for other uses see ford disambiguation . ford motor company the ford world headquarters in dearborn michigan also known as the glass house type public company traded as nyse f s & p 500 component industry automotive founded june 16 1903 ; 113 years ago 1903 06 16 founder henry ford headquarters dearborn michigan u.s. area served worldwide key people william c. ford jr. executive chairman mark fields president and ceo products automobiles luxury vehicles commercial vehicles automotive parts services automotive finance vehicle leasing vehicle service revenue us 149.5 billion 2015 1 2 operating income us 7.648 billion 2015 2 net income us 7.373 billion 2015 2 total assets us 224.9 billion 2015 2 total equity us 28.64 billion 2015 2 owner the vanguard group 5.82 % 3 evercore wealth management 5.58 % ford family 1 % equity ; 40 % voting power 3 4 number of employees 199 000 2015 2 divisions ford lincoln motorcraft subsidiaries list transportation ford australia ford performance vehicles until 2014 ford do brasil troller ford of europe ford of britain ford germany ford romania ford racing ford team rs special vehicle team ford lio ho 70 % autoalliance thailand 50 % blue diamond trucks 50 % ford sollers 50 % jiangling motors 49 % otosan 41 % changan ford mazda 35 % aston martin 8 % mazda 2.1 % finance ford credit other automotive components holdings getrag 50 % international ford of argentina ford of canada ford of india ford of japan ford of korea ford of new zealand ford of philippines ford of taiwan website www.ford.com the ford motor company commonly referred to simply as ford is an american multinational automaker headquartered in dearborn michigan a suburb of detroit . it was founded by henry ford and incorporated on june 16 1903 . the company sells automobiles and commercial vehicles under the ford brand and most luxury cars under the lincoln brand . ford also owns brazilian suv manufacturer troller and australian performance car manufacturer fpv . in the past it has also produced tractors and automotive components . ford owns a 2.1 % stake in mazda of japan an 8 % stake in aston martin of the united kingdom and a 49 % stake in jiangling of china . it also has a number of joint ventures one in china changan ford mazda one in taiwan ford lio ho one in thailand autoalliance thailand one in turkey ford otosan and one in russia ford sollers . it is listed on the new york stock exchange and is controlled by the ford family although they have minority ownership but majority of the voting power . 5 4 ford introduced methods for large scale manufacturing of cars and large scale management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines ; by 1914 these methods were known around the world as fordism . ford s former uk subsidiaries jaguar and land rover acquired in 1989 and 2000 respectively were sold to tata motors in march 2008 . ford owned the swedish automaker volvo from 1999 to 2010 . 6 in 2011 ford discontinued the mercury brand under which it had marketed entry level luxury cars in the united states canada mexico and the middle east since 1938 . during the financial crisis at the beginning of the 21st century it was close to bankruptcy but it has since returned to profitability . ford is the second largest u.s. based automaker preceded by general motors and the fifth largest in the world based on 2010 vehicle sales . 7 at the end of 2010 ford was the fifth largest automaker in europe . 8 ford is the eighth ranked overall american based company in the 2010 fortune 500 list based on global revenues in 2009 of 118.3 billion . 9 in 2008 ford produced 5.532 million automobiles 10 and employed about 213 000 employees at around 90 plants and facilities worldwide . the company went public in 1956 but the ford family through special class b shares still retain 40 percent voting rights . 11 4 contents 1 history 1.1 20th century 1.2 21st century 1.3 logo evolution 2 corporate affairs 2.1 executive management 2.2 financial results 3 operations 3.1 north america 3.2 europe 3.3 oceania 3.4 east and southeast asia 3.4.1 ford of korea 3.4.2 ford of japan 3.5 south and west asia 3.6 south america 3.7 africa 4 products and services 4.1 automobiles 4.2 current marques 4.3 former marques 4.4 trucks 4.5 buses 4.6 tractors 4.7 financial services 4.8 automotive components 5 motorsport 5.1 stock car racing 5.2 formula one 5.3 rally 5.4 rallycross 5.5 sports cars 5.6 touring cars 5.7 other 6 environmental initiatives 6.1 compressed natural gas 6.2 flexible fuel vehicles 6.3 electric drive vehicles 6.3.1 hybrid electric vehicles 6.3.2 plug in electric vehicles 6.4 hydrogen 6.5 increased fuel efficiency 6.6 pc power management 7 sponsorships 8 sales numbers 9 see also 10 notes 11 references and further reading 12 external links history main article history of ford motor company henry ford ca. 1919 a 1910 model t photographed in salt lake city 20th century henry ford s first attempt at a car company under his own name was the henry ford company on november 3 1901 which became the cadillac motor company on august 22 1902 after ford left with the rights to his name . the ford motor company was launched in a converted factory in 1903 with 28 000 in cash from twelve investors most notably john and horace dodge who would later found their own car company . during its early years the company produced just a few cars a day at its factory on mack avenue and later its factory on piquette avenue in detroit michigan . groups of two or three men worked on each car assembling it from parts made mostly by supplier companies contracting for ford . within a decade the company would lead the world in the expansion and refinement of