Ford Stockholders Told Green Story in Louisville KY

LOUISVILLE, Ky., May 13, 2004; Reuters reported that Ford Motor Co. put a positive spin on higher U.S. gasoline prices on Thursday, even though they could hurt sales of some of the gas-thirsty vehicles that generate much of its automotive profits in North America.

Ford Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Ford Jr., who has advocated higher U.S. gas taxes in the past, told the company's annual shareholder meeting that surging pump prices could change the tastes of U.S. car buyers and help drive the country toward a more fuel-efficient future.

Ford had been asked what he was doing to improve what he readily acknowledged to be the poor average fuel economy of his company's current U.S. vehicle fleet.

"We're in the business of giving customers what satisfies their demands," he said.

Until recently, he said, because of "very cheap gasoline" in the United States, what customers were saying was: "We want bigger engines and we want bigger vehicles."

In Ford's case, as with other Detroit automakers, satisfying that demand has meant a disproportionate dependence on sales of big sport utility vehicles and full-size pickups.

Now, however, as Ford told one environmental activist who questioned him at the meeting, gas prices could "help drive customer behavior the way you'd like to see it."

"In the rest of the world you don't have this disconnect as much," said Ford, speaking of the clash between consumer preferences and a society's overall environmental goals.

"In Europe where gasoline prices are very high you have a CO2 reduction path that is coming down quite nicely," Ford said, referring to carbon dioxide emissions.

"It's because there's a convergence of pocketbook issues with society issues," he added, saying the same thing may soon prove true in the United States.

If it does, he added, cleaner-burning vehicles will be not just a social imperative, but also "a business opportunity."

Ford, who has sometimes been criticized as an unfaithful ally of the U.S. environmental movement, said the company founded by his great-grandfather was already spending more than half of its research and development money on environmental issues.

He did not elaborate, but said the company was "pouring enormous resources" into the development of gas-electric hybrid vehicles and other alternate fuel vehicles as it prepares to help lead the way toward a greener U.S. auto industry.