Ford improves in environmentalist group's ranking

Wednesday, December 4th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ While Japanese automakers continue to make the most environment-friendly vehicles, one American company, Ford Motor Co., is making headway with its fuel-efficient sports utility vehicles, the Union of Concerned Scientists said Wednesday.

In the group's second environmental ranking of the six largest automotive companies, Ford was the only manufacturer to rise, from fifth to fourth. Honda, Toyota and Nissan remained the top three, with Honda the clear front-runner, and DaimlerChrysler ranked as the biggest polluter.

Ford has adopted a more pro-environment stance since William Clay Ford Jr., the great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, became chairman in 1999.

The report says Ford is on track to meet its goal, announced two years ago, to boost the fuel economy of its SUV fleet by 25 percent by the 2005 model year. General Motors Corp. responded by pledging to keep the fuel economy of its light truck fleet better than Ford's, but the report says GM trails by one-tenth of a mile per gallon.

``Bill Ford has touted his green thumb, but until now only his speeches have merited a thumbs up,'' said study author Jason Mark. ``Ford deserves credit for going beyond federal requirements to clean up smog-forming emissions from its trucks.''

The report criticized Ford for making no progress to address global warming. Its vehicles emit 5 percent more carbon dioxide than GM's vehicles. And it said Ford needs to do more to improve the efficiency of vehicles other than SUVs.

The report ranks the automaker by averaging the smog-forming pollution and carbon dioxide emissions of the vehicle models it sells in the United States. The group's first report was released in early 2000 based on 1998 model year vehicles, while the current report is based on 2001 models.

In both reports, Honda, Toyota and Nissan were rated as the top three. The 2000 report put GM fourth, Ford fifth and DaimlerChrysler last, but this year Ford moved to fourth and pushed GM to fifth.

The report said Honda continues to offer some of the most fuel-efficient vehicles, including the Civic and Accord, which rank at the top of sales in their classes. It says DaimlerChrysler's cars and trucks are dirtier than average, but the main reason its at the bottom of the rankings is its heavy focus on selling light trucks.

Federal regulations require that an automaker's fleet of cars average 27.5 miles per gallon, while its light trucks _ a class that includes SUVs, pickups and minivans _ average 20.7 mpg. The Bush administration is considering a proposal to raise the light truck standard by 1.5 mpg by the 2007 model year.