Stacy94PGT

Ford rebukes California hybrid measure

Automaker: Japanese rivals get special car-pool lane access

By Alan Ohnsman / Bloomberg News

LOS ANGELES — Ford Motor Co. is protesting pending California legislation that would give Japanese-built gasoline-electric cars special access to car pool lanes while excluding the U.S. automaker’s new Escape hybrid sport-utility vehicle.

The bill would allow hybrids that get at least 45 miles per gallon to use “high-occupancy vehicle” lanes even with only the driver present. That would allow access for Toyota Motor Co.p.’s Prius car and Honda Motor Co.’s Insight and hybrid Civic cars, the only gas-electric vehicles now sold in the United States.

Based on EPA estimates, the Ford Escape hybrid will generate 31 mpg on the highway.

“Ford would not consider asking the California legislature to support a ‘Buy American’ law,” Ford Chief Executive William Clay Ford Jr. said in a letter to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. “We are chagrined to see that” the proposal “amounts to a ‘Buy Japanese’ bill.”

The state’s Senate was scheduled to vote on the proposal Tuesday, which has passed the Assembly, the lower house of the legislature.

Senate approval would send the bill to Schwarzenegger, whose office wouldn’t immediately comment on the Ford letter.

In addition, the state has been awaiting clearance from the U.S. Transportation Department, since the proposal involves federal highways.

Ford Motor, the second-biggest U.S. automaker, would be at “a competitive disadvantage” under the California bill, Bill Ford said in the letter.

Ford began building the gasoline-electric version of the Escape, which will be the first hybrid SUV sold, this month at a plant near Kansas City, Mo.

The California bill calls for permits for 75,000 owners of qualifying hybrid vehicles, according to the office of Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, sponsor of the legislation.

Toyota’s Highlander and Lexus RX400h hybrid SUVs, slated for release early next year, and Honda’s gasoline-electric Accord sedan, which goes on sale late this year, won’t meet the state’s 45-mpg standard. Honda and Toyota say those hybrid models will have fuel economy similar to small sedans, or about 35 miles per gallon in highway driving.

__________________
Stacy94PGT
My first car was a 67 Mustang Coupe, 2nd one was a 67 Cougar XR-7, 3rd one was a 66 Mustang Coupe. Why did I get rid of these cars for ? I know why, because I'm stupid, stupid, stupid.

My next Ford.....