Auto For Speed

After nearly a year of waiting, the first passenger electric vehicle wearing the Blue Oval as a logo broke cover this week in Las Vegas, where Ford is attending the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show. The Ford Focus electric, a Focus in nature but not in spirit, will become available in 2011 in North America and Europe, well after the first EVs would have paved the way for a bright new future.

The flagship of green cars manufactured by Ford features a Ford-engineered lithium-ion battery pack (developed with LG Chem, the supplier of the batteries for the Chevy Volt) which supports recharging from both 120V and 240V sockets. The batteries will give the model “enough range to cover the majority of daily driving habits of Americans” and, what more important in light of the future green wars, “a mile-per-gallon equivalent better than Chevrolet Volt,“ as Ford says.

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Everything Alan Mulally has learned, experienced, and changed at Ford Motor Company is encompassed in the 2011 Ford Explorer. A bestseller at 400,000-plus per year in the ’90s, the Explorer met its automotive Waterloo during the Firestone tread-separation debacle. Sales of the body-on-frame Explorer dwindled to 52,190 in 2009, as Ford was launching its new Taurus. Ford redesigned the sedan far beyond its original intentions, though retaining the Volvo-derived D4 platform. Now, thanks to Mulally’s push for quicker updates of Ford models, it’s the Explorer’s turn.

The new, unibody Explorer borrows the Taurus’ D4 architecture, making it a Taurus-level update of the Freestyle/Taurus X. In the Explorer, the architecture offers better packaging, fuel mileage, handling, and maneuverability for SUV-crazy Americans who long ago tired of trucky dynamics.

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Ford’s vice president of design, J Mays, has released details about the company’s new styling direction.

Previewed by the Start concept, which recently debuted at the Beijing Motor Show, the design language will attempt to give cars a “warmth and charm” consumers can “bond with.” As Mays explains, in an interview with the Detroit Free Press, “People purchase products because they are prepared to spend part of their life with it. It is an emotional relationship.”

While Ford’s European designs have been attractive, American products have fared much worse. As Mays bluntly stated, “Five years ago, we were a commodity.” This has started to change, thanks to the introduction of the 2010 Taurus and 2011 Fiesta, but more work needs to be done.

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“Makes a great boat anchor.” That’s how our editor-in-chief, Angus MacKenzie, neatly summarizes the V-6 engine in the 2010 Ford Mustang. The so-called “Cologne” six, produced by Ford of Germany in varying displacements for more than FOUR DECADES (currently it’s a single-cam, 4.0-liter), is rough, noisy, and underpowered (210 horses) and probably cheats on its taxes. Single-handedly, it knocked the Mustang out of contention for our 2010 Car of the Year award (the V-8-powered Mustang GT and GT500, in contrast, earned raves). We admire this motor like we admire Balloon Boy Dad.

But now — and none too soon — it’s gone. For the 2011 model year, starting this spring, the Mustang jettisons the stinky Cologne in favor of a sophisticated new DOHC 3.7-liter V-6 that banishes the taint of its predecessor like a rainbow after a hurricane. Ford graciously provided MT with an exclusive, preproduction ride (no wheel time yet, though) at the maker’s Arizona Proving Grounds. Listen up: The news is very good indeed.

We brought along the Mustang’s… read full caption.

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The famous Cobra badge has returned on the newest generation Ford Mustang that was made public at the LA car Show last year. The new Shelby GT500 that should be available in both coupe and convertible versions will make its world debut at the Detroit show later this month with sales following in spring 2009. Read the rest of this entry »