Partnerships and Collaboration

Addressing the linked issues of climate change and energy security requires an integrated approach – a partnership of all stakeholders, including the automotive industry, the fuel industry, other industries and enterprises, governments and consumers. It will also require the best thinking from all of these sectors.

Ford is involved in numerous partnerships and alliances with universities, coalitions, nongovernmental organizations and other companies to improve our understanding of climate change. For example, Ford is:

• A charter member of the Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways Program at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California at Davis. The Institute aims to compare the societal and technical benefits of alternative sustainable fuel pathways.
• A member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Climate Change.
• Industry co-chair of the U.S. Drive Cradle to Grave lifecycle assessment of energy use, carbon dioxide (CO₂) and greenhouse gas emissions.

Our participation in these and other partnerships helps us to formulate improved strategies for products and policies that will in turn help to address climate change and energy security. The following are links to the above-mentioned organizations and others with which we cooperate on climate change issues:

• 25x’25 (Energy Future Coalition)
• BP
• Center for Clean Air Policy’s Climate Policy Initiative
• Clean Fuels Development Coalition
• Diesel Technology Forum
• Governors’ Biofuels Coalition
• Harvard University, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
• MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change
• Growth Energy
• Princeton University’s Carbon Mitigation Initiative
• University of California at Davis, Institute of Transportation Studies Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways Program
• Worldwide Business Council for Sustainable Development
• World Resources Institute
• World Economic Forum

Partnerships with Government

We are also engaging in partnerships with federal and state governments in the U.S. to deliver more fuel-efficient vehicles and alternative powertrain technologies. For example, working in close partnership with the state of Michigan, Ford received incentives and tax credits totaling $188 million to help in the continuous transformation of the Michigan Assembly Plant (MAP). In addition to building the next-generation hybrid in Michigan, these incentives enabled Ford to bring advanced lithium-ion battery system design, development and assembly in-house.

Ford also received a $2 million grant from the state of Michigan to install a large, stationary battery-based energy storage facility with 750 kw capacity and 2 MWh of storage. This facility supports the state’s “smart-grid” development initiatives as well as Ford’s efforts to develop battery technology and secondary uses for vehicle batteries. As part of this facility, Ford is demonstrating the possibility for using vehicle batteries as stationary power storage devices after their useful life as vehicle power sources is over. Ford is participating in this project in partnership with DTE Energy, a Michigan-based energy provider. DTE Energy has installed a 500 kw solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation system at the demonstration facility, which will produce some of the energy to be stored in Ford’s stationary battery storage facility. It is the largest PV array in Michigan. The solar PV system was funded by DTE Energy to support Ford’s sustainability efforts and to help the state of Michigan meet its renewable energy production requirements. As part of this project, Ford developed 10 electric vehicle charging stations, which demonstrate advanced battery charging technologies and associated integration with renewable energy and other smart-grid advances.