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Slew of Ford recalls affect more than a million vehicles

Ford is closing out September with the sad task of alerting owners to five different recalls, two of them camera related. The first is a safety compliance recall affecting 620,246 units of 12 models from the 2020 model year: Edge, Escape, Expedition, Explorer, F-150 and Super Duty, Mustang, Ranger, and Transit, plus the Lincoln Corsair, MKX, and Nautilus. On these vehicles, the circuit board in the rearview camera suffers from insufficient electrical conductivity. The issue can cause the resulting image to not appear or to be distorted, which can lead to an accident while reversing. Ford will begin notifying owners as of November 7 to get their vehicles to dealers for replacement of the rearview camera. The internal Ford reference for this recall is 20C19. The second camera-related issue affects the 2020 and 2021 Ford Explorer, Lincoln Corsair and Lincoln Aviator with the 360-degree camera. Technically, if you own a 2021 Explorer that only has a rearview camera and not a 360-degree camera, neither the above recall nor this one apply to you, but it's probably better safe than sorry here. There are 354,330 crossovers covered by this action. A video output issue could cause the displayed image to cut out, increasing the chances of a reversing accident. Ford will notify dealers starting October 7, the fix being to have a dealer update the Image Processing Module software. The NHTSA campaign number for this recall is 21V735, Ford’s internal reference number is 21S44.  The F-250 and F-350 Super Duty are in for another recalls thanks to potentially improper welds on the front axle's wheel end yoke. A bad weld could alter steering performance, getting the truck to pull left or right, or change the sensitivity of the steering. There are 9,628 affected trucks in the U.S. and 961 in Canada. Dealers will replace the axle assembly if any bad welds are found. Ford's reference number for this is 20S56. The fourth recall affects 38,005 Mustangs in the U.S. and another 2,873 Mustangs in Canada and Mexico from the 2020 model year. In this instance, the brake pedal bracket might fracture during sudden stopping, which can decrease brake pressure and increase the chances of an accident. Ford's internal reference for this recall is 20S52, the fix being to have a dealer replace the brake pedal bracket assembly. Finally, 126,033 units of the 2011 to 2013 Explorer are being recalled over a potential suspension issue.

Bill Ford op-ed argues we can't just build and sell more of the same cars

It's hardly a secret that the auto industry is undergoing an enormous, tectonic shift in the way it thinks, builds cars and does business. Between alternative forms of energy, a renewed focus on low curb weights and aerodynamic bodies, the advent of driverless and autonomous cars and the need to reduce the our impact on the environment, it's very likely that the car that's built 10 years down the line will be scarcely recognizable when parked next to the car from 10 years ago.
Few people are as able to explain the industry's many upcoming changes and challenges as clearly as William Clay Ford, Jr., better known as Bill Ford. The 57-year-old currently sits as the executive chairman of the company his great-grandfather, Henry Ford, founded over 110 years ago.
In an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Ford explains that the role of automakers is, necessarily, going to change to suit the needs of the future world. That means changing the view of not just the automobile, but the automaker. As Ford explains it, automakers will "move from being just car and truck manufacturers to become personal-mobility companies."

UK's Loughborough University improving Ford's 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine

How much does it cost for college students to study zero emissions vehicles? At Loughborough University in the UK, a new Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) is being built at a cost of a billion pounds ($1.7 billion US). The school has just announce that it will fund a number of grad student positions and is creating a new Chair in Advanced Propulsion Systems, which sounds like a fun job to us. We're weird like that. There will be a total of four professor-type positions in the new Center, including the chair, all focused on teaching students about low-carbon vehicle technologies, specifically electric and hybrid ones. The school is investing 1.5 million pounds ($2.5 million) for the new positions. There is a bigger picture as well, a 26-million pound ($44 million) Advanced Combustion Turbocharged Integrated Variable-valvetrain Engine (ACTIVE) project, which uses funds not only from the school but also from Ford and others. The point of ACTIVE is to study Ford's 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine and "improve further its efficiency and ensure it exceeds 2020 emission regulations." This is already a popular engine for the automaker, and it will need to stay at the bleeding edge of efficiency to remain as important in 2020 as it is today. Loughborough University has been working with automakers on advanced energy technologies for years, for example with Rolls-Royce and fuel cells in 2007 and the Lotus Hotfire engine in 2008. University invests GBP1.5M in advanced propulsion research to advance zero emissions vehicles challenge Loughborough University is investing GBP1.5M over five years in strategic research appointments, inspired by the global challenge to develop the new advanced propulsion technologies required for the move to zero emission vehicles. These appointments reinforce the University's world-class research in low-carbon vehicle technologies, adding new dimensions concerned with electric and hybrid drives. Four appointments will be made, including a Chair in Advanced Propulsion Systems, supported by a number of PhD studentships. The GBP1.5M investment is part of the University's commitment to the recently announced Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) to support the development of new supply chains for low carbon vehicles. APC is an initiative established by the Automotive Council that will see GBP1 billion of investment from government and industry over the next 10 years.