Ford's Volvo unit to invest in green

STOCKHOLM -- Ford Motor Co.'s Volvo Car Corp. said last week it would invest $1.36 billion over five years to develop cars that consume less fuel.

``The aim is to reduce the total fuel economy and tailpipe emissions of the global Volvo Cars fleet," the company said in a statement.

``The investment initiative will focus primarily on the development and deployment of cleaner, more efficient diesel engines, hybrids, and alternative fuel vehicles, the use of light, strong materials . . . and the introduction of smaller vehicles."

The company also said that a new development center for hybrid technology would be created in Gothenburg, on Sweden's west coast. The move appears at odds with Ford's decision, revealed the day before Volvo's news, that it was switching its focus from hybrid technology to alternative fuels.

``I think this should rather be seen as a sign that Ford is broadening its efforts in the field of environmental technology to include more of alternative fuels and the like," Volvo Cars chief executive Fredrik Arp told Reuters.

The unit, which would initially be staffed by 20 engineers, would be responsible for introducing hybrid systems into Volvo cars as well as ensuring that other brands in the group could apply the technology in their own product plans.

``I think that it [the unit] will be gradually expanded over a two-year period . . . to somewhere around 50 to 100 employees," Arp said.