Bill Ford Jr. Speaks Out

An avowed environmentalist, for six years Bill Ford Jr. has straddled the elusive margins between environmental sustainability and shareholder demands as he guides Ford Motor Company amid unprecedented global automotive competition. Ford’s current chairman and CEO is the great grandson of Henry Ford, the automotive legend who brought us the mass-produced automobile, a man who also showed an environmental ethic by using panels from wooden shipping containers as Model T floorboards and experimenting with soybeans in component manufacturing. Bill Ford Jr. has a B.A. from Princeton University and an M.S. from MIT, ethereal credentials balanced by his regular-guy self as a genuine car buff and practitioner of martial arts. Here, he reflects on hybrid vehicles, propulsion options, and expanding these visions into ever-expanding world markets.

Green Car Journal: Today, there’s great interest in hybrid and other advanced vehicle technologies. How do you envision these leading to a cleaner future that could include hydrogen vehicles?

Bill Ford: “At Ford, we’re very excited about creating a path to a clean, renew-able, hydrogen-powered future, and I believe the road to that future begins with hybrid technology. Our new Ford Escape Hybrid is the cleanest and most fuel-efficient sport utility vehicle in the world. It can do everything our regular Escape can, only with 80% better fuel economy in city driving. Escape Hybrid is in great demand and our customers love it. We plan to introduce a Mercury Mariner Hybrid in 2007 and a hybrid version of our Ford Fusion compact crossover vehicle after that.”

GCJ: So how will the transition to hydrogen vehicles occur?

BF: “I believe that hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines (ICEs) are the bridge between today’s gasoline hybrids and tomorrow’s fuel cell vehicles. We are investing significant resources to advance and demonstrate this technology. Last October, we announced that we’re going to build 100 airport shuttle vans powered by hydrogen internal combustion engines in 2006, and we’ve asked BP to help develop fueling stations for airports that acquire a van. At the 2004 Challenge Bibendum in Shanghai, we introduced a 2.3-liter internal combustion engine that runs on hydrogen. It meets the toughest emissions requirements, produces virtually no CO2, and delivers performance that’s comparable to a gasoline ICE. Limited production for a real-world demonstration of this engine could come within the next year or two.

“Bringing all of these technologies full circle, our Ford Focus Fuel Cell vehicle is one of the industry’s first hybridized fuel cell vehicles. It combines the improved range and performance of hybrid technology with the benefits of hydrogen powered fuel cells. Ford is the only manufacturer actively working on all three of these technologies – hybrids, hydrogen ICEs, and fuel cells.”

GCJ: How do you view the race for the replacement of the internal combustion engine as a propulsion system into the 21st Century? Would you be surprised to still see these engines powering model year 2025 Ford products?

BF: “There are a lot of good reasons why the internal combustion engine has been the primary source of power in automobiles for the last 100 years. It’s clean, efficient, reliable, durable, and affordable. It was continually improved on for all those years and just keeps getting better, which makes it tough to beat. I think it will be around in 20 years, possibly running on hydrogen, but maybe not with the major share of the market. It’s hard to say which technology will finally emerge as the winner. We’re investing in several areas to make sure we stay on the leading edge. Five years ago I was saying that fuel cells could be the predominant automotive power source in 25 years. I still believe that’s a good assessment.”

GCJ: There’s a lot of focus these days on making automobiles “greener.” Where else do you envision society taking better actions to protect the environment and natural resources?

BF: “I strongly believe that sustainability, driven by economic, social, and environmental performance, is the most important long-term issue facing corporate America. Every business is going to have to face these issues at some point. The smart ones aren’t going to wait to be dragged into them because of consumer resentment, investor concerns, or government regulations. They’re going to realize that providing market-driven solutions to sustainability issues is an outstanding business opportunity.”

GCJ: Reports from high-profile organizations make strong assumptions about what the auto industry could do to bring new and more efficient vehicle technologies to the showroom in the short term, if it chose to do so. How would you answer this?

BF: “Predicting when and how technology will evolve is difficult. It’s even more difficult to predict when new technologies will be ready for mass production. Scientists struggle with this issue, and so do auto companies. The only difference is we have to back up our projections of future technologies with substantial investments. The automotive business is extremely competitive and we’re all trying to improve our products. If there is a better way to do something, you can bet someone will do it. The hard part is sorting out what’s feasible, affordable, and acceptable to our customers. Can we make our products better? Absolutely. We’re working hard to do that because we want to be the sustainability leader.”

GCJ: When you view new and rapidly expanding global markets like China and India, with their potential to substantially increase air pollution both regionally and globally, how do you envision ways to encourage the use of “greener” cars in these regions?

BF: “There are definitely local and regional preferences when it comes to automobiles. But people everywhere have similar feelings about environmental issues. Everyone would like to have a vehicle that is clean and fuel efficient. What they don’t want is to have to sacrifice performance or affordability in order to drive an environmentally friendly vehicle. It’s our job as a manufacturer to deliver those vehicles to all of our customers. When you look at the sales projections for emerging markets such as China and India, doing that job becomes even more critical. “My great-grandfather Henry Ford’s vision was to provide affordable transportation for the world. I want to expand that vision for the 21st century and pro-vide transportation that is affordable in every sense of the word – socially and environmentally, as well as economically. Vehicles that are affordable for the pocket and the planet. As personal mobility becomes a reality for growing numbers of people around the world, achieving that vision becomes even more important.”

GCJ: You’ve said that “we need to make it easy for people to say, ‘I’m an environmentalist and an auto enthusiast’.” How would you encourage car buffs to embrace that philosophy into the 21st Century?

BF: “The best way is to deliver vehicles that don’t require compromises or trade-offs on either side. Car buffs want to drive something that looks great and performs well. Environmentalists want a vehicle that has zero tailpipe emissions, uses a renewable fuel source, and is 100% recyclable. Why not develop a vehicle that has all of those qualities? That would be the ultimate solution…to build a car that everyone could love. That’s what we’re working toward.”