The Wall Street Journal
DEARBORN, Mich.—Ford Motor Co. is to unveil its all-new Focus compact car on Monday, and a telling detail is a small bump on each of the vehicle's taillights.
These lips jut out just enough to interrupt the airflow around the back of the car, reducing turbulence and allowing the redesigned Focus to travel a bit farther on a tank of gas. Most customers might never notice, but it is the kind of detail Ford engineers now refer to as "one percenters"—tweaks that add up to increased fuel efficiency.
These incremental improvements are actually part of a larger plan launched by Chief Executive Alan Mulally when he arrived in 2006: introduce only the best-in-class cars and trucks.
Mr. Mulally is betting that winning bragging rights in key areas such as quality and fuel efficiency will enable Ford to pull customers away from age-old rivals General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC, and move the auto maker into an elite class of global giants that includes Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen AG.
Leading on quality and safety are the "price of admission" to the top ranks of the global auto industry, Mr. Mulally said last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He added that improving fuel efficiency and offering new technologies are "strategically important because green technology and smart innovations are helping us serve our customers and differentiate Ford."
Since 2006, Mr. Mulally has shed Ford's noncore brands, steadied its balance sheet, accelerated new-model development and cut production to match consumer demand—all in an effort to turn Ford into a leaner, more-focused organization.
He also has pushed the company's engineers to make sure that Ford can claim that its vehicles are the best in their segments. The auto maker has had some success. In November, Consumer Reports magazine put Ford's overall quality on the same level as that of Toyota and Honda Motor Co., and rated the quality of the Ford Fusion sedan as better than that of the segment's juggernauts, the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.A few months ago, the Ford Taurus full-size sedan arrived with some safety innovations that are normally found only in luxury cars, such as a system that warns drivers of vehicles entering their blind spots. On the technology front, Ford has been turning heads with its Sync in-car entertainment system that links to iPods and cellphones.
There is no guarantee this will pave the way for Ford's recovery. Detroit auto makers have made previous promises to produce world-class cars that never panned out. Foreign rivals such as Toyota, Honda, and Volkswagen are flush with cash compared with Ford, and have stronger reputations among passenger-car buyers.
Americans also have proved fickle regarding fuel economy. They flocked to small cars when gas prices were high, but a Consumer Reports survey released last week showed respondents put safety, quality and value at the top of the list of factors they consider the most important when buying a new car. The number of people who listed "environmentally friendly/green" as one of their top three priorities fell eight percentage points over last year's results.
For Ford, it's so far, so good. In 2009, Ford increased its U.S. market share by 1.1 percentage points to 16.1%, and reported almost $1 billion in net income in the third quarter.
The new Focus is to be introduced at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Monday and is expected to go into production in Europe and the U.S. in the second half of the year. Pricing for the car hasn't been released yet.
The car will be available with a new version of the Sync system that can provide wireless Internet access to passengers, but perhaps Ford's biggest effort went into improving the vehicle's fuel economy.
At the Detroit auto show Monday, company chairman Bill Ford is expected to say the redesigned Focus will be the class-leading car in fuel economy where it will be sold: China, Europe and North America.
The new Focus doesn't yet have a miles-per-gallon rating from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but people familiar with the matter said Ford engineers expect the car to go at least 40 miles on a gallon of gas in highway driving. That would put the new Focus ahead of the older model and competitors such as the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla and Chevrolet Cobalt, all of which are rated at 35 or 36 mpg on the highway.
Ford's new focus on fuel efficiency is a big change for the company known for its F-150 pickup trucks and Explorer sport-utility vehicles. Until recently, the thinking in Ford's vehicle-development group was "we're losing money as a corporation and we need to strip cost out" to improve profit margins, said William F. Gubing III, North American program manager for Ford's small cars.
When gasoline spiked to $4 a gallon, Mr. Mulally and product development chief Derrick Kuzak drove a new mantra: "Fuel economy leads to sales, which leads to profitability," Mr. Gubing said.
Then, at the start of last year, the company widened its approach, often seeking ways to eke out small gains. A fuel-economy course became mandatory for all engineers. Ford created a Web site for employees to offer up their own suggestions to improve its vehicles' fuel efficiency.
Hundreds of ideas poured in to try to claim the $100 prize for every accepted concept, said Ford's head of vehicle energy-management engineering, Nizar Trigui. The company has adopted at least a dozen of the ideas, but Mr. Trigui declined to describe them because they are still under development to be used in future products.
One feature adopted from luxury car makers in the Focus is an active grille shutter. Operating like Venetian blinds, the shutters under the hood close up at higher speed to prevent air from entering the engine compartment and improve aerodynamic performance by 6% on the highway. At slower speeds, the blinds open up, allowing more air under the hood to help with engine cooling not necessary at higher speeds.
Other improvements include tucking the windshield-wiper blades below the hood to improves the car's aerodynamic performance. Engineers also may add small arrow-shaped grooves on the side rear-view mirrors to reduce wind drag, features now found on the Ford Taurus and Flex crossover vehicle.
But each approach still has to be hashed out between engineers and designers, who often bristle at fuel-economy changes that impinge on a car's overall styling.
The first approach to the taillight lip "was a wing off the back of the car," Mr. Gubing said. "The designers said, 'No way am I putting a wing on the back of my car,' " he added.
