From the Detroit Free Press: Ford Motor will today announce that it is on course to add 7,000 new jobs through the end of next year, according to a person familiar with the planning.
Of those jobs, 1,800 have already been announced for Ford's Louisville plant, where the Ford Escape SUV is built, and another 2,200 blue-collar jobs and 750 salaried jobs will come by year's end.
Another 2,000 jobs will come next year.
The move comes as Ford puts the finishing touches on its 2006 Way Forward turnaround and begins a period of expansion. Ford is expected to post a profit of $8.2 billion for 2010 and sales are stronger than they have been in years. Sales were up 19.5% last year.
The automaker is also planning to embark on an aggressive strategy to expand its fuel-efficient car models, with a new emphasis on plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars.
"We are going to have, clearly, the most comprehensive electrification strategy available," Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally told the Free Press in a recent interview.
Today at the 2011 North American International Auto Show, Ford is to show off plug-in hybrid and gasoline hybrid versions of its C-Max, a minivan coming to the U.S. from Europe in 2012, as well as a battery-powered Focus Electric compact car.
James Tetreault, Ford's vice president of North American manufacturing, said he expects to add a third shift to Ford's Wayne assembly plant where those models are built by 2012, bringing the workforce to 4,400 from 3,200 today.
Customers, Pick Your Fuel
While Ford might be behind some rivals in offering mainstream electric cars -- a market it will enter later this year with the Focus Electric compact -- the Dearborn automaker has taken a deliberately different tack.
Already the No. 1 domestic seller of hybrids, Ford plans to promote the wide variety of fuel-efficient models across its lineup, stressing the words "choice" and "family of electric vehicles."
Ford is planning to launch five hybrid, plug-in or battery-powered cars in North America by 2012, and it already sells several others.
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Showing posts with label DETROIT AUTO SHOW 2011. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DETROIT AUTO SHOW 2011. Show all posts
On Monday, January 10, 2011
On
The car that runs on electricity for 40 miles before a backup gas engine kicks in beat out the Nissan Leaf, another electric, and Hyundai Sonata in the annual ceremony on the first day of media previews for the Detroit auto show.
The Ford Explorer won the truck of the year, the third year in a row the Dearborn-based automaker nabbed the honor. Truck finalists were the Dodge Durango, the Explorer and Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Forty-nine auto journalists from the U.S. and Canada made the picks. The vehicles are judged on innovation, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction and value.
It's the latest in a string of accolades for the Volt, which went on sale in limited markets in December and costs $40,280. It was named the Green Car of the Year at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November and Motor Trend and Automobile Magazine named the Volt the 2011 car of the year the same month.
General Motors Co. Vice Chairman Tom Stephens said the Volt "represents the soul" of the new GM, on the rebound after enduring a government-led bankruptcy in 2009. GM sold between 250 and 350 Chevy Volts in December and Nissan's sales totaled less than 10 Leaf sedans in the past two weeks. Production for both is slowly ramping up.
It will be well into 2012 before both the Volt and Leaf, which costs $32,780, are available nationwide. Early demand is strong: About 50,000 people already are on waiting lists.
The Volts are being assembled in Detroit. GM predicts it will sell 10,000 of them in 2011 and between 35,000 and 45,000 in 2012. By way of comparison, Chevrolet sold 187,250 Malibu sedans in the first 11 months of 2010 with sticker prices that start at $21,975.
Stephens said the Volt is not a "science experiment" — but "meant to be a high-volume vehicle" as the industry makes early moves beyond petroleum as a primary fuel source.
Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, said the company reinvented the SUV with the Explorer, basing it on car underpinnings and improving its fuel economy over the old model. Customers, he said, wanted a rugged vehicle that can also handle suburbia.
Awards are often used by automakers in advertising.
Last year's winners were both Ford vehicles: the Fusion Hybrid midsize sedan and Ford Transit Connect. This is the 18th year for the picks.
On Sunday, December 26, 2010
Behind the front-page news were the more personal stories of job losses — hundreds of thousands across the industry, according to the U.S. Labor Department — that were part of the aftershocks. Even so, some who found themselves on the outside discovered that their talents were in demand elsewhere.
