Ford Announces Winners of $2.7 Million Natural Gas Challenge
30 June 1999
Ford Announces Winners of $2.7 Million Natural Gas ChallengeDEARBORN, Mich., June 29 -- Atlanta, Los Angeles and San Francisco will become the pilot cities for Ford's new natural gas marketing program, sharing about $2.7 million in funding. Ford announced today that these cities won their bids to be Focus Cities in the "CNG Challenge" issued by Ford in May at the National Clean Cities Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. The CNG Challenge program is designed to encourage sales of vehicles powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) and promote natural gas as an alternative fuel. Select cities from across the nation were asked to submit proposals for how they would allocate funds to a natural gas marketing program. The money could be used for fuel purchases and sales assistance, advertising, educational programs and a variety of other marketing and promotional efforts. Thirteen cities sent proposals for their marketing plans to Ford. In addition to the three Focus Cities, five more cities qualified as Target Project Markets. Ford Alternative Fuel Vehicle Sales Managers and Specialists will continuously monitor target projects in Chicago, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Toronto and Washington, DC and fund them as appropriate. "Choosing the cities where we will focus our efforts was a challenging task," said Ron Robbins, executive director, Ford's North American Fleet Marketing. "All the proposals we received were excellent. We asked for demonstrated commitment to alternative fuel use and every city we sent the challenge to responded with great ideas and enthusiasm. That is an encouraging indication of the direction alternative fuel use is taking in this country." This program is a key component in Ford's overall environmental and alternative fuel initiative and demonstrates Ford's commitment to developing clean fuel technologies. By encouraging the use of natural gas as an automotive fuel, the marketing plans developed in the chosen cities will spark increased sales of natural gas vehicles in these regions. Increased vehicle sales, in turn, spark increased development of natural gas infrastructure to support the vehicles. The CNG Challenge effort supports Ford's line of natural gas-powered vehicles, including dedicated versions of the F-250, Econoline van and Crown Victoria sedan, and bi-fuel models of the F-250 and Contour sedan. Ford also is testing a fleet of 50 dedicated natural gas Expedition sport utility vehicles across the U.S.