Ford executive discusses future strategy

By Anne Christian

University of Missouri

Joe Hinrichs, the vice president of global manufacturing and labor relations at Ford Motor Co., attempted to counter the frustrations of many Americans have with the major automobile companies, particularly the thought that Ford and other Detroit auto companies aren’t doing enough to ease their contribution to oil and energy dependence.

Hinrichs, (left) speaking at the SABEW Fall Workshop in Kansas City on Monday, presented the three-step plan that Ford will use to counter its role in the problem.

In the near term -- now until 2012 -- it plans to focus on expanding use of technology already in production including EcoBoost engines and more small vehicles, hybrids and four-cylinder engines.

In the midterm -- 2012 to 2020 -- Ford will focus on advanced powertrain technologies, lighter materials, smaller engines, even more hybrids and second-generation alternative fuels.

The direction that Ford takes beyond 2020 depends on which fuel source takes center stage, whether it be hydrogen fuel cells or a yet-to-be-discovered source.

Hinrichs said he saw a failure on the part of the government. There is, to date, no national energy policy to orient the research that is going on in the energy and auto industries. Ford is spending two-thirds annually of its $7 billion research budget on developing new sources of power; however, this research lacks definitive direction.

There are an overwhelming number of avenues to explore when it comes to alternative energy sources. Every week a new product or source of energy is endorsed by someone who claims it will offer the solution to all the country's energy problems, but which of these solutions is truly viable?

Hinrichs seems to suggest that if everyone who holds a stake in the energy industry is running research programs focusing on a different avenue, then little progress will be made by 2020. But if all of this talent and these research dollars are focused in the same direction, then we will make great progress in less time.

Hinrichs also called out the media on Monday, saying that it is the job of journalists to introduce the idea of a national economic policy into public discourse. The problem of energy is not a short-term problem that will dissolve by 2020; Hinrichs says that the move from SUVs and trucks to more compact light-weight cars and hybrids seems to be part of a permanent shift in the market.

Christian is a University of Missouri journalism student attending the fall SABEW conference.

Posted Sept. 9, 2008