Courtesy of Sound Ford, Renton
Ford’s rollout of its next generation of small cars will hit an important milestone when the new Fiesta is revealed in December at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The reveal of the North American-based Ford Fiesta will also mark the culmination of the first phase of the Fiesta Movement.
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FORD’S NEW FIESTA TO DEBUT AT L.A. AUTO SHOW; FIESTA AGENTS BEGIN FINAL MONTH OF MISSIONS
Courtesy of Sound Ford, Renton
Ford Motor Company is celebrating production of its all-new global Ford Focus, built for North American customers in its completely transformed Michigan Assembly Plant (MAP). Following a $550 million transformation, the plant features an environmentally friendly workplace with flexible manufacturing capability and a motivated, specially trained work force ready to deliver a fuel-efficient new car to the marketplace.
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Ford Opens Flexible, Green Michigan Assembly Plant with Production of All-New Ford Focus
Courtesy of Sound Ford, Renton
Drivers trained in mileage-maximizing techniques such as smooth acceleration and coasting to red lights were able to get an extraordinary 1,445.7 miles out of a single tank of gas during a fund-raising effort in Washington, D.C. that concluded today. They did it by averaging 81.5 miles per gallon in an off-the-showroom floor, non-modified 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, the most fuel-efficient midsize car in North America – nearly doubling its U.S. certified mileage.
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FUSION HYBRID SETS WORLD RECORD WITH 1,445 MILES ON SINGLE TANK OF GAS
Courtesy of Sound Ford, Renton
Ford Motor Company expects the quality, fuel efficiency, smart technologies and shared global nature of its upcoming new Focus small car in North America and other derivatives built off a new global C-car platform to deliver a double-digit percentage profit improvement compared with today’s North American Focus.
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FORD’S GLOBAL PRODUCT PLAN TO DRIVE INCREASED SMALL CAR PROFITS; NEW TEAM TO BOLSTER VEHICLE CONNECTIVITY
Ford is teaming up with SunPower Corp. to offer customers a rooftop solar system, allowing Focus Electric owners with enough clean, renewable energy to offset the electricity used to charge the vehicle. This new initiative, dubbed the ‘Drive Green for Life’ program, integrates seamlessly with Ford’s aggressive electrification strategy which includes the launch of five electrified vehicles in North America by the end of next year. SunPower’s 2.5 kilowatt rooftop solar system is comprised of solar panels that produce an average of 3,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually. These high-efficiency solar panels generate approximately 50 percent more electricity than conventional panels and utilize a smaller footprint on the roof. The system was sized to accommodate a customer who drives about 1,000 miles per month. “Under the ‘Drive Green for Life’ program, Focus Electric owners can reduce their total cost of ownership by generating enough energy from their high efficiency SunPower rooftop solar system to offset the electricity required to charge the vehicle at night,” said Mike Tinskey, Ford director of Global Vehicle Electrification and Infrastructure. “It’s an eco-friendly solution that perfectly complements our plug-in products and other green initiatives.” The complete SunPower solar system can be had for less than $10,000, depending on available incentives and rebates. The system includes a residential monitoring system, which includes the ability to track the performance of their solar system on the web or through an iPhone application, as well as a 25-year warranty. The company is also able to support the initial Focus Electric roll out in all 19 launch markets. “SunPower’s innovative partnership with Ford is a win-win for customers, providing a comprehensive sustainability program,” said Tom Werner, SunPower president and CEO. “By taking advantage of this program, Focus Electric customers can receive the added benefit of installing a SunPower solar system, the highest-efficiency, most reliable on the market today, generating the electricity needed to charge their vehicles.”
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Ford Wants Focus Electric Owners To “Drive Green For Life”
The all-new Ford Explorer has been a tremendous success, as it’s a far cry from the model it replaces. The hot-selling new model also boasts ample power and class-leading efficiency thanks to its standard 3.5-liter V6 engine. However, the latest Explorer will set a new standard for SUV fuel efficiency with the launch of the all-new 2.0-liter EcoBoost engine , the first application of this advanced engine in North America. The EcoBoost will the help the Explorer deliver a class-leading EPA rating of 28 mpg on the highway, besting the Honda Pilot by more than 20 percent and the Toyota Highlander by 12 percent. In the city, the Explorer is rated at 20 miles per gallon. Best of all, the 2.0-liter EcoBoost provides fuel efficiency without sacrificing power, as it provides 240 horsepower and 270 lb.-ft. of torque. This balance of responsive power and efficiency is attributed to a number of technologies such as gasoline injection, twin independent variable camshaft timing (Ti-VCT), and a unique 6F35 six-speed automatic transmission developed to reduce friction and increase efficiency. “Today’s SUV buyers place a high priority on miles per gallon, so Explorer has expanded its portfolio of fuel-efficient engines with an all-new EcoBoost offering,” said Amy Marentic, Ford group marketing manager. “SUV buyers deserve efficiency with their capability, so Explorer now offers best-in-class V6 and four-cylinder fuel efficiency.”
