Maybe They’ll Throw In Some Peddles

Ford Motor Co. has a new idea that environmentalists hope will fly.

Ford will begin building Ranger pickup truck “gliders” - vehicles without engines, transmissions or fuel systems - to sell to companies that convert them to run on electricity.

The automaker announced the program Friday at an environmental products trade show in Los Angeles and said it would begin working with conversion companies that want to qualify to buy the vehicles.

On display at the show was a prototype Ranger glider that had been converted to electric power by TDM World Conversions Inc. of Troy, Mich.

Beth Ardisana, a Ford alternative fuel vehicle specialist, said the company hopes to sell the first gliders by the end of the year. Prices haven’t been set, but a Ranger glider will cost converters substantially less than a gasoline-powered pickup that is ready for the road.

“Our goal for the Ranger glider program is to expand our market knowledge and facilitate efforts by others to get electric vehicles on the road,” said John Wallace, director of Ford’s electric vehicle programs.

Ford and the other automakers face a 1998 deadline to sell electric vehicles in California, Massachusetts and New York.