Unplugging Electric Vehicles

In the late 1990s, Ford entered the market for battery electric vehicles as part of a broad program to develop and test new vehicle technologies. Ford put into service 1,500 electric versions of the compact Ford Ranger pickup truck between 1998 and 2001. Eighty-five percent of the vehicles were leased to municipalities and fleets, with about 90 percent in the California market. The last EV Ranger lease expires in September 2006.

In addition, Ford imported 362 Th!nk City battery electric vehicles into the United States in 2001 as part of a customer evaluation fleet in California and New York. Ford had acquired the Th!nk technology from a company in Norway.

With both vehicles, the intent was to test the vehicles to gain real-world experience with the technologies. Our conclusion was that other technologies, notably hybrid electric vehicles, offer more versatility, better range and, depending on the source of the electricity used to charge the batteries of all-electric vehicles, better environmental performance.

The U.S. NHTSA required that the Th!nk cars be taken out of service in the United States at the end of their 36-month lease periods, by scrapping or exporting them to other markets. Ford received and considered various offers to buy the cars and export them to other markets at the end of their lease period. In addition, Ford attempted to find a way to return these vehicles to the Norwegian market for further use. None of these plans was approved, mainly due to a weak market equation, apparently low demand, and concerns about warranty and servicing costs and potential liability exposure. Ford began dismantling vehicles as they returned from lease in May 2004.

A public action by Greenpeace at Ford Norway, demanding that Ford stop scrapping the cars and return them to Norway, drew attention to this matter in August of 2004. Subsequent meetings with the Minister of Transport, Greenpeace, Ford Norway management and media in September confirmed a high level of interest and emotion around the Th!nk City cars.

The Norwegian government was firm in pointing out its historic support for and investment in the Th!nk initiative. Ford of Europe committed to suspend scrapping the vehicles. Re-evaluation of the issue led to the conclusion that returning the cars for re-sale in Norway was then supported by a viable market equation and represented a responsible course of action.

A similar situation arose when Ford began dismantling EV Rangers as they returned from lease in May 2004. Many of the vehicles collected were used for additional testing and were decommissioned through a component recycling process for future use and warranty obligations. However, some lessees felt passionately that they should be able to keep their vehicles indefinitely and launched various kinds of protests to secure approval to do so. In response to the high level of customer concern, Ford suspended the dismantling and arranged with Blue Sky Motors, Inc. of California to administer the sale of EV Ranger battery-electric pickup trucks to current and previous lessees.

Under the arrangement, current leaseholders are given the first right to purchase their vehicles "as-is" at lease end for $1. Unclaimed vehicles will then be offered for sale to previous EV Ranger lessees through a lottery selection. Those wishing to purchase the vehicles will pay a refurbishment and pre-delivery inspection fee of $6,000 to Blue Sky Motors, which will offer any remaining EV Rangers at fair market value to the general public after the lottery is concluded. Ford is not receiving any profit from the EV Ranger transactions but will save the cost of decommissioning the vehicles.