According to U. S. car manufacturer Ford, the future of the automobile industry may have been reflected in the new Ford Focus Electric, the company’s first fuel-free, rechargeable passenger car.

While it is not the first electric vehicle to hit the U.S. consumer market, the company hopes the car’s added communications and interactive features will make it not only a means of transport, but change the way people think about driving entirely.

“Ford is more than just a car company, we’re also a technology company,” said Alan Mulally, Ford’s chief executive officer (CEO), at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Friday.

Although the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan is just days away, Ford executives chose instead to announce the vehicle’s public debut at one of the largest and most influential consumer electronics conventions in the world.

“The new Focus just felt more at home at CES,” said Derrick Kuzack, the company’s chief technology officer and head of product development.

Drawing analogies from the successes of products in the consumer electronics business such as the evolution of mobile phones and gaming consoles, Mulally emphasized the company’s vision of developing vehicles and platforms with customizable user interfaces that allowed drivers to access and quickly digest large quantities of information.

“A truly great product not only serves its intended purpose, it reinvents the purpose. It transforms something we do to something we experience,” said Mulally.

The new Focus dashboard, which features two LCD screens and steering wheel commands, will include features that give drivers the choice of displaying information such as miles saved from regenerative braking.

However, rather than displaying this information in numerical terms, users will be able to select from different animations, such as blue butterflies, to represent mileage surplus.

“The more butterflies that appear on the screen, the more mileage surplus I have beyond my chargeable destination,” explained Amy Garby, Ford’s manager of EV electronics.

“Emotive graphics in gaming plays such a role in entertainment and education these days. This type of interface feels very natural to young people … and we’re sure it will appeal to younger buyers who might be interested in the Focus Electric,” said Garby.

In a conscious effort to try to implement successes seen in the social media and gaming world, such as earning “points” or “badges, ” the company’s new mobile application, MyFord Mobile, will also include the opportunity to unlock driving achievements.

Awarded for driving in more efficient styles, drivers can share their unlocked achievements online with friends through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Additionally, MyFord Mobile will include applications that allow users to assess if the vehicle has enough power to make a particular journey and map out the closest charging station.

With the Ford Focus Electric, the company has also teamed up with tech giant Microsoft to develop a software that allows for ” value charging,” which allows for at-home charging during hours when utility rates are che

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Ford outlines vision for future of cars at CES

Reforms started in the late 1970s with the phasing out of collectivized agriculture, and expanded to include the gradual liberalization of prices, fiscal decentralization, increased autonomy for state enterprises, the foundation of a diversified banking system, the development of stock markets, the rapid growth of the non-state sector, and the opening to foreign trade and investment.

In 2006, China announced that by 2010 it would decrease energy intensity 20% from 2005 levels.

China is also the second largest trading nation in the world and the largest exporter and second largest importer of goods.
The PRC government’s decision to permit China to be used by multinational corporations as an export platform has made the country a major competitor to other Asian export-led economies, such as South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Available energy is insufficient to run at fully installed industrial capacity, and the transport system is inadequate to move sufficient quantities of such critical items as coal.

The two most important sectors of the economy have traditionally been agriculture and industry, which together employ more than 70 percent of the labor force and produce more than 60 percent of GDP.

The technological level and quality standards of its industry as a whole are still fairly low, notwithstanding a marked change since 2000, spurred in part by foreign investment.

China’s increasing integration with the international economy and its growing efforts to use market forces to govern the domestic allocation of goods have exacerbated this problem.

The growth in both outbound investment from, and inbound investment to, China reflects the nation’s rising economic power and attractiveness as an investment destination.

In this period the average annual growth rate stood at more than 50 percent.

China reiterated the nation’s goals for the next decade – increasing market share of pure-electric and plug-in electric autos, building world-competitive auto makers and parts manufacturers in the energy-efficient auto sector as well as raising fuel-efficiency to world levels.

Although China is still a developing country with a relatively low per capita income, it has experienced tremendous economic growth since the late 1970s.

Even with these improvements, agriculture accounts for only 20% of the nation’s gross national product.Except for the oasis farming in Xinjiang and Qinghai, some irrigated areas in Inner Mongolia and Gansu, and sheltered valleys in Tibet, agricultural production is restricted to the east.

Due to improved technology, the fishing industry has grown considerably since the late 1970s.

There are also extensive iron-ore deposits; the largest mines are at Anshan and Benxi, in Liaoning province.

China’s leading export minerals are tungsten, antimony, tin, magnesium, molybdenum, mercury, manganese, barite, and salt.

In the 1990s a program of share-holding and greater market orientation went into effect; however, state enterprises continue to dominate many key industries in China’s socialist market economy.

Since the 1980s China has undertaken a major highway construction program.