Ford: Looking backward
Sierra Club usa
Sierra Club has come out with an ad that goes "1903-2003 A Century of Innovation...except at Ford.' Automobile manufacturers Ford are a hundred years old. To mark the occasion, they have come out with a new logo that they hope will see them through the next century. But, the company, which coined the concept of the assembly line that revolutionized production, is facing hard times.
To coincide with Ford's centenary celebrations in Dearborn, Michigan, the us environmental group Sierra Club is planning to run an advertising campaign in The New York Times and BusinessWeek hauling up Ford for making vehicles that are less fuel-efficient now than those that it made a hundred years ago.
The ads, scheduled to run in The New York Times and BusinessWeek magazine and copies of which have already been sent to journalists, say almost a hundred years ago, Ford's Model t ran 25 miles to the gallon. This is in contrast to the average Ford vehicle today, which runs 22.6 miles a gallon, with the popular Explores sports utility vehicle (suv) model getting only 16 miles to the gallon.
Ford, however, has claimed that three of its present models are the best in terms of fuel efficiency while another three produce virtually no emissions. The company has also said it son plans to introduce into the market the first hybrid suv, a vehicle that can run on both electricity and fuel.
Ford is facing other woes as well. Its share prices have fallen to about us $10, and stiff competition from international manufacturers with more efficient models have choked auto markets.
Meanwhile, to add irony to the matter, former Sierra Club president Robert Cox has announced that he will run for Ford's board of directors.