With the dawn of the new century, legacy healthcare costs, higher fuel prices, and a faltering economy led to falling market shares, declining sales, and diminished profit margins. Most of the corporate profits came from financing consumer automobile loans through Ford Motor Credit Company.[17]
21st century
William Clay Ford, Jr., great-grandson of Henry Ford, serves as the executive chairman at the board of Ford Motor Company.
By 2005, both Ford and GM's corporate bonds had been downgraded to junk status,[18] as a result of high U.S. health care costs for an aging workforce, soaring gasoline prices, eroding market share, and an over dependence on declining SUV sales. Profit margins decreased on large vehicles due to increased "incentives" (in the form of rebates or low interest financing) to offset declining demand.[19] In the latter half of 2005, Chairman Bill Ford asked newly appointed Ford Americas Division President Mark Fields to develop a plan to return the company to profitability. Fields previewed the Plan, named The Way Forward, at the December 7, 2005 board meeting of the company and it was unveiled to the public on January 23, 2006. "The Way Forward" included resizing the company to match market realities, dropping some unprofitable and inefficient models, consolidating production lines, closing 14 factories and cutting 30,000 jobs.[20]
Ford moved to introduce a range of new vehicles, including "Crossover SUVs" built on unibody car platforms, rather than more body-on-frame chassis. In developing the hybrid electric powertrain technologies for the Ford Escape Hybrid SUV, Ford licensed similar Toyota hybrid technologies[21] to avoid patent infringements.[22] Ford announced that it will team up with electricity supply company Southern California Edison (SCE) to examine the future of plug-in hybrids in terms of how home and vehicle energy systems will work with the electrical grid. Under the multimillion-dollar, multi-year project, Ford will convert a demonstration fleet of Ford Escape Hybrids into plug-in hybrids, and SCE will evaluate how the vehicles might interact with the home and the utility's electrical grid. Some of the vehicles will be evaluated "in typical customer settings", according to Ford.[23][24]
William Clay Ford Jr., great-grandson of Henry Ford (and better known by his nickname "Bill"), was appointed Executive Chairman in 1998, and also became Chief Executive Officer of the company in 2001, with the departure of Jacques Nasser, becoming the first member of the Ford family to head the company since the retirement of his uncle, Henry Ford II, in 1982. Ford sold motorsport engineering company Cosworth to Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven in 2004, the start of a decrease in Ford's motorsport involvement. Upon the retirement of President and Chief Operation Officer Jim Padilla in April 2006, Bill Ford assumed his roles as well. Five months later, in September, Ford named Alan Mulally as President and CEO, with Ford continuing as Executive Chairman. In December 2006, the company raised its borrowing capacity to about $25 billion, placing substantially all corporate assets as collateral.[25] Chairman Bill Ford has stated that "bankruptcy is not an option".[26] Ford and the United Auto Workers, representing approximately 46,000 hourly workers in North America, agreed to a historic contract settlement in November 2007 giving the company a substantial break in terms of its ongoing retiree health care costs and other economic issues. The agreement included the establishment of a company-funded, independently run Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) trust to shift the burden of retiree health care from the company's books, thereby improving its balance sheet. This arrangement took effect on January 1, 2010. As a sign of its currently strong cash position, Ford contributed its entire current liability (estimated at approximately US$5.5 billion as of December 31, 2009) to the VEBA in cash, and also pre-paid US$500 million of its future liabilities to the fund. The agreement also gives hourly workers the job security they were seeking by having the company commit to substantial investments in most of its factories.
