More typical EV hate columns from our auto press.
Chicago Tribune Jim Mateja Column
May 24, 1999
Chicago Tribune via NewsEdge Corporation : May 21--Environmentalists are doing somersaults.
Not a pretty sight. But considering environmentalists spend so much time spewing hot air about clean air, the exercise might do them some good.
The reason for celebration is that Ford Motor Co. says all of its pickup trucks, starting with the full-size F-Series in model year 2000 and followed by its compact Ranger in 2001, will be low-emission vehicles that don't spit any more foul matter into the atmosphere than cars do.
Cause for cheer if it weren't for the fact cleaner trucks won't get better mileage or cost less than current ones. So most consumers couldn't care less if Ford trucks emitted Chanel No. 5.
Ford is cleaning up the trucks by using more precious metals -- platinum, palladium, rhodium -- in catalytic converters to treat exhaust gases as well as moving the converter closer to the engine to work sooner.
Ranger won't be cleaned up until the 2001 model year because that's when it and the Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicle built off the same platform will undergo a redesign.
--Perseverance. Bob Stempel is loaded with it.
Stempel is chairman of Energy Conversion Devices Inc., maker of nickel-metal-hydride batteries for the General Motors EV-1 battery-powered car and Chevrolet S-10 battery-powered pickup.
Stempel dreams of the day every vehicle is battery powered. Ain't gonna happen, but the man who was ousted as GM chairman in a 1992 coup won't give up.
Hopes were raised when Stempel's ECD and former Chrysler Corp. Chairman Lee Iacocca's EV Global Motors, along with Unique Mobility of Europe, inked a pact last week to build and sell battery-powered and hybrid (batteries plus another fuel source such as gasoline) vehicles in Europe.
Sales of GM's EV-1 are less than 500 units a year; the battery-powered Chevy S-10 less than that. Stempel insists it's hard to get anyone to take batteries seriously with such meager volume.
Hmm. Ever wonder why there are so many environmentalists and yet so few zero-emission battery-powered vehicle sales?
Sorry to digress.
The joint venture will mean initial production of battery-powered mini-vans in "reasonable volume" for Europe, Stempel says, where pollution is worse than it is here. How many? He'll only say "more than 500."
"We'll have the prototype later this year, a driveable vehicle shortly after that," Stempel said.
Iacocca, who popularized mini-vans and who now is producing battery-powered bikes, will handle marketing of the battery-powered mini-vans.
"Lee certainly knows how to sell mini-vans. I think he can help us with this vehicle," Stempel said. "Whether bikes, scooters or four-wheeled vehicles, Lee always says he's going to put something electric in everybody's garage." .......
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