For the past few years, Ford has tried to transform its image from that of a car company into something resembling a Silicon Valley tech company that just happens to have 115 years of automotive baggage. There were countless presentations on self-driving cars, man-machine-technology interfaces, and other eye rollers. Generally, the conversation lacked car stuff, which is still the business of the Ford of right now. In a wide-reaching forum today, Ford realigned its public persona back toward reality: It is a car company, and it has some exciting cars and trucks coming out in the next few years.
It’s true that the forum, dubbed Ford Uncovered, smacked of the company responding to criticisms of its tech-happy diversions of late and trying to steady its Wall Street performance. Investor interest in Ford has sagged over legitimate concern that the company’s current job?building cars?might be neglected in its rush toward ephemeral, techy pursuits. In an attempt to shift the conversation, president and CEO Jim Hackett spoke of his company’s plans concretely and in measured, humble tones, in contrast to the often soaring rhetoric offgassed by Silicon Valley firms and upstarts like Tesla. The plan is clear, if not exactly all new: Update and replace Ford’s lineup, making it the freshest in the business by 2020; focus on trucks and SUVs; and expand hybrid availability to more core models (including, it seems, the Mustang). By all appearances, Ford will co...