TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk caught up with Dr. Wolfgang Schneider at the Frankfurt Motor Show 2009. Dr. Schneider is Vice President, Legal, Governmental & Environmental Affairs of Ford of Europe, and with the blue oval announcing four major new green-themed advancements at the show, including the all-new EcoBoost petrol engine and the latest generation Ford Focus ECOnetic with Start/Stop technology he was the perfect candidate to answer questions on where the company was heading.
Question: Can you tell explain Ford’s strategy for introducing greener cars?
Answer: Ford's broad general direction is less and less CO2 emissions, with the ultimate goal of zero emission vehicles. However we cannot provide an accurate timeframe when this ultimate goal will be achieved, it may take over 50 years, we cannot be certain at this current time. However at Ford we see three clear stages to achieve this.
The first stage is where we're at right now. Using conventional technology in the main but that is optimised for maximum efficiency – that's things likes the ECOnetic and EcoBoost. Ecoboost is a petrol engine technology that gets more out of the same engine. ECOnetic is similar, looking at friction reduction, weight and engine management, things such as camshaft timing and turbocharging.
Second stage is a transition stage, which is where the company is about to enter into. This stage is where alternative technology is introduced such as biofuels, LPG, and hybrid technology. Ford's new Ford Focus ECOnetic is a partial hybrid, where the Start/Stop technology is used to stop the engine when stationary at lights or in heavy traffic. We will start to see electrification begin to creep into vehicles and ranges.
Finally the third stage is purely electric vehicles or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles; however at Ford we don't know which one will be prevalent in the future therefore we are working on both technologies. By announcing both the Ford Focus ECOnetic with Start/Stop technology and the Ford Focus BEV we are showing that the company is working on greener technology.
Q: What challenges do Ford face in launching “third stage” vehicles?
A: We have to be conscience that we cannot simply shift the emissions problem from the car to the power station, we need to develop renewable sources of energy and all this needs to come together at the same time, this is what will take time to achieve. Ford will be at the forefront of the movement, however unlike some manufacturers we don't charge high prices for our vehicles so we have to consider our customers. While we want to achieve zero emissions one day we need to cater for our customers and at the moment it looks like electric vehicles will be double the price, we are talking perhaps £20,000 to £30,000 or £40,000 to £60,000, which is very expensive. Therefore we will continue to run trials, such as the Ford Focus BEV trial in London, until the price drops. In the meantime we will continue to provide our customers with affordable solutions – affordable sustainability. We may be a little later to introduce a production electric vehicle but we think more impact comes from a mass solution.
At Ford we have recently announced an electric Ford Focus will be available in the USA during 2011 and if all goes well I wouldn't be surprised to see a similar announcement for Europe but we aren't sure yet.
Q: Are Ford working on full hybrid technology?
A: Hybrids are also in the pipeline and this technology will come early in the next decade. Ford sees Hybrid technology mainly benefitting larger models. Small cars such as the Fiesta and Focus already achieve good CO2 figures thanks toECOnetic and the potential in the EcoBoost engine family.
Q: How efficient can diesel engines become?
A: Each time we launch a new generation of diesel engine we think we might be nearing the limit of reducing emissions however we continue to find new improvements. Right now we think that an overall product range average of 90 to 95g/km of CO2 is achievable and this is what the EU is asking all manufacturers to do by 2020. We believe that is about the limit we can reach using conventional technology from today's perspective. To reduce overall emissions across a range of cars, both large and small, after that you need to introduce alternative powertrains.
Some of our competitors are saying that they will have large numbers of electric vehicles on the road early the next decade however we aren't so sure about that and we are also not sure about the affordability of such cars at the current time.
Q: Can you tell us more about the new EcoMode system?
A: The new Ford Focus ECOnetic also introduces a new green technology that we are calling EcoMode. This system is purely to help the driver achieve greater fuel economy, in that it is a visualisation of a driver's style on the road. Utilising 3 flowers on the dashboard all the family can get involved and we want to make green driving become an enjoyable pastime.
Q: EcoBoost is a new petrol engine platform, can you tell us more?
A: So far we've seen diesel engines gain big reductions for both fuel consumption and CO2 emissions however diesel is becoming more expensive and at some point it will become scarce therefore Ford's idea with the EcoBoost engine is to achieve the same CO2 savings in a petrol engine as have been seen in diesels – and EcoBoost gets very close to that. 1.6 litre and 2.0 litre engines have been announced with a smaller version also in development.
Q: How is Ford interacting with other stakeholders in regard to electric car uptake?
A: Ford is playing a proactive part in trying to enable the introduction of electric infrastructure with discussions with key stakeholders and European governments, however the solution doesn't sit with the motor industry rather with the energy providers and the local communities. To make electric vehicles succeed we need to see recharging points in cities, at work and at home – and we are currently trialling this in London in conjunction with Scottish and Southern Electric. Happily though we are running through open doors, everybody wants this to happen from government to energy providers. We need to solution to be a Europe wide, if not worldwide, there needs to be an accord on voltage types and plug types – right now the industry is all going in the right direction, just not in the same direction.
Times have changed as Ford released the TH!NK range of electric cars approximately 10 years ago, however we were too early and there wasn't the motivation from society for such a product. It proves that if you do things too early it is as bad as doing things too late.
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