Ford Motors uses the ad caption "Magnify the Adventure" to promote its latest SUV, the For
A、sincerity
B、intelligence
C、sophistication
D、ruggedness
A、sincerity
B、intelligence
C、sophistication
D、ruggedness
Which of the following is CORRECT about Ford Motors report?
A.It did not reach analyst"s expectations.
B.It was a favorable news for the automaker.
C.It hinted a decline of Ford"s net income.
D.It spurred a rise for Ford"s share price.
A、Research and development
B、Human resources
C、Materials management
D、Marketing and sales
A.The onslaught of fast and inexpensive internal combustion cars from Ford, General Motors, and Buick
B.Advances in battery performance and electricity transfer
C.The Iranian hostage crisis of 1979
D.Dramatic improvements in computer technology
E.The oil crisis of 1973
A.Ford
B.Google
C.KFC
D.Pizza Hut
Ford Abandons Electric Vehicles
The Ford motor company's abandonment of electric cars effectively signals the end of the road for the technology, analysts say.
General Motors and Honda ceased production of battery-powered cars in 1999, to focus on fuel cell and hybrid electric gasoline engines, which are more attractive to the consumer. Ford has now announced it will do the same.
Three years ago, the company introduced the Think City two-seater car and a golf cart called the THINK, or Think Neighbor It hoped to sell 5,000 cars each year and 10,000 carts. But a lack of demand means only about 1,000 of the cars have been produced, and less than 1,700 carts have been sold so far in 2002.
"The bottom line is we don't believe that this is the future of environment transport for the mass market," Tim Holmes of Ford Europe said on Friday. "We feel we have given electric our best shot."
The Think City has a range of only about 55 miles and up to a six-hour battery recharge time. General Motors' EVI electric vehicle also had a limited range, of about 100 miles.
The very expensive batteries also mean electric cars cost much more than petrol-powered alternatives. An electric Toyota RAV4 EV vehicle costs over $42,000 in the US, compared with just $17,000 for the petrol version. Toyota and Nissan are, now the only major auto manufacturers to produce electric vehicles.
"There is a feeling that battery electric has been given its chance. Ford now has to move on with its hybrid program, and that is what we will be judging them on," Roger Higman, a senior transport campaigner at UK Friends of the Earth, told the Environment News Service.
Hybrid cars introduced by Toyota and Honda in the past few years have sold well. Hybrid engines offer greater mileage than petrol-only engines, and the batteries recharge themselves. Ford says it thinks such vehicles will help it meet planned new guidelines on vehicle emissions in the US.
However, it is not yet clear exactly what those guidelines will permit. In June, General Motors and Daimler Chrysler won a court injunction, delaying by two years Californian legislation requiring car-makers to offer 100,000 zero-emission and other low-emission vehicles in the state by 2003. Car manufacturers hope the legislation will be rewritten to allow for more low-emission, rather than zero-emission, vehicles.
What have the Ford motor company, General Motor's and Honda done concerning electric cars?
A.They have started to produce electric cars.
B.They have done extensive research on electric cars.
C.They have given up producing electric cars.
D.They have produced thousands of electric cars.
The US auto-makers decided to stop their action because ______.
A.Japanese auto-makers promised to stop dumping cars in the US
B.the Government promised to solve the US-Japan trade imbalance
C.three US companies have ended the US-Japan trade imbalance
D.Japan agreed to sell cars at the agreed prices inside the US
This unusual vehicle is the Racoon. It is an invention not of Hollywood but of Renault, a rather conservative French state-owned carmaker, better known for its family hatchbacks. Renault built the Racoon to explore new freedoms for designers and engineers created by advances in materials and manufacturing processes. Renault is thinking about startlingly different cars; other producers have radical new ideas for trains, boats and aeroplanes.
The first of the new freedoms is in design. Powerful computer-aided design (CAD) systems can replace with a click of a computer mouse hours of laborious work done on thousands of drawing boards. So new products, no matter how complicated, can be developed much faster. For the first time, Boeing will not have to build a giant replica of its new airliner, the 777, to make sure all the bits fit together. Its CAD system will take care of that.
But Renault is taking CAD further. It claims the Racoon is the world's first vehicle to be designed within the digitised world of virtual reality. Complex programs were used to simulate the vehicle and the terrain that it was expected to cross. This allowed a team led by Patrick Le Quement, Renault's industrial-design director, to "drive" it long before a prototype existed.
Renault is not alone in thinking that virtual reality will transform. automotive design. In Detroit, Ford is also investigating its potential. Jack Telnac, the firm's head of design, would like designers in different parts of the world to work more closely together, linked by computers. They would do more than style. cars. Virtual reality will allow engineers to peer inside the working parts of a vehicle. Designers will watch bearings move, oil flow, gears mesh and hydraulics pump. As these techniques catch on, even stranger vehicles are likely to come along.
Transforming these creations from virtual reality to actual reality will also become easier, especially with advances in materials. Firms that once bashed everything out of steel now find that new alloys or composite materials (which can be made from mixtures of plastic, resin, ceramics and metals, reinforced with fibers such as glass or carbon) are changing the rules of manufacturing. At the same time, old materials keep getting better, as their producers try to secure their place in the factory of the future. This competition is increasing the pace of development of all materials.
One company in this field scaled composites. It was started in 1982 by Burt Rutan, an aviator who has devised many unusual aircraft. His company develops and tests prototypes that have ranged from business aircraft to air racers. It has also worked on composite sails for the America's Cup yacht race and on General Motors' Ultralite, a 100-miles-per-gallon experimental family car built from carbon fiber.
Again, the Racoon reflects this race between the old and the new. It uses conventional steel and what Renault describes as a new "high-limit elastic steel" in its chassis. This steel is 30% lighter than the usual kind. The Racoon also has parts made from compostites. Renault plans to replace the petrol engine with a small gas turbine, which could be made from heat-resisting ceramics, and use it to run a generator that would provide power for electric motors at each wheel.
With composites it is possibl
A.It swims.
B.It raises its nose.
C.It uses hydrojets.
D.It uses its four-wheel drive.
The US auto-makers decided to stop their action because ______.
A.Japanese auto-makers promised to stop dumping cars in the US
B.the Government promised to solve the US-Japan trade imbalance
C.three US companies have ended the US Japan trade imbalance
D.Japan agreed to sell cars at the agreed prices inside the US
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
Directions: In this section, you will hear several news items. Listen to them carefully and then answer the questions that follow.
听力原文: The top three US auto-makers have decided not to proceed with plans to file a trade complaint with Japanese auto-makers. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler had planned to accuse Japanese companies of dumpling cars below market prices in the US, but they dropped the idea, citing a pledge by the Clinton Administration to address the US-Japan trade imbalance.
The US auto-makers decided to stop their action because______.
A.Japanese auto-makers promised to stop dumping cars in the US.
B.the Government promised to solve the US-Japan trade imbalance.
C.three US companies have ended the US-Japan trade imbalance.
D.Japan agreed to sell cars at the agreed prices inside the US.
为了保护您的账号安全,请在“简答题”公众号进行验证,点击“官网服务”-“账号验证”后输入验证码“”完成验证,验证成功后方可继续查看答案!