Instead of playing musical chairs with competitors or starting down entirely new career paths where their knowledge and experience might not be so highly valued, many of these Detroit graduates have found greener pastures at electric car startups and suppliers.
Technological advances in batteries, motors and electronic controls have created new possibilities for electric-car ventures. After plodding along for two decades, the carmaking operations are accelerating with the help of a new business model: small, agile organizations aided by a network of outside suppliers, developers and consultants.
That’s good news for the engineers and executives with the expertise needed to move this emerging technology out of the lab, down an assembly line and into customers’ hands.
Credit the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for greasing the skids at the manufacturer level. Nearly $3 billion US in loans and grants helped firms developing electric, hybrid-electric and alternative-fuel vehicles gain momentum. The companies, in turn, often hired former Detroit Three employees who had the required skills.
The downturn made available proven leaders such as Jim Taylor, who, after a 30-year career on small and large engineering teams, was ready for a change. One of the first dozen employees of GM’s Saturn division, then later the head of Cadillac and Hummer, Taylor had enjoyed more highs than lows. After GM, he joined Amp Electric Vehicles, an Ohio startup whose ranks include members of the team that developed GM’s EV1 electric car in the 1990s, as vice chair and chief executive.
“The opportunities here range from the conversion of existing cars to electric drive to establishing new relationships with major manufacturers to helping develop electric-propulsion components,” Taylor said. “All the experience I gained at GM prepared me well for this environment, where there are far more questions than answers.”
He’ll have plenty to do. A utility in Iceland recently hired Amp to provide 1,000 electric SUVs, and Michigan-based DTE Energy wants Amp to electrify part of its fleet.
Tom Reichenbach, chief engineer at Aptera, an electric carmaker, is another Detroit graduate thriving in this emerging field. Though he lacked electric-car experience, Reichenbach spent the last half of his 26-year stint at Ford working on racing and high-performance projects. As engineering manager for the special vehicles team, he helped to develop the Ford GT and the Mustang Shelby GT500. And until he left two years ago, he was assistant chief engineer for the EcoBoost V-6 engine.
“I was lucky to enjoy a string of fascinating projects,” Reichenbach said. “But when the downturn hit and Ford was into a fourth round of layoffs, I updated my resumé. When my boss mentioned that, at 56, I was eligible for retirement, I knew I was in trouble.”
He added: “Everyone in Detroit experienced a scare when gas prices spiked and buying habits changed overnight. But I lost faith in Ford’s future when the company’s entire electric vehicle team was part of the first round of engineering layoffs.”
Looking for a challenge less dependent on petroleum supplies, Reichenbach interviewed at two electric-car startups, Aptera and Fisker. Tesla Motors, also on his list, was not hiring when he went prospecting for a new job.
Aptera’s outlook convinced Reichenbach it was a company where he could thrive. “Their business plan was modest, and their growth prospects were geared to cash flow,” he recalled. “Aptera’s desire to build a light and aerodynamically efficient — albeit unusual looking — car made sense.”
He said his new job “is way more fun and rewarding than working at Ford,” adding, “The four-year incubation times there were torture.”
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On
BYD, a battery-maker that branched out into the auto business, said today that it also will display solar panels, home energy storage units and other environmentally friendly products and technologies in an exhibit titled "Green City Solutions."
BYD, which counts U.S. billionaire Warren Buffet among its investors, is one of China's most closely observed automakers because of its battery expertise. The company plans to export vehicles to the United States in the near future.
The BYD e6Premier, equipped with an iron-phosphate "FE" battery, has a 186-mile range on city roads and a top speed of 87 miles per hour. It takes 40 minutes to fully charge the e6 using a 100-kilowatt fast-charger and six hours on a standard outlet.
BYD's S6DM SUV can travel 38 miles on electric power alone and more than 310 miles when engaging a 2-litre gas engine. A 10-kilowatt electric motor is paired with a six-speed dual-clutch transmission propelling the front wheels, while a powerful 75-kilowatt electric motor powers the rear wheels.
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On Friday, December 24, 2010
There's also some uncertainty surrounding when these two models will go on sale, possibly in 2013. More news are certainly likely to emerge from Detroit. Check this Prius MPV video with skateboarder, green enthusiast Bob Burnquist after the jump.
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