ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Ford Motor Company today announced plans to transform its Dearborn facilities into a modern, sustainable, high-tech campus to foster innovation and help drive the company’s transition beyond mere automaker to a mobility company.
The 10-year transformation of the company’s more than 60-year-old Dearborn facilities will co-locate 30,000 employees from 70 buildings today into primarily two locations — a product campus and a world headquarters campus. More than 7.5 million square feet of workspace will be rebuilt and upgraded into even more technology-enabled and connected facilities.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
A new report from CDP, analyzing 15 of the world’s largest automakers with combined market capitalization of US$846 billion, has found that tightening regulations on emissions are having a significant business impact in the wake of the Volkswagen scandal last fall.
COLLABORATION -
Tomorrow, at a forum of the G7 Alliance on Resource Efficiency in Washington, D.C., Ford Motor Company will highlight its new Partnership for A Cleaner Environment (PACE), a program that aims to help the automaker’s suppliers minimize their impact on the environment by sharing details of Ford’s best practices for water, energy and carbon dioxide reduction.
PRESS RELEASE -
SAN FRANCISCO – Lyft and General Motors today announced the launch of their Express Drive short-term rental program exclusive to the Lyft platform. The program will make cars available to Lyft drivers at affordable rates with insurance and maintenance included.
The launch of Express Drive comes two months after GM entered into a strategic alliance with Lyft to develop an integrated on-demand network of autonomous vehicles.
PRESS RELEASE -
SAN FRANCISCO – General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM) announced today it is acquiring Cruise Automation to add Cruise’s deep software talent and rapid development capability to further accelerate GM’s development of autonomous vehicle technology.
PRESS RELEASE -
DETROIT – Eleven General Motors facilities have earned ENERGY STAR® certification for superior energy efficiency from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These buildings, which include seven parts distribution centers, a global headquarters office and three IT innovation office centers, have optimized their buildings to leave a smaller carbon footprint.To earn ENERGY STAR certification, buildings must perform better in energy efficiency than 75 percent of similar buildings nationwide and meet strict energy efficiency performance levels set by the EPA.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Novelis, world leader in aluminum rolling and recycling, has partnered with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) to supply aluminum sheet for the recently launched Jaguar XE — “Jaguar’s most advanced sports saloon.”The REALCAR (REcycled ALuminium CAR) project, aimed at creating a closed-loop value chain to recycle vehicles at the end of their useful lives, was launched by JLR in 2008 and funded by Innovate UK.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
When it comes to fuel economy, lightweight design and temperature control are important considerations for cars and airplanes alike – and the impact of a coat of paint might surprise you. Vehicles with more reflective coatings or with less paint can be more efficient.According to the U.S. Department of Energy, hot weather can increase vehicle fuel economy because engines warm up to an efficient temperature faster, summer grades of gasoline can have slightly more energy, and warm air causes less aerodynamic drag than cold air. However, the use of air conditioning can reduce a vehicle’s fuel economy by more than 25 percent in very hot conditions.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
On Friday, Volkswagen (VW) postponed the publication of its 2015 results and delayed its annual shareholders' meeting “due to remaining open questions and the resulting valuation calculations relating to the diesel emissions issue.” Despite the uncertainty about the financial fallout of the scandal, the head of its claims fund said that the company will offer “generous compensation packages” to the roughly 600,000 U.S.
CLEANTECH -
With CES 2016 underway in Las Vegas this week, we are expecting to have announcements about exciting tech advancements coming out of our ears. Case in point: At The Ford Motor Company's press conference this morning, it announced a partnership with Amazon to integrate vehicles with Echo, the e-commerce company’s smarthome device.
CLEANTECH -
Luxury vehicle manufacturers today make up about 23 percent of the plug-in electric vehicle (EV) market, and this is expected to climb to about 50 percent by the early 2020s, according to a new report from Navigant Research.
CLEANTECH -
The Ford Motor Company is ‘going further’ with its Smart Mobility Plan, which focuses on innovation in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience, and data and analytics. Two recent developments include the use of sensor technology on motorcycles to collect mobility data in Africa, and autonomous vehicle testing on public roads in the US.
NEW METRICS -
Vehicle manufacturers have surpassed the more stringent 2014 standards for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the third consecutive year, while model year 2014 fuel economy remains steady at the highest level ever recorded, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).The findings were included in two reports the agency released last week: the annual report on fuel economy trends and a report on the auto industry’s progress toward meeting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for cars and light trucks.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Saving engines from the scrapyard and reusing them could deliver a 50 percent reduction in CO2 emissions compared to producing a new engine, according to news from Ford Motor Company. The automaker has announced that its new, patented plasma coating technology unlocks new recycling potential.
COLLABORATION -
EVgo, an electric vehicle (EV) DC fast charging solutions firm, has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of California, San Diego to help support developments in sustainable energy technology, according to a recent announcement.
The agreement formalizes an already strong collaboration focusing on the intersection of electric vehicles and energy storage, and EVgo says it is leading two projects at the university.
In the first project, EVgo has constructed a site for assessing how owners of EV DC charging sites can leverage solar, battery storage and control systems to mitigate site host demand charges and provide services to the grid.
CLEANTECH -
A detailed analysis of 10 electric vehicle (EV) fast charging NRG EVgo Freedom Station sites at Whole Foods Market locations in the San Francisco Bay Area shows a 191 percent increase in EV charging over the last year.EV drivers also show a significant preference for DC fast charging, 12 to 1 when comparing the number of charging sessions to the Level 2 charging also available at those locations. In September 2015 alone there were nearly 6,900 DC fast charge sessions at those stations.
PRESS RELEASE -
Ford Motor Company received the top score for its work on global water conservation from CDP, the world’s only environmental disclosure agency. Ford is one of eight corporations to receive CDP’s highest honor for its work on water issues, from among more than 400 global companies considered. The full CDP report will be unveiled today as world leaders gather in Tokyo to discuss global water challenges.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Researchers at Ford Motor Company are looking to biomimicry in hopes of improving adhesives and increasing the recyclability of auto parts.Improving the recyclability of auto parts by replacing (or otherwise reducing or eliminating) the glue it uses to adhere foams to plastics and metals could give Ford’s sustainability performance a boost. The adhesives it currently uses make disassembling the parts for recycling nearly impossible. Ford is sharing its research findings in a partnership with Procter & Gamble (P&G) as their teams investigate potential biomimetic business solutions.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
The scandal that erupted recently around Volkswagen’s “diesel” pollution scam is going to reverberate across the corporate world − and so it should. All around the world surveys have shown that a majority of consumers care about whether the companies they buy from are “green” and “good.” Yet those same surveys show that consumers are confused as to whether the companies they buy from really are good and skeptical of company claims in this regard.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
What started as a sordid tale of Volkswagen rigging half a million cars with “defeat device” software has snowballed into a global scandal as the German automaker later admitted 11 million of its cars were involved in the deception.