Ford Automotive: Design Thinking for Electric & Hybrid Vehicles

This project offers a comprehensive solution for Ford Automotive, focusing on the development and implementation of electric and hybrid vehicles to re-emerge in the market. The project utilizes the Design Thinking model, detailing each of its five stages: empathy, define, ideate, prototype, and test. The empathy phase emphasizes understanding customer needs regarding vehicle properties, driving cycles, battery capacity, and smart vehicle integration. The define phase synthesizes this information to identify key customer needs, such as the desire for lightweight, aerodynamic vehicles with varied driving cycle options and efficient battery technology. The ideate phase employs mind mapping to generate innovative solutions, including balancing vehicle materials for optimal weight, streamlining aerodynamics, and offering both full-electric and hybrid models. Although the prototype and test phases are not fully detailed in the provided text, the project lays the groundwork for creating customer-centric, technologically advanced vehicles that can help Ford remain competitive in the evolving automotive market. This project is a valuable resource for students studying business development, innovation, and automotive engineering, offering practical insights into applying design thinking to real-world business challenges.

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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

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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

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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

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customers while purchasing electric vehicles. The capacity and the voltage amounts will depend
with the type and size of a vehicle. Since high voltage battery will always produce a low current
output, for vehicles which will be having a very high continuous power such as big vehicles, the
size of conductors can be kept at a manageable level by using a high voltage battery.
Most importantly, we are moving into a world of technology where everything will need
to be networked (Internet of Things IoT). One of the feature which customers will look at while
buying an electric vehicle is whether it is a smart vehicle or not. Obviously, customers will
always want to stay current with the technology, as such, most of the customers will prefer smart
models. Another critical aspect is the vehicle configuration. While customers will be purchasing
the vehicles, they will, in many occasions ask whether the car is full electric or hybrid. If the
vehicle is hybrid, is it a series or a parallel hybrid? If distance is not predictable or if the car will
be driven over a long distance, customers will always prefer hybrid brands. Full electric brands
will always be used as city dwellers where the distances may not be too long and charging points
will be available. This is important as it helps designers in making appropriate decision. In
addition to this, customers will always need high quality products at low cost.
2. Define
In this phase, we will put together the information that have been collected from the first
phase (Tschimmel, 2012, pp.01; Carroll et al. 2010, pp.37-53). The observations will be analyzed
and synthesized so as to define key problem that we have come up with up to this point.
As observed in the previous phase, the properties of vehicles are the key drivers of the
customers’ decisions while purchasing a product. Some of the most important characteristics are
found to be weight, size, overload, and aerodynamics among others; they play a critical role with

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regards to vehicle operating conditions. Ford’s design team will need to take into consideration
the key properties of brands that most suit the customer’s needs and are in line with the current
technology.
The driving cycle i.e. how the vehicle is used, where the vehicle should be used and the
distance that the vehicle should cover have been observed to be another key consideration that is
common with many customers. From this, the consumer will be able to choose the most
appropriate brand. For example if the customer needs a vehicle to use within a city, the full-
electric brand will serve his needs. However, if he wants a vehicle that travel a long distance,
then hybrid model will be the most suitable for him. As such, driving cycles should be varied in
order to satisfy the needs of different customers.
Concerning battery capacity and voltage, people will always go for batter with longer
life. It is observed that the voltage is inversely proportional to current output. In that sense,
designers are required to design the battery taking the power of the vehicle to use the battery into
account in order to produce a brand that will best suit customers.
We are in a digital era; smart cities and internet of things are taking the pace. Customers
will always need to stay current with the technology and innovation; the current vehicles will be
obsolete in the near future. As such, the company need to think outside the box. Designers
therefore need to design smart brands that will understand the ongoing events and keep up with
the disrupting innovation.
With regards to vehicle configuration, we can see that sometimes the travel distances may
be unpredictable. As a consequence, some customers may not be certain which vehicle may best

