Dramatic events at Ford announced in this June 11, 2008 Detroit News story:

http://detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080611/AUTO01/806110388/1148

And nothing here about Ford moving to electric vehicles. What good does it do to retool to gassers? Management should be executed. ;)


Seriously, what the hell is Ford thinking? Americans don't want fuel-efficient cars... They want fuel-varying cars. Options. This is the same old scam. I give Ford 3 more years.

Dave,

You make very good points, and Ford is at risk of collapsing, given:

1) Toyota and Honda offering hybrids and FCV's,
2) GM aggressively pushing the Volt development effort,
3) China / India announcing their entry into the world and North American markets with hybrids, EV's and compressed air vehicles and
4) domestic start-ups Fisker Automotive, Tesla Motors, Aptera, etc. bringing very high-tech solutions to market.

If, however, the North American market isn't quite ready to go with these advanced solutions, converting plants to offer European vehicles is a good second option, especially if they offer advanced engines - turbo diesel or E85 compatible.

I agree this plan seems far too timid, but Ford is admittedly 2 years behind GM on series hybrids, so hopefully this is just an interim plan until their series hybrids and PFCV's are available.

Really tragic to see this at Ford, aside from a PHEV Escape SUV they don't appear to have any PHEVs or BEVs online.

Ironically, at Henry Ford's Fairlane Museum in Dearborn, Michigan we can still see the all-electric (BEV) car Henry bought for his wife in the early 1900s, with a 40 mile range. Henry and Thomas Edison planned to make all-electric PHEVs in 1914, here's the news clip:

http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1212