Will the House of Henry Lead the Way?
So Ford says it will release a range of plug-in electrics between 2010 and 2012, the results of its so-called Project M, an internal campaign started last summer with the goal of producing an all-electric in six months. In an industry where a model can be in development for months — years even — that’s warp speed. So, what does that say about Ford? Are they betting the farm or are they saving their hides? Considering that Ford is the only American automaker currently not running on an infusion of federal dollars, one is inclined to say that it’s not time to count Henry’s descendants out of the game just yet.
Of course Ford isn’t the only company showing its wares in Detroit this week with the goal of being greener, more efficient, and more electrified than the guy in the next booth over. Most are counting on aid to be forthcoming from the soon-to-be inaugurated President Obama to jump-start the public toward buying their cars — and in so doing to kindle a reconceptualization of how the average American drives. Most of these cars have a limited range and require several hours to charge up. Studies tell us most folks drive less than 40 miles a day — a figure you’ll have to stick to if you’re behind the wheel of a vehicle you can’t just fill up. In the past most families have had two cars. Will they be willing to let the second one be a limited, around-town errand runner? Ford isn’t betting the farm, planning a production run of just 10,000 for its first plug-in offerings.
But if we are indeed in a climate of change, someone has to step out there and get the ball rolling, and lets face facts. Millions of Americans have never driven anything but American. Some have never driven anything but Ford. I was one of them until I purchased a Honda Odyssey five years ago. In order to break into those traditional markets, the House of Henry just may have to lead the way. Yes, there’s a lot of competition — a plug-in Prius, a plug-in Mini — offerings from Mitsubishi, Chrysler, General Motors (the much talked about Chevrolet Volt.)
But there’s just something really substantial about the company that put America on wheels getting into the all-electric game. From 1908 to 1927 the Ford Motor Company built 15 million Model Ts. And it’s instructive, at what may be a pivotal moment in the history of personal transportation, to remember what Henry Ford said about his venerable Tin Lizzie:
I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one – and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces.