Ford Vehicle

In these pages two years ago I urged the Ford Motor Co. to make its St. Paul Ranger plant the centerpiece for a bold new transportation initiative — a battery-powered vehicle, charged from a household socket, with a backup biofueled engine. Ford’s October 2005 announcement that multibillion dollars losses would require “significant” plant closings, potentially including St. Paul’s plant, sparked the proposal. At the time Ford was uninterested, and worse.

When the Legislature took up a bill to create a task force to examine the potential for making a plug-in at the St. Paul plant, Ford dispatched an official to lobby against the bill. She was the only one opposed. Both chambers passed the bill unanimously. In 2005, Ford turned its back on electric-powered vehicles after manufacturing and leasing 1,500 all-electric Rangers to comply with California’s electric-vehicle mandate.

The mandate was lifted in 2003, and Ford, along with General Motors, began gathering up and crushing their vehicles. Two leaseholders waged a yearlong campaign to be allowed to buy their Rangers. In January 2005, after a sit-in was conducted at a Ford dealership, the company agreed. In crash tests, the electric Ranger was superior to the gas-engine Ranger. One of the protesters, David Bernikoff-Raboy, a rancher in Mariposa County, Calif., told a local newspaper, “These are great vehicles.

Ford is missing a huge marketing opportunity with these vehicles.” In April 2006, Ford decided to close the St. Paul Ranger plant by mid-2008. That was then, this is now. To paraphrase a famous Minnesotan, the times they are a-changing. Ford is under new management. Bill Ford is out. Alan Mulally, former head of Boeing, is in. Ford just announced it would continue to operate the Ranger plant through 2009.