[GreenYes] Re: [Zero_Waste_Israel] Recyclable Cars from Ford?

[David Biddle <Dbiddle@no.address>]

Good God, if they could only figure out how to make a Prius-like car that
gets 60+ mpg (really gets 60+!) that can run on either all electric or
hybrid power (with a 100+ mpg car by 2010) they¹d win. Otherwise forget it!
Recycle that...

db

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on 2/14/06 4:00 PM, Gary Liss at gary@no.address wrote:

> Apologies for Cross-Postings
> 
>> To: ZW Israel <Zero_Waste_Israel@no.address>
>> From: The SHAE Institute <nicole.venter@no.address>
>> Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 20:27:52 +0000
>> 
>> The "Piquette Project" was launched in secrecy a year ago by Bill Ford Jr. as
>> part of his campaign to revive the company's spirit of innovation.
>> 
>> Top secret Ford plan: Recyclable vehicles
>> 
> Piquette Project aims to 'fight Toyota and everybody else and come out on
> top.'
> Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News
> 
> Bill Ford Jr. hopes to achieve a milestone akin to the magnitude of his
> great-grandfather Henry Ford's Model T. He aims to build a safer, more
> socially conscious, less-expensive automobile.  See full image
> 
> While Ford Motor Co. will capture the attention of the nation today when it
> announces a major corporate downsizing, the automaker also has begun a secret
> research project in hopes of producing recyclable, environmentally friendly
> cars of the future.
> 
> The effort -- known internally as the "Piquette Project," after Ford's famed
> Piquette Avenue factory in Detroit where the Model T was developed nearly a
> century ago -- was launched last year by Chairman and CEO Bill Ford Jr. as
> part of his campaign to revive the company's spirit of innovation.
> 
> "The goal is to help us do with products what we did with manufacturing at the
> Rouge Plant," said Ford spokesman Jon Pepper, referring to the $2 billion
> environmentally friendly makeover of the Dearborn industrial complex.
> 
> Pepper said Ford hopes to show some of the first fruits of the Piquette
> Project by 2008, the 100-year anniversary of the Model T.
> 
> Bill Ford last year asked his top executives to create a cross-functional team
> loosely patterned after the one his great-grandfather, Henry Ford, assembled a
> century ago at the Piquette plant.
> 
> That team helped create the moving assembly line and developed the Model T,
> the car that made automobiles accessible to the masses.
> 
> Bill Ford's goal is nearly as ambitious: develop renewable, clean and safe
> vehicles that would be both socially conscious and provide a competitive
> advantage in the marketplace.
> 
> By the middle of last year, Ford had assembled a group of what Pepper
> described as "the best thinkers in our company." They were given a clean sheet
> of paper and told to tackle the tough issues of environmental sustainability,
> novel design and engineering and passenger safety.
> 
> Using a "war room" inside Ford's world headquarters in Dearborn, the team
> began meeting in early summer under the direction of Tim O'Brien, vice
> president of corporate relations; Gerhard Schmidt, vice president of research
> and advanced engineering; Nancy Gioia, director of sustainable mobility
> technologies and hybrids; and William McDonough, an environmental consultant
> instrumental in developing the new Dearborn Truck Plant at the Rouge Complex.
> 
> Camilo Pardo, the designer of the Ford GT, was tapped to head the project's
> design efforts.
> 
> "We thought it was important to get out of the demands of the regular product
> development cycle," Pepper explained, though he added that senior product
> development executives like Derrick Kuzak have been kept apprised of the
> team's work in order to make sure it is grounded in reality.
> 
> The existence of the Piquette Project was first revealed Sunday by Time
> magazine on its Web site. Bill Ford and his efforts to turn around Ford are
> the subject of a cover story reaching newsstands this week.
> 
> "Piquette helps institutionalize innovation," Bill Ford told Time. "My goal is
> to fight Toyota and everybody else and come out on top."
> 
> While most major automakers have teams of people assigned to look into the
> future and develop new vehicles and technology, the Ford effort is notable
> because the automaker is counting on innovation to return the struggling
> company to greatness.
> 
> Douglas Brinkley, a historian and author of "Wheels for the World," an
> exhaustive history of Ford published in 2003, said Sunday "it will be very
> interesting to see what Bill Ford plans to do. In a sense it's the same old
> story -- he'll either restore Ford or preside over its decline."
> 
> Before Sunday, the existence of the Piquette Project was known only to those
> directly involved in the research and a handful of top executives.
> 
> Pepper said the company does not plan to make an official announcement about
> the Piquette Project when it unveils its restructuring plan today, which is
> expected to call for at least 25,000 job cuts.
> 
> Pepper said they will not be able to say much, both because of the need to
> protect the work from competitors and because it is still too soon to tell
> just what will come of the project. While it's difficult to put a timetable on
> the project, the goal is to show some results by 2008.
> 
> "It could be vehicles and it could be elements of vehicles," Pepper said,
> adding that the group is working on a variety of projects, including ways to
> make vehicles safer, stronger, lighter and cheaper.
> 
> Rival Toyota Motor Corp. also has made mitigating the automobile's impact on
> the environment a central goal of its advanced research efforts.
> 
> "Bill Ford was talking about that issue long before Toyota was," Pepper said.
> 
> You can reach Bryce Hoffman at (313) 222-2443 or bhoffman@no.address
> Gary Liss & Associates
> 916-652-7850    
> Fax: 916-652-0485
> www.garyliss.com <http://www.garyliss.com>