Partnership: Magna International And Ford

Ford and Magna Form Electrifying Alliance Ford is already putting into effect a major element of its vehicle electrification strategy with its strategic alliance with auto supplier Magna International to produce new battery electric vehicles (BEVs) that don’t use a drop of fuel. The vehicle-development partnership between Ford and Magna, a global auto supplier headquartered in Canada, was announced at the 2009 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, as Ford unveiled its global vehicle electrification strategy. A pure BEV passenger car developed jointly with Magna to reach customers by 2011 is one piece of Ford’s strategy to bring BEVs, plug-in hybrids and hybrid electric vehicles to market by 2012. “Magna is a world-class automotive supplier that’s an ideal partner for our BEV,” says Nancy Gioia, Ford director of Sustainable Mobility Technology. “Our strategy absolutely depends on forging alliances with key suppliers whose expertise complements our extensive experience and global production capabilities. Developing these new technologies requires a major investment, so it’s especially important to have strong supplier alliances.” Gioia explained that Ford’s global vehicle platforms provide an ideal stage for Magnaengineered BEV components and systems. Ford’s customer insight – especially its experience with hybrid electric vehicles and specialized electric vehicles – dovetails with Magna’s systemdevelopment expertise to deliver a world-class product. "We strongly believe in collaboration because it drives innovation up and keeps costs down," said Don Walker, co-CEO of Magna International. “Bringing a fully functional electric vehicle quickly to the market that meets customer expectations in terms of cost and performance is a great testament to both our companies' expertise and collaborative efforts.”

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Aurora, Ont.-based Magna will provide the BEV electric traction motor, transmission, motor controller, energy storage system, battery charger and related systems. Magna will also share in the engineering responsibility to integrate the electric propulsion system and other new systems into the vehicle platform architecture. The BEV technology is already being shown to the news media with demonstration drives of a current-model test ‘mule’ that has been road tested for the past six months. It shows that a future of vehicle electrification is promising. Ford and Magna will work together to make the vehicles a good value for customers and a good business proposition. “Quality straight out of the box is very important,” Gioia said. “Magna has exceptional knowledge of engineering for the automotive environment. We’re certain that our collaborative result will be world-class and that means we have the potential to touch millions of customers with this kind of technology.” Ford’s vehicle electrification strategy calls for the formation of key supplier alliances and other collaborations from diverse sectors to advance technology development, gain greater understanding of connectivity of vehicles to the electric grid, promote the necessary infrastructure and bring down the costs of the technology to make it more accessible for consumers. That vision foresees potential customer demand for electrified vehicles that enables true volume production cost efficiencies. Magna’s diverse capabilities include the design, development and manufacture of automotive systems, assemblies, modules and components, and the engineering and assembly of complete vehicles. Magna has approximately 80,000 employees in 243 manufacturing operations and 63 product development and engineering centers in 24 countries. Its Ford BEV engineering team is based in Troy, Mich.

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