Please see the attached file.

Ford Today

Today, Ford Motor Company manufactures automobiles under the highly-recognized Lincoln and Mercury brand names. In 1958, Ford introduced a new marquee, the Edsel, but poor sales lead to its discontinuation in 1960. Later, in 1986, the Mercury brand was released, but met a similar fate in 1988.

Ford has major manufacturing operations in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and several other countries, including South Africa, where following divestment during apartheid, it once again has a wholly-owned subsidiary. It also has a joint venture with Mahindra in India.

Ford also has a cooperative agreement with GAZ. In recent years Ford has acquired Aston Martin, Jaguar, Volvo Cars and Land Rover, as well as a controlling share of Mazda, with which it operates an American joint venture plant called Auto Alliance. It has spun off its parts division under the name Visteon. Its prestige brands, with the exception of Lincoln, are managed through its Premier Automotive Group.

Ford's non-manufacturing operations include organizations in the financial services (Ford Credit) and automobile rental (Hertz) businesses.

Electric Vehicle

Under the leadership of the current chairman, William Clay Ford, Jr., the company (and Mr. Ford personally) stunned the industry and pleased environmentalists with an announcement of a planned 25 percent improvement in the average mileage of its light truck fleet - including its popular Sport Utility Vehicles - to be completed by the 2005 calendar year. Mr. Ford was also one of the first top industry executives to make regular use of an electric vehicle, a Ford Ranger EV, while the company contracted with the U. S. Postal Service for delivery of a large number of electric postal vans based on the Ranger EV platform. Many Ford vehicles now sport an emblem - a green leaf springing from a curving road-like twig, symbolic of the new "green" commitment to preserve the environment and reduce resource consumption while delivering safe, economical, and effective products to the motoring public. Note however, that FMC has made no significant progress toward the 2005 goal as of early 2005, has terminated its electric vehicle program, recovering most vehicles for recycling via crushing and shredding (rather than putting the components or vehicles on the market), and has instead delivered ICE vehicles to the post office, despite obtaining various subsidies for EV development. In this period Ford also introduce the "Excursion", a super sized SUV, larger even than the GMC/Chevrolet Suburban. As with General Motor's Hummer H2 SUV this vehicle is so large that its poor mileage does not count toward the manufacture's Corporate Average Fuel Economy ("CAFE") mileage.

Advancements

As we progress through the decades with advancements in electronics, science and technology we must not forget the basis of our modern day sources of transportation. I would like to explicate a system in which I am fairly familiar with and have been the highlights of my interests. This is the recent power developments and characteristics of a four-cycle engine. Also known as the Otto cycle engine, the four-stroke engine works of off many mechanical components that simply derive power on the basic mixture of air and fuel. Hence the name "four cycles" such an engine consists of four complete strokes or cycles to consume and make power. With the completion of four cycles, intake, compression, power and exhaust, such a machine can thoroughly and consistently make power.