Ford Offers EV Training

As the electrification movement gains momentum, it is placing critical new demands on auto engineers, many of them unequipped to face the challenge.

As a result, Derrick Kuzak, Ford Motor Co. group vice president-global product development, is launching an initiative aimed at providing supplemental training in electric-vehicle technology for 2,000 Ford engineers over the next 10 years.

The transition toward electrification reminds Ford's top engineer of the challenge faced when advanced powertrain controls arrived decades ago.

“Back in the '80s and early '90s, we needed to add electronic controllers to our engines and transmissions for better fuel economy and to meet emission constraints,” he says at a media event in Dearborn, MI, to detail a new initiative with the University of Detroit Mercy.

“That required educating a number of our mechanical engineers to become electrical engineers, and this is the same kind of magnitude of change we're talking about over the next decade.”

Some training is being conducted at Ford, but UDM also will offer a special college curriculum tailored to the auto maker's needs beginning this month.

Thirty Ford staffers will take part in the 45-person classes each semester, allowing “already strong engineers” to acquire specific EV expertise, Kuzak says.

The challenges are numerous, given the vast difference between electrified vehicles and those with conventional internal-combustion engines, he says.

For example, a climate-control engineer working with a battery-electric vehicle must use an electrically driven compressor, rather than one powered by the engine, Kuzak says.

Not all Ford engineers will be required to learn all the ins and outs of vehicle electrification. Some, particularly systems engineers, will need to be well versed on how to integrate their particular systems with an electrified powertrain.

Hybrid-, plug-in- and battery-electric application engineers will have to fully understand the technology and its integration.

Engineers in UDM's new Advanced Electric Vehicle Program can select five of seven courses designed by experts from Ford and the university. The courses will be offered at the Ford Training and Development Center in Dearborn, MI, while laboratory training will be conducted at UDM's campus in Detroit.

Beginning in the second year, students in other parts of the world will be able to participate via webcast tutorials.

The five courses must be completed in one calendar year, and credits earned will count toward a master's degree.

The seven courses are:

Even though the courses are open to engineers from all auto makers and suppliers, and students, it should help Ford attract a new crop of engineers trained in a field that is becoming competitive.

The auto maker plans to launch a battery-electric version of its Transit Connect small commercial van next year, followed by the rollout of the Focus EV in 2011 and plug-in hybrid in 2012.

Next-generation hybrids based on Ford's global C and C/D platforms are due in 2012.