Ford earns 1,000th NASCAR national series win (Yahoo! Sports)
Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) earned its 1,000th NASCAR national series win on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich. Greg Biffle did the honors as the Blue Oval celebrated about an hour drive west of its Dearborn headquarters with his fourth career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at the track. The win moved him from the Chase bubble in 10th to eighth. “Ford has been an important part of our sport since their first win,” said NASCAR President Mike Helton. “We congratulate the entire Ford Motor Company and the race teams, past and present, that have contributed in this very significant milestone of their 1,000th win.”
Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) is going back to buttons and knobs. Punished by third-party quality reports because of the difficulty of using its touch-screen multimedia system, called MyFord Touch, the auto maker will reprise tuning and volume knobs for the radio as it redesigns existing models, a top Ford executive said. It is a reversal for Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F), which has been a first-mover with installing mobile-phone-based technologies, voice recognition and touch screens in its vehicles. The systems have been a big selling point for Ford with its vehicles, but also have dragged down its reputation for quality.
Ford: Regenerative Braking Has Saved 100 Million Gallons Of Gas (Green Car Reports)
It’s pretty easy to take regenerative braking for granted, these days–virtually every electric and hybrid car on sale uses it to some extent. Maybe we should be a little more appreciative of its benefits, as Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) estimates owners of its vehicles have saved 100 million gallons of gasoline over the past 15 years, thanks to braking regen. When you consider that only applies to Ford vehicles, the gas saved through regeneration in all vehicles must be unimaginably vast.
Ford Pushes New Models Over Rentals for European Revival (Bloomberg)
Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) is counting on new models such as the EcoSport compact sport-utility vehicle to help reduce reliance on low-margin sales to rental-car companies in Europe to stem losses in the region. Ford plans to lower its share of deliveries to rental fleets to less than the European industry’s 13 percent average by early 2015 from 17 percent now, Roelant de Waard, the U.S. company’s head of sales for the region, said in a telephone interview. The carmaker plans to continue boosting the proportion of sales to retail and company-fleet buyers, which typically order cars at higher prices.
Ford Motor sees more vehicles exported from India: Alan Mulally (Economic Times)
Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) expects to see more of its vehicles exported from India, Chief Executive Alan Mulally said, as the company looks to build more vehicles using global platforms, or chassis, to cut costs and quicken product development. Mulally is on a visit to Chennai ahead of the launch of Ford’s EcoSport compact crossover. Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) plans to export the EcoSport from Chennai for the European market where the vehicle will compete in a growing, but increasingly crowded segment. Its launch is expected in late 2013.
