A Quick Look at Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company was established in June 1903 by Henry Ford. The company has its headquarters in Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Henry Ford revolutionized the mass production of cars by introducing innovative means of designing.

The first revolutionary production from this car company was the Ford Model T, in 1908, that is called the first people’s car. It came with a price tag of around Rs 46,000 during those days. The car manufacturer has rolled out many car models with the best of design cues and technologies. At present, Ford Motor Company has various brands such as Lincoln, Mercury, Volvo Cars of Sweden, and a small stake in Mazda of Japan and Aston Martin of England. As of 2009, Ford Motors is considered the fifth largest car manufacturer of the world, following Toyota, General Motors, Volkswagen and Hyundai-Kia.

Ford Motors employs around 245,000 employees at around 100 plants and facilities established around the world. The history of Ford Motor Company has many interesting things to tell. Tell us have a quick look at them.

The Model T was introduced on October 1st, 1908 with a four-cylinder engine that generated 20-horsepower and reached a top speed of about 72 km/h. The Model T came in nine body styles but all on the same chassis. Ford Model T had many nicknames out of which “Lizzie” was the most popular nickname.

In 1909 the Model T stood first in the New York to Seattle race giving an average of 12.4 km/h. In 1910 the production of Model T was shifted to Ford’s Highland Park Assembly Plant, also known as the ‘Crystal Palace’ because of the vast expanse of windows. The price of the Model T was reduced for some time to Rs 13,000. This low price was attributed to the fact that Henry passed on the production savings to the customers. The 2 millionth Model T was produced on June 14th 1917 and on 28th May, 1921, the 5 millionth Model T was produced and on June 4th, 1924 the 10 millionth Model T was rolled out of the production facility.

Ford introduced an electric starter for the Model T in the year 1919 so that the car owners could easily drive the car without any need to crank the engine to start it. It is believed that more than 15,000,000 Model T’s were built and sold. After about 19 years of production Ford Model T marked a formal ending at a modest ceremony held on May 26th 1927.

In 1914, Ford produced around 300,000 cars with only 13,000 employees. On the other hand, other car manufacturers could produce only 280,000 vehicles with 66,350 employees.

Ford Motors reported its largest annual loss in 2006. In the company’s history the first red ink marked a loss of 12.7 billion dollars. The former UK subsidiaries of Ford, Jaguar and Land Rover, were sold to Tata Motors in 2008.

In India, Ford Motors has rejoiced a long and glorious history with all its winning cars. Ford India was recently unveiled its small car, Ford Figo in India.