Ford puts 1bn behind UK research in drive to cut carbon emissions

Investment will help secure 9,500 jobs and bring in greener cars across the range Mark Milne, industrial editorTuesday July 18, 2006The Guardian
Ford Motor Company said yesterday it was planning to invest £1bn over the next six years in Britain to develop greener cars. The money will be used to develop lighter weight models across the Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo brands, using more efficient engines and a range of fuels to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.
Ford said it was the largest investment in the development of environmental technologies by a car manufacturer in Britain and would help safeguard the jobs of 9,500 engineers at its UK research and development centres.

"Climate change is one of the most fundamental challenges for our society, our industry and our company. The scale of the challenge requires a change in mindset," said Lewis Booth, chairman and chief executive of Ford of Europe and Premier Automotive Group.
Ford said the money would be generated by "redirecting" cash from savings made by greater coordination between Ford's research and development operations across Europe, which include sites in Coventry, Warwickshire and Essex. "We will be doing things once, rather than two or three times ... we will see some huge benefits."
Ford has set ambitious targets for its new initiative. Once the six-year programme is complete it is hoping to have cut CO2 emission levels across the range - including the PAG marques, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo, by the equivalent of the average emissions of a city the size of Newcastle upon Tyne.
It will look at a range of technologies from lighter vehicles, using aluminium rather than steel, petrol engines using advanced direct injection, new transmission systems, hybrid systems - which use electric motors alongside the conventional internal combustion engine - and systems designed to tell drivers how to drive to use fuel efficiently.
More than 100 models will be included in the programme. Mr Booth stressed that Ford would seek to apply new environmental technologies right across its product range. "We are not going to introduce just one or two high-profile green cars that sell in relatively low numbers and leave it at that. By deploying these technologies across the breadth of our product range - mass market and premium products, passenger cars and commercial vehicles - we can deliver far more significant reductions in the total amount of CO2 generated by our total vehicle fleet."
Improving the emissions levels of the Ford Focus, which sells 145,000 units a year in Britain, by a small percentage would "deliver greater reductions in CO2 emitted into the atmosphere than the combined effect of all hybrid models currently sold in the UK", Mr Booth said. The company is planning to produce a standard Ford Focus capable of 70 miles to the gallon and emitting less than 100 grams of CO2 per kilometre .
Ford's chief technical officer, Richard Parry Jones, said that using aluminium in the latest Jaguar XJ model rather than steel cut the weight by 40%, "the weight of a baby elephant".
Though Ford's only remaining vehicle plant in Britain produces Transit vans, the country is one of its leading centres for engine manufacture. Dagenham, which specialises in diesel engines, and Bridgend, where it makes petrol engines, produce 700,000 engines a year each - which is likely to increase to 1m by the end of the decade. According to Ford, almost one in four of the engines it uses worldwide is made in Britain.
Mr Booth said Ford was the fourth-largest spender on research and development in Britain and the largest among carmakers, accounting for more than 80% of the total. Britain produces about 1.6m cars a year compared with 923,000 in 1980, but the car industry employs fewer people with only 175,000 workers now compared with 442,000.
Ford's initiative was welcomed by the transport secretary, Douglas Alexander. "There is no bigger long-term challenge facing us than climate change. That is why it is very important for all of us - government, business and individuals - to act. Today's announcement ... is good news for the environment, British jobs and the wider economy."
Yesterday Mr Booth made it plain that Ford saw an important role for the government in reducing carbon emissions, arguing it had to set the right legislative and fiscal framework to allow competing environmental technologies to flourish. "That means focusing on the CO2 outcomes rather than the vehicle or fuel technologies that deliver them."
Mr Parry Jones acknowledged that the new greener cars would have to be desirable and affordable. "People are never going to give up desirable cars to be green. It can't be a hair shirt." The new technologies could add as much as £1,000 to the cost of producing a new car. The company would have to find efficiencies to claw back some of the cost rather than pass it all on to the buyer.
Ford's plan interrupts a recent flow of bad news for the industry, with the collapse of MG Rover, job losses at Jaguar, PSA Peugeot-Citroën planning to close its plant at Ryton and Vauxhall reducing shifts at its Ellesmere Port plant. Roger Maddison, national officer for the Amicus union, said: "This isn't new money, nevertheless we are pleased that they are making a firm investment in the UK. They are a valuable workforce ... and it is a shame that others like Peugeot have failed to take a similar decision."Special reportsCar industry in the UKGlobal recession