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2012 Ford Explorer 2.0-Liter EcoBoost To Get 28 MPG
Ford is continuing to drive vehicle-quality forward, with a recent $100 million investment that will be used to support the use of cutting-edge robotic laser-inspection technology at its manufacturing facilities around the world. And notably, this includes the automaker’s Chicago Assembly Plant , where the technology is already in place boosting the quality of the all-new Ford Explorer. “Ford’s robotic laser technology gives us a degree of precision like never before,” said Ron Ketelhut, chief engineer, Body Construction Engineering. “The vision technologies verify the dimensions of interfaces on the vehicle’s body in a highly accurate way, to a tenth of a millimeter.” This new tool was developed by Ford in a collaboration with Gonzalez Production Systems—one of the automaker’s minority business partners—and is used to increase the accuracy of the door-installation process. That makes for tighter gaps between door panels, which noticeably cuts down on one of the most common areas of concern that customers have with their vehicles: wind noise. It makes for a notably nicer exterior appearance, too. It’s all just another part of Ford’s dedication to leading the industry in customer satisfaction, a commitment that has seen the automaker consistently achieve high praise in top third-party quality studies. Consider: In the 2011 AutoPacific Vehicle Satisfaction Awards , the Ford Motor Company led all automakers with seven individual segment winners and Lincoln finished as the highest-rated luxury brand. Some 90 percent of the automaker’s products (including both Ford and Lincoln vehicles) were “recommended buys” in the most-recent Consumer Reports Annual Car Reliability. Ford achieved an 82 percent score in the RDA Global Quality Research Study, the highest score (in a tie with Volkswagen and Audi) in the survey. The award-winning Ford Explorer —both the North American Truck of the Year and the first U.S. vehicle to benefit from Ford’s new robotic laser-inspection technology—is on sale now.
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Ford Invests $100 Million In Advanced Quality Systems
As Ford stays on track to have five electric vehicles (EVs) on sale in the North American market by the end of 2012, the company is putting significant resources into making it easy for customers to find a place to recharge them—and not just by teaming with third parties to support the nation’s electric infrastructure. Ford engineers have worked just as hard to find the right place to locate the charging ports on the vehicles themselves. “After benchmarking multiple competitive vehicles, we found there wasn’t much consistency in charge port location ,” said Susan Curry, Ford Electrified Vehicle Technology Integration supervisor. “We wanted to give customers a location that made the most sense for them and would seem as simple as filling up at the gas station.” For Ford’s new electric vehicles, there was another consideration, too. While most people fill their gas tanks about once a week, or a little over 50 times a year, the company expects most EV drivers to plug in and disconnect their vehicles four times a day, which is some 1,500 times a year. That extra interaction meant it was extra important for Ford to get the placement of the charging ports just right, since drivers would be using them so often. After gaining input directly from potential customers, as well as studying those other vehicles, Ford was quick to rule out two seemingly obvious possibilities: The very front and rear of the vehicle. That’s because both locations could have caused problems if customers had to deal with things like packed snow, dead insects or other road debris, and even fender benders. The solution? Incorporating the port high on the quarter panel on the driver’s side of the vehicle, just aft of the wheel opening, in a place that “keeps the charge port in sight before the customer enters or exits the car, for an easy reminder to unplug or recharge,” according to Mary Smith, Ford Electrified Vehicle Technology Integration supervisor. “It creates an intuitive placement for owners that also has aesthetic appeal.” That appeal is designed to reach other drivers as well, because the charging port can be illuminated to indicate the vehicle’s charge state—and ensure that passers-by and other motorists know they’re looking at one of Ford’s breakthrough energy savers. And you can be sure they’ll be looking at more and more of them in the very near future, since the first Ford EV —the Ford Transit Connect Electric—went on sale to commercial customers in 2010, and the Ford Focus Electric is slated to debut later this year.
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Ford Works To Make Plugging In Easier
Ford hopes to reach millions of gamers with the launch of a new virtual showroom on PlayStation Home . The Blue Oval is the first automaker to launch a space within the North American version of PlayStation Home, which currently has more than 20 million users. PlayStation Home is a free-to-play, dynamic social game platform developed for the PlayStation 3 system and can be accessed by users via the PlayStation Network. “The Ford Showroom gives players an opportunity to check out our vehicles in an environment where most people wouldn’t expect to see Ford,” said Brian McClary, Ford social and emerging media specialist. “It’s another example of how we’re providing customers with ways to engage with Ford on their own terms in their own way.” The virtual Ford Showroom will highlight the new Fiesta and Edge . Users will be able to view the interior and exterior of both models, as well as learn about SYNC , Ford’s in-car connectivity system, and play a game with digital rewards that include a T-shirt with the Ford logo. Ford is hoping to provide a bit of entertainment as the brand educates the users about the Fiesta and Edge. “The Ford Showroom in PlayStation Home is the perfect place for people to explore, interact with and share these highly recognizable and popular vehicles,” said Amy Carney, president of advertiser sales for Sony Pictures Television. “Their SYNC technology also has strong synergies for creating highly interactive and engaging game experiences.”
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Ford Brings Virtual Showroom To PlayStation Home
Ford to triple production of electrified vehicles in North America by 2013; New sustainability report shows how the Blue Oval is going green; Ford Focus Electric keeps its cool when the temperatures rise; Ford offers plenty of gift possibilities for Dad
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Ford eNews – June 15, 2011
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