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1、History of Ford Motor Company,The main brands of Ford,Henry Fords first attempt at a car company under his own name was the Henry Ford Company on November 3, 1901. During its early years, the company produced just a few cars a day. Groups of two or three men worked on each car, assembling it from pa
2、rts made mostly by supplier companies contracting for Ford. Within a decade the company would lead the world in the expansion and refinement of the assembly line concept; and Ford soon brought much of the part production in-house in a vertical integration that seemed a better path for the era.Henry
3、Ford was 40 years old when he founded the Ford Motor Company, which would go on to become one of the worlds largest and most profitable companies, as well as being one to survive the Great Depression. In 1908 Ford introduced the first engine with a removable cylinder head, in the Model T. In 1930, F
4、ord introduced the Model A, the first car with safety glass in the windshield.Ford launched the first low priced V8 engine powered car in 1932.,Ford offered the Lifeguard safety package from 1956, which included such innovations as a standard deep-dish steering wheel, optional front, and, for the fi
5、rst time in a car, rear seatbelts, and an optional padded dash. Ford introduced child-proof door locks into its products in 1957, and in the same year offered the first retractable hardtop on a mass-produced six-seater car. The Ford Mustang was introduced in 1964. In 1965 Ford introduced the seat be
6、lt reminder light.With the 1980s, Ford introduced several highly successful vehicles around the world. In 1990 and 1994 respectively, Ford also acquired Jaguar Cars and Aston Martin. During the late 1990s, Ford continued to sell large numbers of vehicles, in a booming American economy with a soaring
7、 stock market and low fuel prices.,By 2005, both Ford and GMs corporate bonds had been downgraded to junk status, as a result of high U.S. health care costs for an aging workforce, soaring gasoline prices, eroding market share, and an over dependence on declining SUV sales. In the latter half of 200
8、5, Chairman Bill Ford asked newly appointed Ford Americas Division President Mark Fields to develop a plan to return the company to profitability. Fields previewed the Plan, named The Way Forward, at the December 7, 2005 board meeting of the company and it was unveiled to the public on January 23, 2
9、006. “The Way Forward“ included resizing the company to match market realities, dropping some unprofitable and inefficient models, consolidating production lines, closing 14 factories and cutting 30,000 jobs.,Ford moved to introduce a range of new vehicles, including “Crossover SUVs“ built on unibod
10、y car platforms, rather than more body-on-frame chassis. In developing the hybrid electric powertrain technologies for the Ford Escape Hybrid SUV, Ford licensed similar Toyota hybrid technologies to avoid patent infringements. Ford announced that it will team up with electricity supply company South
11、ern California Edison (SCE) to examine the future of plug-in hybrids in terms of how home and vehicle energy systems will work with the electrical grid. Under the multi-million-dollar, multi-year project, Ford will convert a demonstration fleet of Ford Escape Hybrids into plug-in hybrids, and SCE wi
12、ll evaluate how the vehicles might interact with the home and the utilitys electrical grid. Some of the vehicles will be evaluated “in typical customer settings“, according to Ford.,Ford and the United Auto Workers, representing approximately 46,000 hourly workers in North America, agreed to a histo
13、ric contract settlement in November 2007 giving the company a substantial break in terms of its ongoing retiree health care costs and other economic issues. The agreement included the establishment of a company-funded, independently run Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) trust to shif
14、t the burden of retiree health care from the companys books, thereby improving its balance sheet. This arrangement took effect on January 1, 2010. The automaker reported the largest annual loss in company history in 2006 of $12.7 billion,and estimated that it would not return to profitability until
15、2009.However, Ford surprised Wall Street in the second quarter of 2007 by posting a $750 million profit. Despite the gains, the company finished the year with a $2.7 billion loss, largely attributed to finance restructuring at Volvo.,During November 2008, Ford, together with Chrysler and General Mot
16、ors, sought government bridge loans at Congressional hearings in Washington, D.C. in the face of conditions caused by the 2008 financial crisis. The three companies presented action plans for the sustainability of the industry. Ford opted not to seek government loans. GM and Chrysler received govern
17、ment loans and financing through T.A.R.P. legislation funding provisions.On December 19, the cost of credit default swaps to insure the debt of Ford was 68 percent the sum insured for five years in addition to annual payments of 5 percent. Through April 2009, Fords strategy of debt for equity exchan
18、ges, erased $9.9 billion in liabilities (28% of its total), in order to leverage its cash position. These actions yielded Ford a $2.7 billion profit in fiscal year 2009, the companys first full-year profit in four years.In 2012, Fords corporate bonds were upgraded from junk to investment grade again, citing sustainable, lasting improvements.,
