Ford to release largest SUV

Ford plans to introduce the 19-foot, V10-powered SUV next fall as a 2000 model. And although the No. 2 automaker has said little publicly about the nine-passenger hauler, environmental groups already have aimed a series of stinging attacks at it as part of their anti-SUV campaign.

The Sierra Club dubs it a ''suburban assault vehicle'' that ''will guzzle enough gas to make Saddam Hussein smile.'' It even ran a contest to give the big truck a name and advertising slogan. The winner: ''The Ford Valdez. Have you driven a tanker lately?''

The Excursion will be nearly a foot longer than the current biggest SUV, the Chevrolet/GMC Suburban, which will be the Excursion's primary competitor. Unlike the Suburban, however, the Excursion is expected to offer six doors - two on each side in front of smaller, rear-hinged access doors to make getting into the third row of seats easier.

General Motors Corp. is anticipating the new competition. Its Suburban has been redesigned for 2000, based on GM's new full-size pickup chassis.

The Excursion's so long and tall that it won't even fit in many home garages, said Jim Hall, an analyst with AutoPacific Inc. ''They have defined how big an SUV can be before it becomes too big,'' Hall said yesterday.

Ford has been uncommonly quiet about the Excursion. It's conspicuously absent from this year's auto show circuit. On today, Ford plans a low-key unveiling of the truck to journalists at its Dearborn headquarters.

For new chair William Ford Jr., a self-described ''lifelong environmentalist,'' the Excursion poses a dilemma. The young chair, who took over the company Jan. 1, has promised to make Ford the industry leader in developing clean vehicles.

But Ford's financial success in recent years has resulted largely from meeting Americans' demand for powerful pickups and SUVs, which burn more fuel and tend to pollute more than cars. The Excursion's expected to get only 12 miles per gallon with the optional V10 engine - hardly a symbol of environmental leadership.

''It's basically a garbage truck that dumps into the sky,'' said Dan Becker, who directs the Sierra Club's global warming program. ''For Ford to build a massive, gas-guzzling, polluting vehicle like this shows how big a job Bill Ford has to make Ford into a green company.''

Gawain Kripke, director of economic programs for Friends of the Earth, said the Excursion represents the trend of the auto industry toward ''bigger, more dangerous and more polluting vehicles.''

Ford so far has declined to respond to the criticism. The standard reply from Detroit executives to attacks on SUVs is that they're simply building the kind of vehicles consumers want. And one of the biggest growth markets has been for large, expensive SUVs.

The Excursion originally was conceived as a heavy-duty hauler largely for commercial use. But the unexpected high demand for the big Ford Expedition and its luxury sibling, the Lincoln Navigator, persuaded Ford executives to design the Excursion as an upmarket alternative to Suburban.

Environmentalists argue that Detroit has created SUV demand by spending billions of dollars on advertising over the past decade to promote them as fashionable, rugged, go-anywhere transport - even though most owners use them primarily to commute and go to the store.

''You can't turn on the TV or turn a page in a magazine without seeing an SUV climbing up a mountain so people can play Frisbee on top,'' Becker said. ''They're not advertising their most efficient vehicles, the clean ones.''

Wall Street analysts, meanwhile, say the business case for the Excursion is a no-brainer.

Investment costs were minimal. Ford will build the SUV in Louisville, Ky., on its ''Super Duty'' F-series pickup chassis, along with the same front end and cab. The total investment is probably around only $500 million, estimates analyst Lincoln Merrihew of DRI/McGraw-Hill.

The only competition is from GM, which sold 151,356 Suburbans last year, up 6 percent.

Potential profits are huge. The Excursion's expected to sell for between $45,000 and $50,000, with a per-vehicle profit of between $12,000 and $20,000. With production capped initially at 50,000 vehicles a year because of engine availability, that means Ford could recoup its investment in only six months.

Merrihew said Ford doesn't need a big, flashy auto show unveiling for the Excursion - word of mouth should be enough to generate demand.

''The Excursion is going to be the biggest vehicle in a very popular field,'' he said. ''It isn't really going to need much advertising. They'll be able to sell all that they want to.''

It's also so big that it can't be classified as a light-duty truck like other SUVs and pickups, making it exempt from federal fuel-economy standards. So even at an expected 12 mpg, the Excursion won't drive down Ford's fuel-economy average and make it eligible for federal fines.

''That is very troubling,'' said Kripke, who fears other automakers will enter the market. ''All the trend lines are in that direction.''

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