the assembly line concept ; and ford soon brought much of the part production in house in a vertical integration that seemed a better path for the era . henry ford was 39 years old when he founded the ford motor company which would go on to become one of the world s largest and most profitable companies . as one of the largest family controlled companies in the world the ford motor company has been in continuous family control for over 100 years . after the first gasoline powered automobile was created in the year 1885 by german inventor carl benz benz patent motorwagen more efficient production methods were needed to make the automobile affordable for the middle class ; which ford contributed to for instance by introducing the first moving assembly line in 1913 at its factory in highland park . between 1903 and 1908 ford produced the models a b c f k n r and s most of which sold in the hundreds or few thousands a year . in 1908 ford introduced the mass produced model t which would sell in the millions . in 1927 ford replaced the t with the model a the first car with safety glass in the windshield . 12 ford launched the first low priced v8 engine powered car in 1932 . in an attempt to compete with general motors mid priced pontiac oldsmobile and buick ford created the mercury in 1939 as a higher priced companion car to ford . henry ford purchased the lincoln motor company in 1922 in order to compete with such brands as cadillac and packard for the luxury segment of the automobile market . in 1929 ford was contracted by the government of the soviet union to setup the gorky automobile plant in russia initially producing ford model a and aas thereby playing an important role in the industrialisation of that country . 13 the creation of a scientific laboratory in dearborn michigan in 1951 doing unfettered basic research led to ford s unlikely involvement in superconductivity research . in 1964 ford research labs made a key breakthrough with the invention of a superconducting quantum interference device or squid . 14 ford offered the lifeguard safety package from 1956 which included such innovations as a standard deep dish steering wheel optional front and for the first time in a car rear seatbelts and an optional padded dash . 15 ford introduced child proof door locks into its products in 1957 and in the same year offered the first retractable hardtop on a mass produced six seater car . in late 1955 ford established the continental division as a separate luxury car division . this division was responsible for the manufacture and sale of the famous continental mark ii . at the same time the edsel division was created to design and market that car starting with the 1958 model year . due to limited sales of the continental and the edsel disaster ford merged lincoln mercury and edsel into m e l which reverted to lincoln mercury after edsel s november 1959 demise . the ford mustang was introduced in 1964 . in 1965 ford introduced the seat belt reminder light . with the 1980s ford introduced several highly successful vehicles around the world . during the 1980s ford began using the advertising slogan have you driven a ford lately to introduce new customers to their brand and make their vehicles appear more modern . in 1990 and 1994 respectively ford also acquired jaguar cars and aston martin . 16 during the mid to late 1990s ford continued to sell large numbers of vehicles in a booming american economy with a soaring stock market and low fuel prices . with the dawn of the new century legacy healthcare costs higher fuel prices and a faltering economy led to falling market shares declining sales and diminished profit margins . most of the corporate profits came from financing consumer automobile loans through ford motor credit company . 17 21st century william clay ford jr. great grandson of henry ford serves as the executive chairman at the board of ford motor company . by 2005 both ford and gm s corporate bonds had been downgraded to junk status 18 as a result of high u.s. health care costs for an aging workforce soaring gasoline prices eroding market share and an over dependence on declining suv sales . profit margins decreased on large vehicles due to increased incentives in the form of rebates or low interest financing to offset declining demand . 19 in the latter half of 2005 chairman bill ford asked newly appointed ford americas division president mark fields to develop a plan to return the company to profitability . fields previewed the plan named the way forward at the december 7 2005 board meeting of the company and it was unveiled to the public on january 23 2006 . the way forward included resizing the company to match market realities dropping some unprofitable and inefficient models consolidating production lines closing 14 factories and cutting 30 000 jobs . 20 ford moved to introduce a range of new vehicles including crossover suvs built on unibody car platforms rather than more body on frame chassis . in developing the hybrid electric powertrain technologies for the ford escape hybrid suv ford licensed similar toyota hybrid technologies 21 to avoid patent infringements . 22 ford announced that it will team up with electricity supply company southern california edison sce to examine the future of plug in hybrids in terms of how home and vehicle energy systems will work with the electrical grid . under the multimillion dollar multi year project ford will convert a demonstration fleet of ford escape hybrids into plug in hybrids and sce will evaluate how the vehicles might interact with the home and the utility s electrical grid . some of the vehicles will be evaluated in typical customer settings