Ford Motor Company

US producer of cars and trucks, including Ford, Mercury, Lincoln, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Aston Martin. The company, one of the world's largest, sold about 7 million vehicles in 2001, with Fords being handled by more than 13,000 dealers. The Ford Credit company operates in 36 countries to finance vehicle purchases. Ford also owns the Hertz Corporation, the world's largest car rental company, and 33.4% of the Mazda Motor Corporation.

Ford was founded in 1903 in Detroit, Michigan, by Henry Ford. The company began with ten people in a converted wagon shop, and the first car, called the Model A, was sold that year to a local physician. The Model T, introduced in 1908 and assembled from 1913 on a moving conveyor belt at the Highland Park plant in Michigan, was immensely popular and by 1915 Ford had produced 1 million cars. Trucks (Model TT) and tractors were first produced in 1917. When the replacement for the Model T car was introduced in 1928, Ford renamed it the Model A. Ford purchased the Lincoln Motor Company in 1922, and the Mercury line began in 1938. The company purchased Aston Martin Lagonda in 1987, Jaguar Cars in 1990, Volvo in 1999, and Land Rover in 2000. It has produced battery electric cars in the USA since 1998 and plans to test vehicles run on hydrogen by 2004.