Henry Ford would be proud of Ford Motors today. The company is leading the automotive industry's charge to work advanced materials into its vehicles and high-tech systems into its factories.
Ford produced the world's first plastic car in 1941. Dubbed the Soybean Car, the prototype emerged outside of its time. Ford hoped to create a market for farm products such as soybean, wheat, and corn that could be used by industry in cars.
But with World War II looming, the nation was on war footing. Vehicles had to be useful for wartime needs, and the plastic car wasn't good for combat. Only one Soybean Car prototype was made, and destroyed, and the formula is still much in dispute.
Today, the automaker is the first to use an aluminum called Micromill, made by Alcoa, for its most important vehicle, the F-150 pickup truck. Rivals like Audi and Jaguar have used aluminum technology, but not as well as Ford.
The editors of FORTUNE, say driving much of the effort in the auto industry are looming deadlines to meet corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, which mandate average fleetwide fuel economy of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
A 10 percent weight reduction typically results in a fuel-efficiency gain of between 3 percent and 4 percent.
"It's not only about fuel consumption and emissions," says Steve Russell, a vice president at the American Chemistry Council, with which Ford is working on polymers. "Light-weighting also improves acceleration, handling, and braking."
In 1923, Henry Ford wrote:
"Be ready to revise any system, scrap any method, and abandon any theory if the success of the job requires it."
That's what Ford is doing today.0216-041.txt xxxx
