The Ford Motor Company has a rich history with over 100 years of experience and a plethora of famous vehicles and company success.

Ford was founded by Henry Ford and various investors in June 1903 – the company then went on to design and produce the first Ford automobile, the Model A ‘Fordmobile’ (pictured).

This one vehicle helped to secure Ford as a leading and extremely popular US car company and by 1906 they were selling on average 8,500 cars per year. Although this figure may not seem large by today’s standard; in 1906, a time with hardly any roads and even fewer cars, 8,500 was a goliath figure.

On the back of the company’s success, an English production plant was opened in Manchester. This helped to establish the company within the European market and was a great opportunity for company expansion.

During the war, Ford developed military use 4×4 vehicles, including the Ford GP 1941 (pictured). These were the first Fords to have a metal grille above the front bumper, a practice that has been adopted by most modern 4×4 manufacturers today.

After this time, Ford became a global leader for car manufacturing, with worldwide production set at approximately 1.68 million vehicles.

From 1955 onwards the company started to develop Thunderbirds or T-Birds (pictured below) that became ‘all the craze’ due to the rock and roll culture that was developing in the 1950s. These models were available as convertibles with the top smoothly lowering into the boot area.

The company’s success at this time allowed them to establish more of a European presence and in 1977 allowed them to buy significant shares in Mazda, Aston Martin, Hertz-Rent-a-Car and Jaguar.

In the nineties the company went on to make highly popular vehicles, such as the Ford Explorer, Ford Aspire, Ford Tempo and Ford Focus. This latter model became a huge success due to its excellent handling, rear suspension and passenger comfort.

In 1999 the company continued to grow and even acquired the Volvo car division and the rights to Land Rover from BMW.

Ford is now set to enter the low-carbon car market with electric and hybrid vehicles, which should be available by 2013. At present there are plans to develop up to 5 vehicles in Europe, some of which will be commercial vehicles.

One of these commercial vehicles will be an adaption of the classic Transit van but with a pure electric motor, which produces zero CO2 emissions. These vehicle should be available to buy at some point in 2011 and the company also has plans to release a Ford Focus Electric in 2012.