But when the large wing was reduced to a small bump, Focus designers got on board. Today, "fuel economy holds a much bigger percentage of leverage in the debate," Mr. Gubing said.
These lips jut out just enough to interrupt the airflow around the back of the car, reducing turbulence and allowing the redesigned Focus to travel a bit farther on a tank of gas. Most customers might never notice, but it is the kind of detail Ford engineers now refer to as "one percenters"—tweaks that add up to increased fuel efficiency.
These incremental improvements are actually part of a larger plan launched by Chief Executive Alan Mulally when he arrived in 2006: introduce only the best-in-class cars and trucks.
Mr. Mulally is betting that winning bragging rights in key areas such as quality and fuel efficiency will enable Ford to pull customers away from age-old rivals General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC, and move the auto maker into an elite class of global giants that includes Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen AG.
Leading on quality and safety are the "price of admission" to the top ranks of the global auto industry, Mr. Mulally said last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He added that improving fuel efficiency and offering new technologies are "strategically important because green technology and smart innovations are helping us serve our customers and differentiate Ford."
Since 2006, Mr. Mulally has shed Ford's noncore brands, steadied its balance sheet, accelerated new-model development and cut production to match consumer demand—all in an effort to turn Ford into a leaner, more-focused organization.
He also has pushed the company's engineers to make sure that Ford can claim that its vehicles are the best in their segments. The auto maker has had some success. In November, Consumer Reports magazine put Ford's overall quality on the same level as that of Toyota and Honda Motor Co., and rated the quality of the Ford Fusion sedan as better than that of the segment's juggernauts, the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.A few months ago, the Ford Taurus full-size sedan arrived with some safety innovations that are normally found only in luxury cars, such as a system that warns drivers of vehicles entering their blind spots. On the technology front, Ford has been turning heads with its Sync in-car entertainment system that links to iPods and cellphones.
There is no guarantee this will pave the way for Ford's recovery. Detroit auto makers have made previous promises to produce world-class cars that never panned out. Foreign rivals such as Toyota, Honda, and Volkswagen are flush with cash compared with Ford, and have stronger reputations among passenger-car buyers.
Americans also have proved fickle regarding fuel economy. They flocked to small cars when gas prices were high, but a Consumer Reports survey released last week showed respondents put safety, quality and value at the top of the list of factors they consider the most important when buying a new car. The number of people who listed "environmentally friendly/green" as one of their top three priorities fell eight percentage points over last year's results.
For Ford, it's so far, so good. In 2009, Ford increased its U.S. market share by 1.1 percentage points to 16.1%, and reported almost $1 billion in net income in the third quarter.
The new Focus is to be introduced at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Monday and is expected to go into production in Europe and the U.S. in the second half of the year. Pricing for the car hasn't been released yet.
The car will be available with a new version of the Sync system that can provide wireless Internet access to passengers, but perhaps Ford's biggest effort went into improving the vehicle's fuel economy.
At the Detroit auto show Monday, company chairman Bill Ford is expected to say the redesigned Focus will be the class-leading car in fuel economy where it will be sold: China, Europe and North America.
The new Focus doesn't yet have a miles-per-gallon rating from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but people familiar with the matter said Ford engineers expect the car to go at least 40 miles on a gallon of gas in highway driving. That would put the new Focus ahead of the older model and competitors such as the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla and Chevrolet Cobalt, all of which are rated at 35 or 36 mpg on the highway.
Ford's new focus on fuel efficiency is a big change for the company known for its F-150 pickup trucks and Explorer sport-utility vehicles. Until recently, the thinking in Ford's vehicle-development group was "we're losing money as a corporation and we need to strip cost out" to improve profit margins, said William F. Gubing III, North American program manager for Ford's small cars.
When gasoline spiked to $4 a gallon, Mr. Mulally and product development chief Derrick Kuzak drove a new mantra: "Fuel economy leads to sales, which leads to profitability," Mr. Gubing said.
Then, at the start of last year, the company widened its approach, often seeking ways to eke out small gains. A fuel-economy course became mandatory for all engineers. Ford created a Web site for employees to offer up their own suggestions to improve its vehicles' fuel efficiency.
Hundreds of ideas poured in to try to claim the $100 prize for every accepted concept, said Ford's head of vehicle energy-management engineering, Nizar Trigui. The company has adopted at least a dozen of the ideas, but Mr. Trigui declined to describe them because they are still under development to be used in future products.
One feature adopted from luxury car makers in the Focus is an active grille shutter. Operating like Venetian blinds, the shutters under the hood close up at higher speed to prevent air from entering the engine compartment and improve aerodynamic performance by 6% on the highway. At slower speeds, the blinds open up, allowing more air under the hood to help with engine cooling not necessary at higher speeds.
Other improvements include tucking the windshield-wiper blades below the hood to improves the car's aerodynamic performance. Engineers also may add small arrow-shaped grooves on the side rear-view mirrors to reduce wind drag, features now found on the Ford Taurus and Flex crossover vehicle.
But each approach still has to be hashed out between engineers and designers, who often bristle at fuel-economy changes that impinge on a car's overall styling.
The first approach to the taillight lip "was a wing off the back of the car," Mr. Gubing said. "The designers said, 'No way am I putting a wing on the back of my car,' " he added.
But when the large wing was reduced to a small bump, Focus designers got on board. Today, "fuel economy holds a much bigger percentage of leverage in the debate," Mr. Gubing said.
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