Ford Dishes Up News Tidbits

Ford Dishes Up News Tidbits

By Michelle Krebs January 9, 2008

Ford’s sale of Jaguar and Land Rover to India’s Tata Motors should be wrapped up by the end of March, a rear-drive Lincoln is in the works and the automaker’s future growth will come from outside of the U.S.

Those are just a few of the news tidbits that came out Tuesday during one of the dinner/press briefings Ford CEO Alan Mulally and his management team occasionally host.

Soon to be Done Deal

Ford has selected India's Tata Motors Ltd. as the top bidder for its Jaguar and Land Rover units. Ford said they had entered into "focused negotiations at a more detailed level" with Tata.

Mulally said the deal should be wrapped up by the end of the first quarter. He gave no details.

Lincoln to Get Rear-Drive

For months, Ford executives have been crowing about Lincoln, which has been on a sales roll in the U.S. and has been making noise about going global. However, the question has always been how can Lincoln play with the global big boys of luxury, particularly BMW and Mercedes-Benz, that sell only rear- and all-wheel drives, but also even its cross-town rival Cadillac, which has moved largely to rear-drive with some all- and front-drives in the line.

Derrick Kuzak, Ford’s group vice president in charge of Global Product Development, answered by confirming a rear-wheel-drive platform is in the works for Lincoln. He gave no details about the rear-drive platform nor what rear-drive vehicles were in the works for Lincoln.

Kuzak further said Ford will focus on six-cylinder engines, instead of V8s, for Lincoln. Asked about Ford’s V8 plans in light of General Motors’ recent announcement that it was ending plans for a new V8 that would have gone into Cadillacs, Kuzak said GM’s decision just confirms Ford made the right decision to focus on V6s.

Due to stricter fuel economy standards and general sensitivities to the environment, Ford executives said its newly unveiled EcoBoost engine will be the centerpiece of its powertrain strategy. The EcoBoost, which uses a smaller engine boosted by turbocharged and fueled by injecting gasoline directly into the cylinders makes its debut in the upcoming 2009 Lincoln MKS front-drive flagship sedan.

Ford said it will fit more than half-million vehicles annually with the engine over the next five years.

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.