Good Article About Ford Motor Company

Today's NY Times featured a good article (registration required) about the Ford Motor Company.

Some highlights:

The article's contention that if Ford would have turned to hybrids sooner, they would have kept pace with Toyota, and Bill Ford would have been able to give bottom-line results to back-up his environmental values.

The article speaks of the new assembly assembly plant that has a "green roof", which is a part of Bill Ford's desire to build a "green" factory that helps to restore, rather than pollute, the environment.

Bill Ford has forgone his salary over the past year and intends to do so until he "successfully revived Ford's fortunes."

Bill Ford had to fight with management to go forward (and continue) the Escape Hybrid as well as the above-mentioned River Rouge plant.

Bill Ford is a vegetarian.

Ford did announce that they will no longer produce 250,000 hybrid vehicles by 2010 but, instead, will produce 2 million flexible vehicles by 2010 (and continue to produce hybrids).

Environmentalists have criticized Ford for also not fulfilling a promise to improve S.U.V. efficiency by 2005 - in 2002, he said that the technology was not in place at Ford to achieve that.