He Refuses to Put Down Electric-Powered Pickup
SACRAMENTO — Like any self-respecting rancher, Dave Raboy loves his pickup. The truck has served like a dutiful member of the family, hauling hay, fencing and other heavy loads across his 160-acre Mariposa County spread.
But this is no ordinary pickup, and Ford Motor Co. wants it back.
Raboy’s truck is one of scores of experimental electric Rangers produced by Ford as part of a 1999 pilot program to test new battery and vehicle technologies. But with hybrids all the rage now, Ford has abandoned its electric vehicle program, and the half-ton EV pickups -- Raboy’s included -- are set to be scrapped.
The rancher won’t relent.
He and a handful of electric vehicle enthusiasts have launched a protest in front of a Capitol-area Ford dealership to signal their disapproval of Detroit’s latest direction.
Their vow: to stick it out on the curbside, with picket signs and banners, until the big boys in the Motor City give in and let Raboy and a second Ranger owner -- William Korthof, 27, of Pomona -- purchase their pickups.
“If this truck was good enough that Bill Ford drove it to work every day, how come it’s not good enough for me to buy?” asked Raboy, who doubles as a software consultant when he isn’t at his Catheys Valley ranch tending the cattle, three dogs and other barnyard critters.
“Hybrids are better than nothing, but they’re a Band-Aid for the real problem: Detroit’s oil dependence.”
Backed up by volunteers supplied by the San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network and other environmental groups, the two pickup owners launched their little protest on busy 16th Street in front of Downtown Ford on Saturday.
An “EV Vigil,” they’ve dubbed it.
Their two trucks, along with several other electric vehicles, are parked near the bustling car dealership. A couple of tents sit beside a trailer equipped with solar panels, perfect for powering electric cars or on-site coffee makers.
“Our action is an intervention,” said Jennifer Krill, the Rainforest Action Network’s zero emission campaign director. “It’s time for Ford to admit it has a problem and stop the destructive behavior of eliminating clean-running vehicles.”
Ford officials reject such characterizations and say their hands are tied by federal rules.
Cheryl Eberwein, a Ford spokeswoman, said the automaker produced the electric trucks under a pilot project approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A waiver that allowed the experimental vehicles on the road has run out, so under government rules Ford must pull all the electric trucks off the road.
“The government has required us to remove them,” she said. “We understand there’s been a real devoted following of electric battery vehicles.
“But all the automakers have come to the same conclusion -- that hybrids and eventually hydrogen-powered vehicles are where the market is going.”
Eberwein said Ford is set in coming years to produce five hybrid models, all combining gasoline engines with electric motors.
None of which does much for Dave Raboy.
He acquired his Ranger in 2001 through Ford’s GreenLease program. In the years since, Raboy and his wife, Heather, have powered up the pickup with an array of solar panels at their ranch. They’ve put 15,000 miles on it.
The operating cost during that period: zero dollars.
Likewise, not a puff of pollution has come from the Ranger’s tailpipe -- because it doesn’t have a tailpipe.
Raboy has been paying the $490 monthly lease since the start. Early last year, he said, Ford said he could buy the car but later reneged. In November he got a letter from the company asking that the truck be returned. A few phone calls yielded the news that his prized pickup was headed for the scrapheap.
In part, Raboy says, he can’t believe Ford would want to abandon a happy customer like him. But geopolitical issues also lurk.
He thinks Detroit can’t wean itself from the internal combustion engine, even with world oil reserves diminishing. He believes Ford and other automakers didn’t give electric vehicles a fighting chance.
So he’s intent on sticking it out on the cold winter streets of Sacramento until Detroit blinks.
“How come they’re not going back and getting all the Pintos? How about the Excursion -- it’s being discontinued,” Raboy said. “It gets 12 miles per gallon. Why not go back and crush all of those?”
