Eco Dustup

The timing of Ford Motor Co.'s announcement that it would back away from plans to put 250,000 hybrid-electric vehicles on the road by 2010 “could've been better,” the auto maker's top environmental and safety official says.

The recent disclosure, which preceded an announcement between Ford and VeraSun Energy Corp. to fund a series of E85 ethanol pumps in the Midwest, appeared to link the two events together.

In a memo, Chairman and CEO Bill Ford said the cutbacks would coincide with an effort to double the number of vehicles capable of running on E85.

But Susan Cischke, vice president-environmental and safety engineering, says the timing of Bill Ford's memo and the VeraSun announcement was coincidental and doesn't mean the auto maker is cutting back on HEVs as a result of the E85-distribution pact.

Recently, environmentalists have renewed criticism of Ford for having the least fuel-efficient fleet among top OEMs.

Dan Becker, director-global warming program for environmental activist group Sierra Club claims Ford is redirecting its efforts primarily because of a loophole in federal corporate average fuel economy requirements.

The loophole “allows Ford and other auto makers to make more gas guzzlers than the already weak CAFE law would allow (if) they simply make a certain number of flex-fuel vehicles — even though the vast majority of these vehicles never actually run on E85,” Becker says.