Ford Motor Plans to Bring 100 New Vehicles to Market in 5 Years
As Ford Motor Company prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary, the company is back to basics with its revitalization plan, said Edsel B. Ford II, addressing the Automotive Press Association last week at the Detroit Athletic Club.
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| Edsel B. Ford II, great-grandson of Henry Ford, poses besides the 20 millionth Ford vehicle ever produced, a 1931 Model A Fordor Town Sedan that was recently restored, outside the Detroit Athletic Club. (Photo: Joseph Cabadas, Canadian Auto Press) |
"We believe that Ford's revitalization and our history are part of the same story," said Ford, company board member and great-grandson of the founder. "For we are getting back to basics, designing, engineering, building vehicles that stir passion in the hearts and souls of our customers."
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| Forty-three Model T's travel through rural Minnesota on their way to Ford Motor Company's centennial celebration in Dearborn, Michigan. (Photo: Ford Motor) |
"We are reapplying the vision and values that founded Ford and have sustained us for an entire century," Ford continued. "This is truly a pivotal year for Ford, a milestone where we pause, if only for a moment, to look back at where we've been and reaffirm that we're on the right road to the future."
The Ford Centennial celebration, being held around Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., from June 12-16, is significant for countless people around the globe because Henry Ford not only founded a company, but he also changed the world, Edsel Ford said. Ford literally put the world on wheels with its Model T, an affordable car that gave people personal mobility. And, another innovation was the five-dollar-day, eight hour a day work week, which raised the standard of living for working people--at a time when the average industrial worker took a full week of nine-plus hour days to earn as much.