The automaker reported the largest annual loss in company history in 2006 of $12.7 billion,[27] and estimated that it would not return to profitability until 2009.[28] However, Ford surprised Wall Street in the second quarter of 2007 by posting a $750 million profit. Despite the gains, the company finished the year with a $2.7 billion loss, largely attributed to finance restructuring at Volvo.[29]
On June 2, 2008, Ford sold its Jaguar and Land Rover operations to Tata Motors for $2.3 billion.[30][31]
During congressional hearings held in November 2008 at Washington D.C., and in a show of support, Ford's Alan Mulally stated that "We at Ford are hopeful that we have enough liquidity. But we also must prepare ourselves for the prospect of further deteriorating econ
กับยามเช้าของศตวรรษใหม่ ต้นทุนสุขภาพดั้งเดิม ราคาน้ำมันที่สูงขึ้น และเศรษฐกิจติดขัดที่นำสายตลาดหุ้น ขาย ที่ลดลง และกำไรลดลง ผลกำไรของบริษัทส่วนใหญ่มาจากเงินผู้บริโภคสินเชื่อรถยนต์ผ่านบริษัทฟอร์ดมอเตอร์เครดิต [17]ศตวรรษที่ 21วิลเลียมดินฟอร์ด จูเนียร์ หลานของเฮนรีฟอร์ด ทำหน้าที่เป็นประธานในคณะกรรมการของ บริษัทโดย 2005 พันธบัตรทั้งฟอร์ดและเอมีถูก downgraded ไปเมลขยะสถานะ, [18] เป็นผลมาจากค่าใช้จ่ายดูแลสุขภาพสหรัฐอเมริกาสำหรับการอายุแรงงาน ทะยาน ราคากัดเซาะส่วนแบ่งการตลาด และมากกว่าพึ่งขาย SUV ที่ลดลง กำไรลดลงบนรถใหญ่เนื่องจากการเพิ่มขึ้น "จูงใจ" (ในรูปของเงินคืนหรือเงินทุนดอกเบี้ยต่ำ) เพื่อชดเชยความต้องการที่ลดลง [19] ในครึ่งหลังของ 2005 ประธานบิลฟอร์ดถามอมูลฟอร์ดอเมริกาประธานฝ่ายเครื่องหมายเขตข้อมูลเพื่อพัฒนาแผนการกลับบริษัทไปทำกำไร ฟิลด์แสดงตัวอย่างแผน ชื่อทางข้างหน้า 7 ธันวาคม 2005 ที่ประชุมของบริษัท และก็เปิดตัวต่อสาธารณะบน 23 มกราคม 2006 ทางข้างหน้า"รวมขนาดบริษัทให้ตรงกับความเป็นจริงที่ตลาด ปล่อยบางรุ่นเอา และไม่มีประสิทธิภาพ การรวมสายการผลิต การปิดโรงงาน 14 และตัดงาน 30,000 [20]Ford moved to introduce a range of new vehicles, including "Crossover SUVs" built on unibody car platforms, rather than more body-on-frame chassis. In developing the hybrid electric powertrain technologies for the Ford Escape Hybrid SUV, Ford licensed similar Toyota hybrid technologies[21] to avoid patent infringements.[22] Ford announced that it will team up with electricity supply company Southern California Edison (SCE) to examine the future of plug-in hybrids in terms of how home and vehicle energy systems will work with the electrical grid. Under the multimillion-dollar, multi-year project, Ford will convert a demonstration fleet of Ford Escape Hybrids into plug-in hybrids, and SCE will evaluate how the vehicles might interact with the home and the utility's electrical grid. Some of the vehicles will be evaluated "in typical customer settings", according to Ford.[23][24]William Clay Ford Jr., great-grandson of Henry Ford (and better known by his nickname "Bill"), was appointed Executive Chairman in 1998, and also became Chief Executive Officer of the company in 2001, with the departure of Jacques Nasser, becoming the first member of the Ford family to head the company since the retirement of his uncle, Henry Ford II, in 1982. Ford sold motorsport engineering company Cosworth to Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven in 2004, the start of a decrease in Ford's motorsport involvement. Upon the retirement of President and Chief Operation Officer Jim Padilla in April 2006, Bill Ford assumed his roles as well. Five months later, in September, Ford named Alan Mulally as President and CEO, with Ford continuing as Executive Chairman. In December 2006, the company raised its borrowing capacity to about $25 billion, placing substantially all corporate assets as collateral.[25] Chairman Bill Ford has stated that "bankruptcy is not an option".[26] Ford and the United Auto Workers, representing approximately 46,000 hourly workers in North America, agreed to a historic contract settlement in November 2007 giving the company a substantial break in terms of its ongoing retiree health care costs and other economic issues. The agreement included the establishment of a company-funded, independently run Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) trust to shift the burden of retiree health care from the company's books, thereby improving its balance sheet. This arrangement took effect on January 1, 2010. As a sign of its currently strong cash position, Ford contributed its entire current liability (estimated at approximately US$5.5 billion as of December 31, 2009) to the VEBA in cash, and also pre-paid US$500 million of its future liabilities to the fund. The agreement also gives hourly workers the job security they were seeking by having the company commit to substantial investments in most of its factories.The automaker reported the largest annual loss in company history in 2006 of $12.7 billion,[27] and estimated that it would not return to profitability until 2009.[28] However, Ford surprised Wall Street in the second quarter of 2007 by posting a $750 million profit. Despite the gains, the company finished the year with a $2.7 billion loss, largely attributed to finance restructuring at Volvo.[29]On June 2, 2008, Ford sold its Jaguar and Land Rover operations to Tata Motors for $2.3 billion.[30][31]During congressional hearings held in November 2008 at Washington D.C., and in a show of support, Ford's Alan Mulally stated that "We at Ford are hopeful that we have enough liquidity. But we also must prepare ourselves for the prospect of further deteriorating econ
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