Ford agrees to sell electric trucks
to two protesting lease holders
Ford called its change
of heart a limited "customer satisfaction issue." But clean-air
activists characterized it as a symbolic victory for nonpolluting
cars and trucks in California, and urged Ford to resume
its discontinued electric vehicle program. "These are great vehicles," said
David Bernikoff-Raboy, 33, a Mariposa County rancher who
said Ford decided to sell him the truck for $1. "Ford is
missing a huge marketing opportunity with these vehicles." The
rancher and his wife, Heather, 34, said the Ranger costs
little to maintain, requires no fuel and frees the nation
from dependence on foreign oil. But Ford spokeswoman
Cheryl Eberwein said the automaker is focused instead on
hybrid technology with a long-range eye on hydrogen-powered
cars. Describing the company's experiment with electric
vehicles, she said, "The market didn't support it." The two disputed electric
pickup trucks are among 1,500 manufactured by Ford between
1998 and 2001, and were leased to the Bernikoff-Raboy family,
and to William Korthof, 27, owner of a Pomona solar power
installation company. Most similar trucks
have since been called in by Ford and scrapped as the company
turned to different technologies and an industry lawsuit
blocked California's requirement that 5 percent of vehicles
sold there by 2001 produce zero emissions. Eberwein said
only 88 of Ford's electric pickups remain and most are
in municipal fleets with leases that expire late next year. Both lease holders waged
a yearlong campaign with Ford to buy their vehicles instead
of seeing them destroyed. Beginning Jan. 15, they and clean
air activists began a sit-in at Downtown Ford in Sacramento
to protest the company's scrapping policy and vowed to
remain until Ford reversed it. "It took them a year,
and a lot of effort on my part with no results, and suddenly
they're willing to rethink the situation," Korthof said. Eberwein said Ford knows
only of four individual owners of the electric pickups. "If there are other
situations out there we will look at it on a case by case
basis," she said. On the Net: Jumpstart Ford Campaign: http://www.jumpstartford.com Ford Motor Co.: http://www.ford.com
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