Electric Vehicle and Hybrid Solution.

Electric Vehicle and Hybrid Solution 1
Electric Vehicle and Hybrid Solution
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Electric Vehicle and Hybrid Solution 2
Introduction
In the current technology driven world, automobile industry is the next sector descending
in line of the disrupting technology and is blossoming with the current innovation. This has led
to a dramatic change not only on the ways we design but also in the ways we process and
manufacture goods. We are currently at the verge of the new and fast pacing technological
innovation, an innovation that is expected to change the path of development of the evolving
markets (Shaheen, and Cohen, 2013, pp.5-34). Such innovations are very essential particularly in
the automobile industries to not only emerge the best among their competitors but also to satisfy
customers’ needs and rejuvenate. In this report, we present a detailed solution on basis of the
previously proposed solution in light of innovation and new disruptive technologies that will
help Ford Automotive Company to re-emerge in the new market.
As captured in the previously proposed solution, Ford Inc. is an organization that is
popular in the United States. The headquarters of the organization is located in Dearborn,
Michigan. The organization has been a dealer and manufacturer of automobile. Fast Company
(2019) reports that Ford’s stoke has reduced by nearly 40% since 2014. Moreover, according to
Baptisto (2018) in Forbes, Tesla Corporate CEO in an exclusive interview with Recode’s editor
at large Kara Swisher noted that Ford is likely to go bankrupt in 2018. Moreover, the source
further predict that recovering from the state will be challenging. This can only be overcome by
adopting the current state of innovation as proposed in the previous solution. In the previous
evaluation of Ford’s status, we used four strategic analysis framework including Porters five
forces, technology cycle, and three phases of innovation model as well as Porters value chain
model. Upon the analysis, we found that Ford Corporate can re-emerge and this can only be
achieved by adopting innovations including production of hybrid and electric brands. In this

Electric Vehicle and Hybrid Solution 3
rationale, we seek to propose a detailed solution on basis of the previous findings concerning the
organization. This will be achieved through application of a Design Thinking model.
In a brief overview of the approach that we want to use for this solution, Design Thinking
involves taking customers into account all time when driving technological innovations which
are economically viable. We are in an automotive world where consumers want the best product
which is equipped with a lot of information from various sources than in the previous times (Liu,
Dow and Liu, 2011, pp. 1-8; Frieske, Kloetzke and Mauser, 2013, pp. 1-12). The today’s
customers have become impatient and sophisticated. In addition to this, the pervasiveness of the
internet and social network has enhanced interaction between customers. As a result, they know
what they need, they also know where to find it (Diamond, 2009, pp.972-983). In order to
accommodate the inclined expectation of the quality of vehicles, safety, as well as reliability and
remain steady in the current competitive business environment, Ford Corporation needs to ensure
a consistent flow of products and technological innovations developed while the organization is
aware of the direction of the market. A bigger percentage of the market is controlled by
customers due to the fact that the face of the automobile industry is changed by the “social
currency” (Neubauer, and Pesaran, 2011, pp.10351-10358; Helveston et al. 2015, pp.96-112)
Many successful organizations including Ford’s major competitors such as Tesla Inc. have
drawn their attention in the Design Thinking as an economically viable strategy and this has
precipitated the need to propose to Ford a solution to the problem based on this approach. This
will be achieved through five steps of Design Thinking as shown below.
Solution: Launching Electric and Hybrid brands
Electric vehicles is one of the technology in the industry that is developing at a very fast
rate and the current market has also picked its pace. The new competitors in the filed like Tesla

Electric Vehicle and Hybrid Solution 4
organization have started to walk towards the current disrupting technology in a more serious
manner. In this section, we present the solution in five stages of the Design Thinking including
empathy, define, ideate, prototype and lastly test (Brown, and Wyatt, 2010, pp.29-43; Brown,
and Katz, 2011, pp.381-383; Johansson‐Sköldberg, Woodilla, and Çetinkaya, 2013, pp.121-146).
1. Empathy
This approach is based on the fact that customers are the core of the design; it is the phase
that need much time. In order to complete this part, the designer has to think like a customer
(Razzouk, and Shute, 2012, pp.330-348; Scheer, Noweski, and Meinel, 2012, pp.03; Liedtka,
2015, pp.925-938). In that sense, the designer will look at core things that customers always
consider and that are linked to innovation and the new disruptive technology. In order to
complete this parts, we will overview some core questions that consumers need to answer before
they buy a car. Fundamentally, Ford Corporate, while implementing the electric and hybrid
brands will need find out the most demanding requirements of their brands and evaluate in
different ways what may affect the performance of the power train.
First of all, properties of a vehicle including vehicle characteristics like weight, size,
overload and aerodynamics are the core properties that will identify the speed and power of the
electric cars. These aspects will be considered as they help in understanding the effects
concerning the operating condition in the electric motor. The second one is driving cycles. While
customers buy a car, they, in many occasions enquire how the vehicle is used. As such, how the
car is used, where the vehicles will be driven and the distance it should cover are essential
aspects that a designer has to consider. They will help to find the right brand configuration i.e.
whether to design an all-electric, a parallel hybrid or a series hybrid as well as the capacity of the
battery for the motor. Battery capacity and voltage is another thing that is always considered by