Ford lets workers take future models for a spin

By SARAH A. WEBSTER

The automaker has cut 51,000 jobs since 2005.

DETROIT — In an effort to re-energize confidence in the company’s future, Ford Motor has been shuttling hundreds of employees and retirees to its top-secret test track in Dearborn, Mich., almost every afternoon, to drive the company’s promising vehicles of the future.

The “Drive One” effort began last week and will wrap up Thursday , after an estimated 4,000 employees and retirees have had the rare experience of driving vehicles like the next-generation Mustang and Fusion that are to go on sale early next year and have not been revealed to the public.

Ford also let them test the powertrains of the future: an electric Ford Ranger compact pickup, a plug-in gasoline-electric hybrid Escape that the carmaker has been testing with Southern California Edison, and several car models like the new Lincoln MKS, with EcoBoost engine technology.

While it is unclear when many of those technologies might be coming to market, EcoBoost is to arrive in cars and trucks next year.

EcoBoost is a Ford-branded combination of gasoline-injection and turbocharging for up to a 20 percent improvement in fuel economy.

Ford has not said how much it will charge for EcoBoost, but it promised that consumers will see a financial return on an EcoBoost engine faster than they do on a hybrid.

Ford, which has lost $8.6 billion through the first half of the year, has slashed 51,000 jobs since 2005 in an effort to restructure its North American operations.

As part of that effort, the company said it would focus more on fuel-efficient cars like those it already builds with success in Europe.

Tim Happ, 52, a transmission engineer who has worked at Ford for 30 years, said he doesn’t always get to see the big picture when he’s focused on his particular job.

So he signed up for the test-drive eagerly and was happy to see the new cars and trucks on their way.

Two years ago, Ford let thousands of employees see concept cars and models under development in a Showroom of the Future presentation.

But until now, they hadn’t been able to take those cars for a spin.