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suit them i.e. whether to choose hybrid or full-electric. The designers therefore need to design to
take into account vehicle configuration in order to cater for all kinds of customers.
The cost of the product should be of high quality with relatively low cost in order to cater for
many customers.
3. Ideate
This section will be completed according to the mind map shown in figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Electric vehicle solution mind map.
In order to come up with properties of the vehicle that best suit the customers’ needs and are
up to date as far as the current technology is concerned we can think of the following (Liedtka,
2014, pp.40-45):

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 Balance materials that determine the weight of the vehicle such that we only use steals
for parts that need strong metals like engine and front parts to resist impact and use
aluminum for body so as to come up with a car with an appropriate weight. Light
materials like woods, rubbers will be used to eliminate much load. They weigh of a car
ranges between 500kg and 600kg.
 We can select an appropriate size that is modern and people like for each type of a
vehicle. We can also choose size which most of the competitors’ customers such as Tesla
purchase most.
 Aerodynamic involve the flow of air on the body surface. We can have a streamline body
that will ensure efficient flow of air. The body style has to be modern and up to the
standards of customers. This design will not allow turbulent flow of air as this cause
effects during motion.
We can vary the designing cycle so as to meet the needs of customers in the following
manner:
We come up with both of the following brands;
 Full-electric brand: these vehicles will be used around the city where they can get
recharged when they ran out of power.
 Hybrid brand: these will be used for long distances where in case the car ran out of
power, it will use fuel as a backup.
We can use lithium-ion batteries. This battery has been proven to be long lasting; they
can deliver up to 480 km per charge and will satisfy the needs of customers. Besides, their cost is

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relatively low and it is suitable for this project. We also have NiMH batteries. These batteries
have specific energy that is higher than that of lead acid accumulators.
Regarding making the smart brands, we can incorporate Internet of Things protocols like
MQTT for custom installation. Its APIs will enable integration with various types of automotive
equipment sensors, electronics and control units. By this, we can integrate various smart features
with the specific brand.
To ensure a vehicle configuration that cater for the needs of all customers, we will design
two brands including full electric and hybrid electric. These two brands save a considerable cost
for customers.
Lastly, to ensure a relatively low cost, we have to efficiently use raw materials to ensure
high quality product.
4. Prototype
In this phase, we will we will produce a number of cost effective, features of the brand
for inspection. These features will be shared within the design team as well as among customers
in order to be assessed if it meets the standards of consumers and meet the needs of the
disrupting innovations (Thoring, and Müller, 2011, pp. 493-498). They include the following:
Brand properties
 Balancing of the materials that determine weight including iron, and aluminum among
others to come up with a reasonable weight i.e. between 500 kg and 600 kg.
 Choosing a size that customers like.
 Designing a streamline body size that is free from turbulent.

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Driving cycle
 Design both full-electric brand and hybrid brand
Battery
 Use lithium-ion battery; they are powerful and cost effective
 Use NiMH batteries
Smart features
 Incorporate IoT protocols such as MQTT; its APIs will enable integration with various
equipment thus enabling smart features.
Vehicle configuration
 Design configuration that are appropriate for both long distance and short distance. Both
full-electric and hybrids are recommended.
Cost
 Utilize raw materials efficiently to ensure high quality product and low cost.
5. Test
This is the last phase of the design thinking. At this stage, the designers will test the
refined product by use of the best solution in the prototype. Through an interactive process, the
results which are found here are then used in redefining one or more issues if there is and inform
the consumers’ understanding, use conditions, how consumers behave, think, and feel, and
commiserate.
The innovative and technological components of the solution

