DEARBORN, Mich., Feb, 2011 – The Ford Fiesta is now the first car in its segment to earn top crash test ratings in each of the world’s largest auto markets that perform safety testing, the U.S., China and Europe.

“Ford is committed to safety, including our efforts to deliver top crash test ratings that customers look to when choosing new vehicles,” said Sue Cischke, group vice president of Sustainability, Environment and Safety. “Fiesta is the latest example of that safety commitment, and shows that a small, fuel-efficient car can deliver top safety.”

Testing agencies in the U.S., China, Europe and Australia/New Zealand rate the Ford Fiesta at the top of the list for crash ratings. Fiesta’s latest maximum five-star safety rating was awarded by the China Automotive Technology and Research Center under the China New Car Assessment Program, or C-NCAP. This follows maximum five-star ratings in Europe and Australia/New Zealand.

The 2011 Ford Fiesta, the only car in its segment to earn a Top Safety Pick from the U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety under its new test standards, continues to earn recognition in major global markets for its safety performance and rating in independent third-party testing.

Global popularity
The impressive ratings add to Fiesta’s global sales momentum. European sales of the latest-generation Ford Fiesta reached 1 million last month. The landmark was achieved just 28 months after the popular small car went on sale in Ford dealerships across Europe. The Fiesta has been the best-selling small car in Europe for the past two years.

In the U.S., Fiesta is attracting new customers, including those in the trend-setting California market. In 2010, Fiesta played a key role in helping Ford to achieve its highest retail share in California since 2006. Los Angeles continues to be the top-selling region for Ford’s smallest car.

Advanced safety
Beneath Fiesta’s stylish exterior is a structure crafted from high-strength steels engineered to preserve quality and enhance driver and passenger safety. More than 55 percent of Fiesta’s body structure is made from ultra-high-strength steel, and the extensive use of high-strength, lightweight boron steel helps protect critical occupant safety zones.

Fiesta offers a segment-exclusive available driver’s knee airbag, developed to help reduce lower-leg injuries in the event of a frontal collision and to work together with other safety features. The knee airbag joins a suite of Fiesta safety features that include dual-stage, first-row airbags, side-impact airbags and side curtain airbags.

“Smart” Passenger Occupant Detection System (PODS) sensors determine occupant weight and seat belt status to optimize deployment force. The Fiesta also features class-exclusive smart sensors that use pressure pulses from a side impact to deploy up to 30 percent faster than traditional airbags with acceleration-based sensors.

A global effort
Ford’s global safety engineers worked together to prepare the Fiesta to be able to meet stringent crash protection requirements in any region of the world by leveraging Ford of Europe’s small car expertise and an array of virtual, actual and hydraulic sled-simulated crash tests.

“The global safety ratings provide another proof point that the all-new Fiesta is redefining what a small car can be,” said Matt Niesluchowski, safety, NVH and durability manager. “The new Fiesta brings outstanding driving dynamics and fuel economy, unparalleled connectivity and safety leadership on a worldwide scale.”

• Ford Motor Company has contributed more than $5 million to support high school extracurricular activities nationwide through its successful test-drive program of the company’s fuel-efficient products
• Since the start of the program, more than 1,500 events have been hosted in 49 states, generating more than 255,000 test drives by participants
• Ford developed the Drive One 4 UR School program in 2007 to assist cash-strapped communities in raising up to $6,000 for local high schools in a single day test-drive event

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F – News) kicks off its popular Drive One 4 UR School program today and enters 2011 with more than $5 million in funds donated to high schools nationwide since the program’s inception in 2007. The program is Ford’s most successful test-drive initiative ever executed.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110304/DE59213 )

Since the start of the program, more than 255,000 test-drives at more than 1,500 events in 49 states have been hosted by Ford and its dealers around the country.

The program gives participants the chance to experience Ford’s new fuel-efficient lineup of vehicles, as well as leading safety and technology features.

Ford offers 12 vehicles that lead their sales segments in fuel economy, including four vehicles with EPA certified 40 mpg or higher fuel economy ratings – a claim no other full-line automaker can match.

“With oil nearing $100 per barrel and gasoline prices continuing to rise, consumers’ consideration for fuel economy once again is taking top billing,” said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service. “We have a great opportunity to showcase our fuel-efficient lineup at this year’s Drive One 4 UR School events, while at the same time helping schools raise money for valuable programs and activities that might otherwise be eliminated.”

Ford developed the Drive One 4 UR School program to connect dealers with local community efforts in raising up to $6,000 for high schools in a single day test-drive event. As schools continue to cut back on funding for facility improvements and extra-curricular activities, the program remains a strong fund-raising source to help schools fund valuable programs.

“This has got to be the best program on the planet,” said Frank Bonuchi, general manager, Auffenberg Ford in O’Fallon, Illinois. “I have been in dealership management for over 30 years and I have never seen a program that successfully promotes all the great things going on at Ford and the dealership, while also giving our communities around the country a much needed helping hand.”

“With all the cutbacks in school programs, Ford is to be congratulated for this,” said Ed Avansino, a test drive participant at a 2010 event conducted at Carson High School in Carson, City, Nevada.

The 2011 Drive One 4 UR School program kicks off its spring tour in March and runs through June. The program starts up again in the fall, with events taking place from August through November.  

About Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich., manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents. With about 164,000 employees and about 70 plants worldwide, the company’s automotive brands include Ford and Lincoln. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford’s products, please visit www.ford.com.

Gas-electric hybrids use batteries to store energy captured by regenerative brakes, but that’s not the only way to recapture energy and use it to increase fuel efficiency. Our friend Mike Levine of Pickuptrucks.com reports that Ford is working with the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power and Folsom Technologies on a hydraulic hybrid F-150 pickup they say could hit 40 mpg in city use.

And Chrysler, late to the alt-power party because of its bankruptcy restructuring, now is working with the Environmental Protection Agency’s research center in Ann Arbor, Mich., to develop a hydraulic hybrid Town & Country minivan.

Simply put, in a hydraulic hybrid the brakes capture energy otherwise lost as heat and use it to pressurize hydraulic fluid in a container called an accumulator. That stored hydraulic power then is used to supplement the hybrid’s gas engine power as needed via two hydraulic pumps incorporated into a continuously variable transmission. A gas-electric hybrid accomplishes the same result with its battery and electric motor.

“We have the potential to reach 40 miles per gallon or higher with hydraulic power,” Perry Li, co-deputy director of CCEFP and a mechanical engineering professor, told Levine. “But we feel like we don’t give up anything vs. an electric hybrid, and there are no batteries and nothing to recycle.”

Importantly for trucks and unlike most electric hybrids, the truck retains most of the gas version’s towing capability.

Ford has dabbled with hydraulic hybrids going back to an F-350 developed with Eaton in 2002 and a project with the EPA on E-550 commercial vans, also started in 2002. Eaton now has a production system for heavier commercials trucks that boosts mileage up to 25%.

For you gear heads wanting more specific details, Mike’s report on the systems is at pickuptrucks.com here. A report on the Chrysler project is here. And for a CCEFP diagram of such a system, hit the “read more.”

 The parts of a hydraulic hybrid system that would work in tandem with and supplement the power from the gas engine powertrain for increased fuel efficiency. Illustration by Tim Montgomery/Montgomery.com.