and the technology is now available and affordable, said Nasser.

The company already offers 11 low-emission vehicles, but only in California. Today’s announcement would make five low-emission trucks available nationwide: the Ford Explorer and Expedition, the Mercury Mountaineer, Lincoln Navigator and the Ford Windstar minivan. It may also offer some low-emission cars outside California as well.

Ford Planning Even Bigger Sport Utility

Ford also has been planning an even bigger sport utility, which would weigh up to 7,000 pounds and surpass in size General Motor’s Chevrolet Suburban, the largest passenger vehicle of its type now on the road.

Trotman said if the vehicle is produced, it would meet the same low-emission standard as its other sport utilities.

The ever larger vehicles have inflamed environmental groups, who say Ford and GM are in an automotive “arms race” to see who can build the largest, gas-guzzling trucks.

“Its hard to take Ford’s green commitment seriously, when they are making 12-mpg monsters,” said Pedery.

Hwang, the Union of Concerned Scientists specialist, said that the emissions performance of SUVs has given the auto industry a black eye. “When the public realizes how badly they pollute, they are likely to stop buying them,” he said.

Ford claims leadership in alternative-fuel vehicles, saying it accounted for 95% of such vehicles sold in the U.S. last year. It also recently committed $420 million to a partnership with Daimler-Benz to produce a fuel-cell vehicle by 2004.

The company also Monday unveiled a prototype family sedan that is 40% lighter than traditional cars and gets 63 mpg. The vehicle, known as the P2000, uses a direct-injection engine that burns a natural gas-derived fuel.

Ford is also developing electric hybrid and fuel-cell versions of the P2000. The advanced technology cars are being developed as part of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, a joint industry-government program to produce an affordable family vehicle that gets 80 mpg by 2004.

GM displayed Sunday several electric hybrids and a fuel-cell vehicle also being developed under PNGV. Chrysler will show its version today, an electric hybrid that combines a direct-injection diesel engine with small battery pack.