Ford Downshifts Fuel-Efficiency Goal for SUVs

Ford Motor Co. has backed off its goal to improve fuel-efficiency by 25% in its sport utility vehicles by mid-decade, the automaker said Thursday.

Because of changing business conditions, Ford determined that “it’s going to be extremely difficult” to achieve the fuel-efficiency goals the company established in 2000 for its SUVs, spokeswoman Sara Tatchio said. Instead, the world’s second-largest automaker will continue efforts to improve gas mileage for its entire lineup.

Tatchio added that Ford has improved fuel-efficiency for its SUVs by about 7% in the last two years.

Environmental activists, who have rallied against SUVs because of their gas-guzzling tendencies and resulting emissions, criticized Ford.

“It’s getting so that you can’t trust Ford’s promises,” said Dan Becker, a Sierra Club spokesman. “It’s a pattern that’s very disturbing, and Bill Clay Ford should stand up and repudiate this reneging of their promises.”

The company grabbed headlines in July 2000 when then-Chief Executive Jacques Nasser said Ford had established a goal of increasing the fuel economy of its SUVs by 25%, from 18 miles a gallon to 23, by 2005.

Nasser was eventually ousted and replaced by William Clay Ford Jr. It was Ford who later announced the decision to drop plans to use a form of hybrid power on the Explorer, citing less success with the gasoline-electric hybrid than expected.

Ford shares Thursday rose 18 cents to $9.41 on the New York Stock Exchange.