Ford eNews - Feb. 27, 2013

DEARBORN, MI--Feb. 27, 2013:

U.S. News & World Report puts Ford tops in value
For the second straight year, Ford dominates the U.S. News & World Report 2013 Best Cars for the Money rankings with six Ford vehicles offering consumers the most bang for their buck. The 2013 Focus, Fusion, Fusion Hybrid, Taurus, Escape and Edge captured awards based on their outstanding value and critical acclaim. Click here for more.

In California, Fusion Energi gets to go faster 
Californians now have another Ford vehicle option to get them where they're going even faster with the all-new Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid just approved for use in the state's high-occupancy vehicle lanes. This means Ford, along with Toyota, now has more vehicles that qualify for California's HOV lanes than any other automaker.

'La Linea' helping Ford gain hybrid traction
Ford's new hybrids are luring more Toyota owners out of their Priuses and the "La Linea" ads for C-MAX Hybrid are responsible for some of this momentum. The unique advertising campaign launched last fall as C-MAX Hybrid hit showrooms, resonating well with customers and helping C-MAX become the fastest-selling hybrid ever at launch. The "La Linea" ads will continue into 2013 as Ford targets a much larger share of the hybrid market.

Van Dyke Transmission -- Ford's first North American zero waste-to-landfill
A local group at Ford's Van Dyke Transmission Plant has come up with a way to properly manage the waste resulting from giant fabric cooling filters, finding separate recyclers for the filters and the materials they contain. Van Dyke now diverts 15 tons of waste-from-landfill a month, and exemplifies Ford's progress in reducing the amount of waste it generates globally. Plans call for waste-to-landfill to drop to just 13.4 pounds -- or 40 percent -- per vehicle by 2016.

Ford invests millions in Cleveland plant
To meet rising consumer demand for the award-winning 2.0-liter EcoBoost engine, Ford is investing nearly $200 million and adding 450 new jobs at its Cleveland Engine Plant. The hiring builds on the creation of more than 8,100 salaried and hourly jobs in the U.S. last year

Ford extends commitment to app developers 
Ford expanded its commitment to help encourage the growing community of automotive app developers by announcing it will contribute the software for AppLink, the Ford-developed in-car smartphone app interface, to GENIVI Alliance. Ford becomes the first American automaker to contribute proprietary source code from one of its products to an open-source project.

Ford first to launch Spotify in the car
Spotify, the leading on-demand music streaming service providing access to a catalog of more than 20 million songs globally is now compatible with Ford SYNC AppLink for simple hands-free, voice-activated entertainment while driving.