August 24, 1999 – Ford Motor Company begins production of low emission (LEV) pickups in Kansas City

Kansas City, August
24, 1999 – Ford Motor Company’s Kansas City Assembly Plant today
began production of the 2000 model F-Series LEV pickup, five years
in advance of any government regulation.

“This is another example of Ford’s commitment to being an
environmental leader,” said Gerry Minor, Kansas City Assembly Plant
manager, “and I’m proud that the Kansas City Plant is part of that
effort. By the end of the year 2000, Ford will have placed more
than 800,000 LEV F-Series pickups on the road as a continuance of
our ‘Cleaner, Safer, Sooner’ campaign.”

In May, Ford President and CEO Jac Nasser announced that all pickup
trucks sold in the U.S. and Canada would be Low Emission Vehicles
(LEV), well ahead of proposed government regulation and with no
additional cost to customers.

Beginning with the 2000 model year the F-Series pickup fleet will
average smog-forming emission levels 43 percent cleaner than before
it was classified as a LEV.

“At Ford, our goal is to become the world’s most environmentally
progressive automaker,” said Gurminder Bedi, vice president – Truck
Vehicle Center. “We believe it is possible for people to be
environmentalists and truck enthusiasts. That’s what customers and
communities are demanding of us, and that’s what Ford is demanding
of itself.”

Ford produces more than three quarters of a million F-series pickups
annually and about 360,000 Ranger compact pickups. Rangers and the
SVT Lightning are scheduled to be low emission vehicles by 2001.

Last year, Ford began production of low emission sport utility
vehicles and Windstar minivans and remains unmatched by other
automakers on that broad environmental commitment. The LEV sport
utility vehicles are: Ford Explorer, Ford Expedition, Ford
Excursion, Mercury Mountaineer and Lincoln Navigator.

SUV and Windstar production will equal about 1 million units and,
when joined with pickups, Ford will be putting two million Low
Emission Vehicle trucks on the road annually at full production.

Ford trucks and SUVs that meet LEV status will emit on average
about 48 percent fewer smog-forming emissions than trucks and SUVs
that do not meet LEV.

The combined effect of Ford’s emissions actions on SUVs and
full-size trucks is equivalent to eliminating smog forming emissions
from 350,000 full-size trucks on the road today.