Financial Health

Product Competitiveness

Our financial turnaround has been based largely on our ability to deliver high-quality, innovative and desirable products everywhere we operate, in both mature and rapidly growing markets. To further our progress, we are continually improving quality and customer satisfaction, and anticipating and responding to changes in customer demand. We have aligned our product development, manufacturing and marketing organizations worldwide to deliver the right products to the right markets as efficiently as possible.

We see ourselves as much as a technology company as a car company, and our cars, utilities and trucks are more technologically connected than ever. Everything we do is based on technological innovation – whether it is quality, fuel efficiency, safety, smart design or value – the hallmarks of our One Ford plan.

We’re leveraging technology to change the way people think about midsize cars. We started this journey in 2005 with an all-new Ford Fusion that was designed to win market share from popular Japanese midsize sedans. In the years since, we have continued to improve the Fusion, adding hybrid and plug-in hybrid models that are bringing more new buyers to the brand than any other Ford vehicle.

The global Ford lineup is now one of the most extensive in the industry and includes a full spectrum of offerings from innovative small cars (B-platform products), such as the Fiesta, to large, commercial trucks sold around the world.

We have realigned our capabilities to deliver better products faster than ever before. We are continuing our investment in flexible manufacturing, which reduces costs for each new product and lets us shift production at an individual plant from model to model to respond to changes in customer demand quickly.

The C‑MAX Solar Energi Concept

In early 2014, we announced a concept car that draws power from the ultimate renewable source: the sun. The C‑MAX Solar Energi Concept is a first-of-its-kind sun-powered vehicle with the potential to deliver the best of what a plug-in hybrid offers – without depending on the electric grid for fuel. Instead of powering its battery from an electrical outlet, the Ford C‑MAX Solar Energi Concept harnesses the power of the sun by using a special concentrator that acts like a magnifying glass, directing the sun’s rays to solar panels on the vehicle roof.

The concept vehicle takes a day’s worth of sunlight to deliver the same performance as the conventional C‑MAX Energi plug-in hybrid, which draws its power from the electric grid. By using renewable power, the Ford C‑MAX Solar Energi Concept is estimated to reduce the annual greenhouse gas emissions a typical owner would produce by four metric tons.

The concept car is a collaboration project of Ford, San Jose, California-based SunPower Corp. and Atlanta-based Georgia Institute of Technology.

The technology displayed in the C‑MAX Solar Energi Concept represents a promising outlook for the future of sustainable mobility and our efforts to curb climate change.

The All-New Transit

We recently introduced our all-new 2015 Transit van, which will achieve an average of 25 percent better fuel economy and haul at least 300 pounds more than the previous E-Series.

The van will provide professional tradespeople and commercial fleet customers unmatched fuel economy, innovative new configurations and leading versatility in the expanding commercial vehicle market. With global commercial vehicle sales expected to grow by 4.8 million over the next several years to 21 million units annually by 2017, Transit represents a major opportunity.

For North America, Transit will eventually replace the E-Series nameplate, first sold in 1961 as Ford Econoline and America’s best-selling commercial van for 33 years. In other global markets, this all-new vehicle will replace popular, market-specific Transit models first sold in 1965, and the best-selling commercial vehicle in Europe.

Transit also is joined by the upgraded 2014 Ford Transit Connect, which pioneered the small van market in the United States.

We’re going from an exclusively gasoline engine lineup of two V8s and a V10 in the E-Series to offering customers a standard 3.7L V6, the same 3.5L EcoBoost® engine offered in the Ford F-150 and an all-new 3.2-liter “Power Stroke” diesel option.

Ford will offer Transit’s 3.7L V6 with a compressed natural gas/liquid propane gas (CNG/LPG) prep kit to assist customers running their vehicles with this abundant, affordable, clean fuel alternative.

The 2015 Ford Transit will be built at the recently upgraded Kansas City manufacturing facility.

Giving Customers a Choice

Ford offers customers a range of electric vehicles to meet their needs.

We offer six electrified vehicles in the U.S: the all-electric Focus Electric, the Fusion Energi and C‑MAX Energi plug-in hybrids, and three hybrid electric vehicles. We launched the Focus Electric in Europe in 2013 and plan to launch the C‑MAX Energi plug-in hybrid and a hybrid electric version of the Ford Mondeo in Europe in 2014. We plan to launch electric vehicles (EVs) in other global markets in coming years. See the Portfolio Approach section for more details.

EcoBoost^® Production

In September 2013, Ford celebrated a manufacturing milestone: We produced our 2 millionth EcoBoost engine since the launch of the line four years earlier. Growing customer demand for EcoBoost-powered vehicles in major markets worldwide is driving engine production higher. Factory output now averages more than 100,000 engines per month, up from 65,000 in 2012.

EcoBoost technology combines smaller overall engine size with turbocharging, direct injection and variable valve timing to bring customers outstanding performance and fuel economy. Ford EcoBoost engines can deliver significantly better fuel economy than larger-displacement gasoline engines.

The Ford global EcoBoost engine family includes the 1.0L three-cylinder; 1.5L, 1.6L and 2.0L four-cylinder engines; the powerful 3.5L V6; and the recently announced new 2.3L four-cylinder (Mustang, MKC) and 2.7L V6 (F-150). The technology is available in every region Ford serves worldwide and is offered on approximately 80 percent of our global nameplates.

To meet demand, we’ve invested nearly $200 million to build 2.0L EcoBoost engines at our Cleveland, Ohio, engine plant. In Europe, we are doubling production capacity at our Cologne, Germany, engine plant to more than 1,000 engines a day. This is in response to robust demand for the 1.0L EcoBoost engine, which was named International Engine of the Year in 2012 and 2013 by a panel of auto journalists. The Cologne plant has also begun production of the 1.0-liter EcoBoost for the North American market. The 2014 Ford Fiesta is the first vehicle available in the U.S. with the 1.0L EcoBoost engine. We also produce the 1.0L EcoBoost at our engine plants in Craiova, Romania, and Chongqing, China.

Our Sustainable Technologies and Alternative Fuels Plan, which highlights how we will meet our product carbon dioxide reduction goal, has positioned us to lead in our industry and will help us meet new regulatory emissions standards. In the U.S., government regulations will require approximately 35.5 mpg (fleet average) by the 2016 model year – a 30 percent improvement from the 27 mpg required for 2011 models. As consumer demand for smaller vehicles increases, we need to provide the vehicles people want, and provide them profitably, in order to remain a sustainable business.