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| November 23, 2001 Fuel Targets for Sport Utilities Pose Difficulties for Automakers By DANNY HAKIM DETROIT, Nov. 22 � Top executives of the Big Three automakers pledged anew in recent interviews to improve the fuel economy of their fleets of sport utility vehicles. But some of them are casting doubt on whether the goal set by Ford Motor (news/quote) last year � a 25 percent improvement by 2005 � can be met. Ford Motor pledged in the summer of 2000 to improve the fuel economy of its sport utilities by about 5 miles a gallon, from about 20 miles a gallon. That is well beyond federal standards, which have not been toughened significantly in more than a decade and require an automaker's fleet of sport utilities and other light trucks to average 20.7 miles a gallon. After Ford's move, General Motors (news/quote) and Chrysler responded not by specifying numerical goals of their own but rather by promising to match or beat Ford's gains. After a recent management shake-up, Ford's new top executives say they are still committed to reaching their goal. But some recent developments will make it harder. And executives at G.M. and the Chrysler Group publicly and privately question whether Ford, now in the middle of a major cost-cutting and turnaround effort � or any other company � can reach that goal. "Taking 25 percent out in five years is very ambitious," said Dieter Zetsche, chief executive of the Chrysler Group. "This is still a stretch." Jacques A. Nasser, chief executive of Ford until his resignation last month, made the pledge in July 2000. At the time, Ford's fortunes were on the rise, and the company was Wall Street's pick among the Big Three. That has changed. William Clay Ford Jr., Mr. Nasser's successor as chief executive and the first Ford family member to assume operational control of the company in more than two decades, inherits a company whose cash reserves have dwindled, that has continued to lose market share and that is on its way to its first year of net losses in nearly a decade. Mr. Ford, 44, is an outspoken advocate of environmental goals in an industry hardly known for being green and remains committed to reaching the 25 percent goal. But his company this month scrapped one of the plans it had to get there: outfitting next-generation Ford Explorers with a special starter generator that would allow the engine to shut off automatically when the vehicle was stationary and then restart. The move bitterly disappointed environmentalists. "After going out of his way to stress his environmental commitment, it is deeply distressing that Mr. Ford's first move as C.E.O. is to reject a more efficient Explorer," said Daniel Becker, director of global warming issues for the Sierra Club. |
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