Ford commissioned the survey conducted by “The Futures Company,” to better understand the opinions and attitudes of Europeans across a range of mobility issues – from car sharing to green driving to the future of the internal combustion engine.

The Ford survey showed the majority of people say life would be “impossible” without a car; however 76% of Europeans say they are affected by stress from traffic congestion and fuel prices. The survey shows 74% use public transport, 37% share cars when making the same journey and 3% use formal car sharing schemes.

‘The survey shows that we need a public dialogue and pull in all the stakeholders to address the issues of mobility and environmental responsibility,’ said Barb Samardzich, vice president, Product Development, Ford of Europe.  ‘As the world becomes more crowded and more urbanized, we don’t want to lose the freedom of mobility, and that’s why we need to take a collaborative and integrated approach,’ she added.

Of those surveyed, 28% say they would consider buying a vehicle with an electrified powertrain; though few have first-hand experience of such vehicles (8% have owned or driven a hybrid electric vehicle and 6% have owned or driven a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle or pure battery electric vehicle). By comparison 66% of those polled have owned a petrol engine vehicle and 38% have owned a diesel engine vehicle.

The number of cars on the world’s roads is projected to rise from about 1bn to between 2bn and 4bn by 2050. The European Commission foresees that congestion costs in Europe will rise by 50% to €200 billion per year in the same time frame.

Led by Executive Chairman Bill Ford, Ford Motor Company has been at the forefront of the future mobility discussion.  Earlier this year in Barcelona, Bill Ford outlined the company’s “Blueprint for Mobility,” a vision for how mobility issues can be addressed through collaboration among all stakeholders and the application of new technology. 

Ford is collaborating with multiple partners to ensure a holistic approach in identifying and working towards a future vision of transportation. For example, experts from the Ford European Research and Advanced Engineering Europe Centre in Aachen, Germany, are leading and contributing to a number of high-profile collaborative research projects that look at delivering car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure communications capability, improved traffic integration and intelligent driver assistance features; all of which are key enablers in easing traffic congestion and improving safety and fuel efficiency.

These include:

– sim^TD (Safe Intelligent Mobility – Testfield Germany) – a joint research project supported by the German government that began in 2008. It is testing car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure communication systems under real-world conditions in a large scale test environment. Such systems could deliver road safety and efficiency improvements from existing traffic infrastructures, potentially improving traffic flow and reducing CO₂ emissions. 120 vehicles, including 20 Ford S-MAX cars began daily field operational tests in Frankfurt in July 2012
 
– DRIVE C2X (DRIVing implementation and Evaluation of C2X communication technology in Europe) – a joint research project supported by the European Commission that began in 2011. It is testing the compatibility and scalability of cooperative car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure communication systems under real-world conditions. The DRIVE C2X reference system is used to demonstrate cooperative vehicles in real-world traffic in cooperation with the Car2Car Communication Consortium and Testfeld Telematik.
 
– eCoMove (Cooperative Mobility Systems and Services for Energy Efficiency) – a joint consortium of automotive industry, fleet operators and traffic management providers supported by the European Commission that began in 2010. It is targeting improved traffic flow and reductions in CO₂ emissions through cooperative systems.
interactIVe (Accident Avoidance by Active Intervention of Intelligent Vehicles) – a consortium of 29 partners led by Ford and supported by the European Commission that began in 2010. It is testing the performance of implemented driver assistance systems through active intervention. These include autonomous braking and steering in critical situations and aims to avoid collisions and mitigate impact severity

‘Ford’s policy has always been to look far ahead and plan to address the needs of future drivers,’ said Paul Mascarenas, Ford’s chief technical officer and vice president, Research and Innovation. ‘Our company’s vast experience in the automotive environment allows us to play a pivotal role in shaping the transport infrastructure and vehicles of tomorrow,’ he added.

In 2011, Ford Motor Company spent €4.1bn on research and development globally, in areas including car-to-car communication, driver assistance features, materials development and manufacturing.