SACRAMENTO — Buffeted by
criticism from environmentalists, Ford Motor Co. officials said Tuesday
that the automaker is reconsidering a decision to scrap its last few
electric Ranger pickups — and that it erred a day earlier in saying its
hand was being forced by a federal agency.
A company official said
the Detroit auto giant expects a decision as early as today on the fate of
the few dozen remaining Ranger pickups, part of an ambitious experiment
launched with fanfare in the late 1990s but halted as the company shifted
to hybrids and other alternative technologies.
"This
is a very fluid situation," said Niel Golightly, Ford's director of
sustainable business strategies. "We are taking one last look at what
we're able to do. I wish every single one of our products generated as
much customer passion."
The decision to order the return of the
dozens of leased electric pickups spawned an ongoing protest in
Sacramento, where a few Ranger owners launched a curbside vigil in front
of a downtown Ford dealership in a last-ditch attempt to save their
beloved vehicles.
"This gives us some hope," said Dave Raboy, a
Mariposa County rancher who wants to buy the electric Ranger instead of
seeing it sent to the scrap yard. "I'd like them to restart their EV
[electric vehicle] program, but this would definitely be a step in the
right direction."
The protest attracted statewide media attention
last weekend.
A Ford spokeswoman told The Times in a story
published Tuesday that the company's decision to demand the return of all
remaining electric pickup trucks came because the federal government
didn't renew a waiver needed to keep the Rangers on the road.
But
on Tuesday, electric vehicle foes raised an outcry over the statement,
saying the electric Ranger trucks were never subject to a federal highway
safety waiver.
Ford officials quickly conceded the statement was
wrong, saying it had been an honest error stemming from confusion with
another electric vehicle Ford once leased. That vehicle, the
golf-cart-shaped TH!NK, had indeed required a waiver of federal highway
rules.
Electric vehicle advocates were less than willing to
concede that the Ford spokeswoman may have been confused. Websites for
electric vehicle aficionados railed against Ford, and the Rainforest
Action Network, which joined Raboy in the ongoing Sacramento protest,
drafted a news release accusing the company of misleading the
public.
Raboy, meanwhile, was left scratching his head.
Noting that the company had initially promised to sell him the
vehicle, then reversed course and demanded it back, Raboy said, "At this
point, I don't know what to believe from Ford."
But, he added, "If
they're willing to take a new look at our situation, it certainly makes me
hopeful."