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This report has studied various innovative and technological components. These include
driving cycles. The driving cycles involve a series of data points that represents speed verses
time in a vehicle. According to the real world driving, the driving cycle is viewed from the
perspective of acceleration, deceleration and idling mode. However, the consumption and
emissions should also be taken into consideration. Electric vehicles, on the other hand, most of
them are powered by low to no emission of energy sources. We have also discussed two types of
driving cycles in the electric emission including hybrid and full-electric.
Another innovation and technological component of the solution include batteries. We
have two types of battery that can be used for this solution. These include lithium-ion batteries
and NiMH batteries. The NiMH batteries are found to be better as they are stronger than lead
acid accumulators. Lithium batteries on the other hand are found to be more powerful as they can
deliver up to 480km when charged.
Smart features is another innovative and technological component discussed in the
solution. We have discussed the application of MQTT where APIs allow for integration between
the automotive equipment thus leading to smart vehicle. Lastly, we discussed vehicle
configuration, configuration in two types of brands were analyzed including hybrid and full-
electric configuration.
Is the solution sustainable or disruptive?
As far as Ford Inc. is concerned, the solution is disruptive. This is in the sense that
disruptive solutions explore new markets which are separate from the mainstream market (Yu
and Hang, 2010, pp.435-452). Ford corporate had not ventured into the electrical vehicle models
initially, as such, this will be a new venture to the organization as it is expected to add value to

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the organization’s main stream market which is different from sustainable solution that result
from listening to consumers’ needs in the existing market and making brands that meet their
needs. The sustainable approach involve improving on the current financial stream for
customer’s future needs, which is not the case for our solution since the solution launches a new
model considering the future needs of customers (Christensen and Raynor, 2013, pp.24).
Ways to measure the effectiveness of the solution
The effectiveness of this solution can be measured on basis on performance metrics for
light duty vehicles and heavy duty vehicles.
Performance metrics for light duty vehicles
The light duty vehicles will show the following profile:
 Vehicles with APU range extender will have electrical operation as the principle mode. In
such vehicles, the hybrid mode will be extended when a need to cover long distances
arise. For this brand, the measurement for energy consumption can be done as per ISO
8714 battery-electric vehicle procedure.
 Vehicles which are zero emission enabled will have hybrid operation as their principle
mode. These vehicle cab be mainly used within the city and sensitive environment. The
performance for this brand can be done as per SAE J1711 procedure.
Performance metrics for heavy duty vehicles
These will include buses and trucks, there performance key performance indicators are as
follows:

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 The APU for these vehicles should deliver a constant power, especially for hybrid buses;
its APU should operate at its optimal level to reduce energy consumption.
 They will deliver a dynamic power; this requires a cycle test which corresponds to the
road cycle.
The potential difficulties that may be challenging
 Besides their potential benefits, this solution would experience various challenges
ranging from legal challenges to R&D. The legal challenges are shown below:
 Battery legislation: legislations for market authorization for battery like labelling and
registration provisions as well as obligations to take back battery and ensure a proper
handling for end-user are some of the legislation that restrict this solution (Yuan, Li, Gou,
and Dong, 2015, pp. 75-84).
 Along with that, battery degradation, horsepower, acceleration and range legislations also
present some challenges to the solution (Densing, Turton and Bäuml, 2012, pp.137-149).
 Since the solution include information system which will involve data management, data
protection and information security legislation must be complied with, this might limit
this solution to some extent (Weber, 2010, pp.23-30).
Conclusion
In summary, this document has proposed a detailed solution for electric and hybrid model
brand for Ford Corporate. In so doing, we have done a brief analysis of the solution proposed in
the previous mini-project. On basis of the assessment done in the mini-project, a detailed
solution for launching electric brands has been derived in this project, this has been done in
accordance with the five steps of Design Thinking approach. In addition, we have also analyzed

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the innovative and technological components of the solution and justify that the solution is
disruptive. We also did key performance indicators for the proposed solution and lastly, we
explore potential difficulties that are likely to challenge the proposed solution. An overall
conclusion is that electric vehicles are, in many aspects, the future of transportation; exploiting
this opportunity will enable Ford Inc. to re-emerge in the market.

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