DETROIT
- Ford Motor Co. said yesterday it is
investing $450 million in production facilities where it will build hybrids,
electric vehicles, and electric vehicle batteries.
"It's a major development for our company, our community,
and our country," noted Ford chairman William Clay Ford, addressing reporters
at Ford's NAIAS booth.
The news is significant because it solidifies Ford's recent
announcements about electric vehicles. The company had already invested $550
million in the past year to transform its Michigan assembly plant from a large SUV
factory to a production site where it will build the all-new Ford Focus and the
Focus Electric.
Going forward, Ford said it will bring four hybrids and
electric vehicles to its lineup in the next three years: the Ford Transit
Connect battery electric vehicle (2010); the Ford Focus Electric passenger car
(2011); an unnamed hybrid car based on Ford's C-platform (2012); an unnamed
plug-in hybrid in 2012.
Equally important is Ford's announcement that it will bring
EV battery systems design and development in house. In its facilities, Ford
will design advanced lithium-ion batteries in house and will move production of
the battery packs from Mexico
to Michigan.
Ford says that the new engineering and production efforts will create up to
1,000 new jobs in Michigan.
"We believe battery systems development is going to be a
core competency for Ford in the 21st century," Ford said.
Almost every automaker has had to 'pick a side' when it comes to alternative fuel options and ways to divest from a reliance on gasoline. Fiat is looking to back compressed natural gas or liquid propane as an interim solution.
Designing and filling a new type of water bottle might take less engineering work, but the description will help kids understand how science, math, and engineering influence their lives even through things that seem mundane.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
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