• Bloomberg, Thursday, January 20, 2011 11:45 AM

The three electric-powered or assisted vehicles Ford is showing at the Detroit auto show are a realization of a mindset that Chairman Bill Ford has had for years.

Ford, a martial arts practitioner who has done things like create a living roof of grass on the automaker's Rouge River plant, declared a "clean revolution" when he became chairman of the board in 1999. And he was castigated both by executives, whose hackles he raised because he asserted that global warming is not only real but is exacerbated by cars, and by environmentalists because of Ford's SUV-weighted portfolio at the time.

David Friedman, deputy director of the vehicle program at the Washington, D.C.-based Union of Concerned Scientists, says Ford should be credited with forging ahead in spite of criticism, and for making fundamental changes to corporate culture and the product pipeline at Ford. Ford's goal is for the automaker to field the most fuel-efficient vehicles in every category in which it competes. "They were the first to put out a domestic hybrid and they put out a family-car hybrid with the Fusion that beat Toyota. That in itself is incredibly impressive," said Friedman.

Read the whole story at Bloomberg »