Feature story - August 27, 2004
Ford Europe has announced that it has reversed its decision to scrap their most fuel efficient cars and will send them to customers in Norway. Thank you to the more than 500 people who wrote to Ford to support this outcome.
Ford plans to crush all its electric Th!nk cars despite being offered $1million for them.
Ford's Th!nk vehicle was popular with U.S. consumers - there were waiting lists to buy the cars after a hugely popular leasing period started in 2001. Zero-emission cars reduce urban smog. When charged by electricity from renewable sources, they help fight the biggest threat to our planet - climate change.
With record oil prices forcing gasoline prices up, they are also a sound economic choice. Popular, clean and efficient, shouldn't this be part of the future of transport rather than being reduced to small cubes of scrap?
A Norwegian firm has plenty of customers and has offered US$1 million for them. It now appears that Ford may take the deal.
Ford originally bought the Norwegian Th!ink car company in 1999. In 2000, CEO William C Ford said: "Ford Motor Company also has been a leader in the development of clean-running alternative fuel vehicles. We are the world's leading producer and seller of electric vehicles. We've just launched an entire new brand - Th!nk."
But with the dirty work of killing the clean air regulation in California completed in 2002, Ford dumped its commitment to electric cars faster than you can say "SUV" and sold off Th!nk.
Ford's current fleet of cars is actually less efficient than the 80-year-old Model-T Ford. You read that right - 80 years of corporate 'leadership' at Ford has meant no better fuel efficiency than 1920's technology!
Electric cars are not the complete solution to the environmental problems of transport. But they are light years better than the current trend toward big gas-guzzlers that are helping to fuel global warming.
Visit www.jumpstartford.com - the campaign to improve the fuel efficiency of Ford cars.