Paul Thomas

“We are working on a raft of safety features on a worldwide basis for the whole family of brands”

The new Ford Focus will bring a host of new safety-related technology to the lower medium segment of the UK car market for the first time when the car enters showrooms in January next year. The list of features, coupled with its continuing enviable reputation for class-leading handling and the robustness of the body structure engineered into Britain’s best-selling car, is likely to ensure the Focus continues to set the pace in the sector. Ford’s new Focus, like its C-Max stablemate, the Mazda3 and the Volvo S40 and V50 are all derived from the Ford Motor Company’s C1 platform and chassis technology. It is this sharing of technology and economies of scale across the Ford Motor Company’s family of brands – Aston Martin, Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mazda and Volvo – that will fuel Ford’s long-term development. The Ford Motor Company has opened product development centres of excellence worldwide with each of the group’s brands “mixing and matching” technologies produced.

Safety has been Volvo’s hallmark since the first model rolled off the production line in Sweden, but the brand has always been a bit-part player in a global marketplace. Ford of Britain’s managing director Paul Thomas says, in the build up to the showroom debut of new Focus: “We have learned a lot from Volvo, but Volvo has also learned a lot from us. Volvo could not have afforded to have developed some of the technologies now featuring in models on its own. However, within the Ford family, the cost can be kept down through economies of scale and those features are appearing in the marketplace on many models. We have benefited from utilising some of Volvo’s safety-related features, but Volvo has also benefited from using Ford’s C1 technology.” ABS is standard across the new Focus range, but ESP is available for emergency stopping power, along with options such as adaptive front lighting – halogen headlights that turn in line with the front wheels – and Blue Tooth hands-free phone technology, all features that have historically been the preserve of executive vehicles (see panel).

The opportunity to share research and development costs across a number of brands and thus make a raft of new technologies – particularly those related to road user safety – widely available gives Ford as well as its sister brands “a huge opportunity”, says Mr Thomas. “The ability to bring all these technologies to market at an affordable price and into the volume sector gives Ford a huge competitive advantage,” he says. “We are working on a raft of safety features on a worldwide basis for the whole family of brands and we will bring them to market at an affordable price.” Although he declines to reveal what was next on the safety agenda, it is likely that the economies of scale generated through mass market take-up will enable features that are currently optional on new Focus and other models, such as adaptive front lighting and satellite navigation, to become standard in the future.

At the time of going to press, the Euro NCAP crash test rating for the new Focus had not been announced. However, Ford says the structural features combined with advanced passive safety systems set a new standard of crash protection for the Focus brand. Reflecting the sharing of technologies, the model’s body structure and safety systems have been honed by powerful digital tools and tested extensively at the state-of-the-art Volvo Safety Centre in Sweden. While Euro NCAP provides fleet operators, company car drivers and consumers with an easy-to-understand, star-based safety rating enabling model-for-model comparisons to be made, it is, says Mr Thomas, just one element in the vehicle decision-making process. It has been widely suggested that some carmakers engineer their models to ensure five star Euro NCAP ratings are achieved. Although Mr Thomas declines to name names, he says that Ford’s Intelligent Protection System (IPS), which debuted in the Mondeo and links safety features together and is now in new Focus, was not critical to Euro NCAP test result success.

IPS is a centralised network of sensors located throughout the car that act as the “safety eye” keeping constant watch of driver and passengers. If danger threatens, the system assesses the severity of the incident and activates the appropriate safety system in a split second. “We could stop at Euro NCAP standards, but we don’t. We go an awful lot further. We don’t get any benefit from that in terms of a rating, but we want to build a car that is as safe as we can possibly make it. Euro NCAP only covers one aspect of a vehicle’s performance, but we are building over and above that element,” he says. In recent years, supporters of Euro NCAP have praised vehicle manufacturers for improving occupant protection, but they have been critical of the majority of carmakers for failing to design cars that give increased protection to pedestrians in the event of a collision. Ford argues that passenger safety, pedestrian protection, vehicle emissions and fuel economy and price are all crucial in car design, but that there is a tension between them all.

The company says the new Focus has a frontal structure that is designed to avoid “stiff structural members” from being directly under the outer skin and thus coming into contact with pedestrians if there is a collision. Mr Thomas argues that it is possible to produce the ultimate in “pedestrian-friendly” motoring, but that the price would be exorbitant. Similarly, adding more safety features to a vehicle makes a car heavier, which impacts on vehicle emissions and fuel economy. “All these issues are crucial in car design and they are not mutually exclusive. It is about achieving a balance,” he says. The new Focus, says Mr Thomas, continues a Ford trend of setting the safety standards expected of a market leader.

The new Ford Focus

“We could stop at Euro NCAP standards, but we don’t. We go an awful lot further”

He pointed to the Granada Scorpio being the first model to have ABS in 1985, airbags first appearing on the Mondeo more than a decade ago, ABS being standard on light commercial vehicles and harness seatbelts being installed on Transit minibuses, as well as specialist training being available for minibus drivers. Meanwhile, Ford’s chief refutes suggestions that light commercial vehicle manufacturers have lagged behind in the fitting of safety features to vans. He points out how ABS and a driver’s airbag is standard on all commercial vehicles, while a passenger airbag is standard on Fiesta Van and optional on Transit Connect and Transit. “We would implore van drivers to use their seatbelts and not to use hand-held mobile phones while driving. We have brought much to the market to help reduce the number of accidents, but manufacturers can only do so much.”

He adds: “We have to champion safety and we do, but safety has to be engineered into a car on the drawing board. Safety is not something that can be retrofitted. We provide transport solutions with relevant technology at an affordable price.” Despite the raft of publicity surrounding the need for companies to manage occupational road risk in accordance with best practice health and safety advice, it remains true that wholelife costs are the over-riding consideration for fleet operators when compiling vehicle choice lists.

However, crucially, says Mr Thomas, safety has a key role to play in wholelife costs. Although it cannot be measured, in the sense that fuel costs can be calculated and therefore become part of the wholelife cost equation, a car with a poor safety performance will suffer in the second-hand marketplace, he says. Ford is also spending significant resources on educating its dealer network about safety and how blue oval models perform against key competition.

Mr Thomas concludes: “Current Focus has always been regarded as the best ride and handling car on the road and it was launched six years ago. Our rivals are only just catching up but we are moving the game on dramatically with new Focus.”