FutureTruck Hosts Media at Final Competition

Vehicle Demonstrations and Interview Opportunities Available at Media Day

What: The FutureTruck teams and sponsors invite you to participate in Media Day at Ford Motor Company's Michigan Proving Grounds as the final FutureTruck competition is underway. Attend a Ford media briefing, listen to each team give an overview of their vehicle, test drive your choice of the 15 advanced technology vehicles and talk with sponsors, judges, students and other participants.

FutureTruck is a unique multi-year program in which industry and government partners challenge teams of students to re-engineer a mid-size 2002 Ford Explorer SUV to improve fuel economy and lower emissions while retaining the vehicle's utility and consumer appeal. Students and their FutureTruck vehicles are judged in more than a dozen events, including dynamic events such as acceleration, off-road performance, trailer towing, on-road fuel economy and regulated tailpipe emissions and static events, such as oral presentations, consumer acceptability, vehicle design and written technical report. Ford Motor Company and the U.S. Department of Energy are the headline sponsors of FutureTruck, joined by 15 other government and industry sponsors.

Who: Al Kammerer, Executive Director of North American Product Development at Ford Motor Company will give a media briefing.

All 15 student team leaders will give brief overviews of their vehicle and technology.

Sponsors, judges, students, advisors, mentors and other program participants will be on-hand to discuss the FutureTruck program and answer questions.

  When:   Tuesday, June 15, 2004
          Media registration begins at 9:30 a.m.
          Program runs from 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. (lunch will be available)

  Where:  Ford's Michigan Proving Grounds
          74240 Fisher Road
          Romeo, Mich.  48065

          M-53 to 32 Mile Rd.
          32 Mile Rd. West to Fisher Rd. (about 3 miles)
          Right onto Fisher (north) and straight into MPG

Competing FutureTruck 2004 Universities: California Polytechnic State University; Cornell University; Georgia Tech; Michigan Technological University; Ohio State University; Pennsylvania State University; Texas Tech University; University of Alberta, University of California, Davis; University of Idaho; University of Maryland; University of Tennessee; University of Wisconsin-Madison; Virginia Tech; and West Virginia University.

Additional information about the FutureTruck 2004 program is available on the Web at http://www.futuretruck.org/ .

PRNewswire -- June 9