Ford Chairman Bill Ford’s vision of a greener auto industry is

DETROIT – A decade ago, Ford Motor was positioning itself to be a leader in electrified vehicles with new global models such as the C-Max and Focus Electric.

Those “green” cars were to lead the automaker’s efforts to potentially electrify 25% of its fleet by 2020, Ford Chairman Bill Ford wrote in a May 2011 article for Fortune Magazine. They didn’t and Ford watched as a start-up, Tesla, emerged as the industry’s benchmark for zero-emissions vehicles, and crosstown rival General Motors became Wall Street’s top legacy automaker for EVs.

Ford’s newest CEO Jim Farley, who took the helm Oct. 1, quickly announced a harder pivot to EVs as the automaker released an all-electric Mustang crossover and an upcoming F-150. While the new electric vehicles have been well received, Ford has to fight for a leadership position amid a litany of old and new competitors.

It’s something Bill Ford, great grandson of the company’s founder, is well aware of. A greener automotive industry has always been a mission of his. As an environmentalist and the longest running chairperson of any automaker, he has acted as a rare champion, or conscience, of green practices in the industry.

It’s something that was historically taboo, even discouraged, in a business reliant on fossil fuels to power its products and large trucks to drive its profits.

But that’s changing. The promise of electric vehicles and Wall Street’s support of more sustainable companies has Ford believing his decades-long vision of a greener automotive industry and company are finally achievable. And investors have taken notice, sending shares of Ford up by about 50% in 2021.

“When I joined the company in 1979, I joined as somebody who cared deeply about the environment, and I was absolutely appalled that that view was not only not shared, but it was frankly scorned within the company,” he told CNBC during a video interview. “That’s all changed now. And, yes, it makes me really excited.”

Bill Ford admits that the company’s early “green cars” may have not been as successful as he wanted at that time. But he believes the industry and consumer acceptance of electric vehicles is changing and that his push for a more sustainable industry was right all along.

“They may not have been the right time, they might not have been quite ready for primetime when they came out, but directionally, it was absolutely the right thing to do,” Ford said.

Most recently, former President Donald Trump publicly condemned Bill Ford and the company last year for agreeing with California on stricter fuel economy and emissions…