ford

Ford launched a European invasion of the U.S. passenger vehicle market with its Fiesta and Focus, while at the same time adding a little continental flavor to its commercial offerings with the Transit Connect. To Ford, each vehicle is a response to a U.S. population density more resembling Europe's every year.

The funky little Transit Connect gives commercial operators, which long relied on truck-based vehicles such as Ford's E-series vans, an economical utility vehicle more appropriate for urban and suburban areas. With its price starting at $21,290, a business can start a five-vehicle fleet of … Read more

When Ford unveils its Evos concept at the 2011 Frankfurt auto show, the company doesn't want you to focus on the car itself. Similar to the BMW Vision ConnectedDrive shown at the last Geneva auto show, which showed off an entire technology environment, the Evos concept demonstrates how Ford's technologies can integrate with your life.

The Evos concept bundles just about every technology on which Ford has been working, creating a holistic vision of how a future car would integrate with your life. The Evos is designed as a connected vehicle, and can do things like continue playing … Read more

Ford and Toyota team on car tech, Audi announces plug ins & hybrids, In-car internet radio explodes, and we take you - but just one of you - for a ride in the Scion iQ.

• Ford and Toyota team on hybrids for trucks, SUVs

• GM teams with LG to develop electric vehicles

• Audi plug-in hybrid rumored to be coming in 2014

• BMW to integrate MOG app

• Cadillac drops the cloth and top on new Ciel concept

It's not just hybrid power trains for SUVs and pickups that Ford and Toyota will join forces on: the two mainstream car makers will also be collaborating on telematics.

In a taped video news release, Derrick Kuzak, group vice president of Global Product Development for Ford, said that by working with Toyota, Ford will be able to make in-vehicle telematics more affordable to consumers, and help bring new features to market. The two companies will be working together on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi standards in vehicles, and will also standardize on chipsets to lower volume pricing. However, Kuzak said that … Read more

Too busy to keep up with the tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET for Monday, August 22.

• Netflix's stock fell nearly $100 from $300 per share, after the company announced it would raise prices. The entire stock market has taken a tumble, but that still doesn't explain Netflix's stock plummet.

• WebOS is the mobile operating system that Hewlett-Packard discontinued last week. Devices that run the system are selling like hot cakes. However, as CNET's Brian Tong found out, his order of the TouchPad didn't go though after all.

• Ford … Read more

Ford and Toyota today announced a surprise agreement to co-develop a hybrid powertrain for rear-wheel-drive light trucks and SUVs in an effort to share development costs.

The collaboration means that there will be far more people than just Prius drivers who can boast the superior mileage of hybrids. Now people more concerned with horsepower and towing torque will be introduced to a technology once pigeonholed as way to show off drivers' environmental bona fides. Common sense, it seems, has finally found its way to SUV and truck makers.

Since … Read more

Auto giants Ford and Toyota plan to jointly develop a hybrid powertrain for light trucks and SUVs, in a move designed to bring hybrid technology to a wider set of vehicles.

The two companies announced the agreement today, calling it a collaboration of "equal partners" that will yield a new hybrid architecture for rear-wheel-drive vehicles later in the decade. Both companies will integrate the hybrid system into their own trucks and SUVs.

Toyota and Ford will also work together on in-car telematics, although this will focus on standards and technologies for safety and communications. They will both continue … Read more

Ford is putting its customers to work by giving them a chance to help develop the final in-dash display for the Ford Focus Electric through the use of a specially designed driving simulator.

Inside the simulator, drivers see same information that would appear in the real Ford Focus Electric, including two 4.2-inch full-color LCD screens flanking the speedometer in the center. Then the simulator takes drivers on an 11-mile circuit through a variety of terrain such as hills, cities and flat land.

The screens in the simulator provide details to the driver such as battery charge, distance to the … Read more

Customers who purchase a 2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302 will be able to push the limits of the performance vehicle at the Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.

Ford on Thursday announced "Boss Track Attack" days, a program to provide comprehensive hands-on track experience for Boss 302 owners.

The program will be offered by Team Mustang and Ford Racing instructors at the Ford Racing High Performance Driving School at the high desert track.

The street-legal 2012 Boss 302 was announced last summer as a performance vehicle, but drivers may not get a chance to really test the limits … Read more