Does Ford Have a Working Growth Strategy?

And if no others have fuel-cells…

Ford is proving to be no fool, as it recently made friends with the Renault and Nissan alliance — Daimler is also joining the group. The four automakers have come together to develop their own fuel-cell technology for vehicles.

Developing new technologies is an expensive endeavor, and in the weakened European market, companies may be more hesitant when spending their money. The new partnership between Renault, Nissan, Ford, and Daimler will help defray the individual costs of producing the fuel-cell technology. More importantly, the automakers could have road models ready as early as 2017, which would put them out sooner than BMW’s current time-frame.

It would be one thing for Ford to come out with a fuel-cell-powered car within the next four years — it would certainly help in the competition with the Chevrolet Volt and Toyota Prius — but it would be another thing for Ford to incorporate the technology into the struggling Lincoln brand. Considering the 2017 date, a fuel-cell-powered Lincoln could help the brand make a comeback against BMW and Toyota’s Lexus.

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