Ford Motor Company (F) manufactures and distributes automobiles worldwide. The company operates through two sectors, Automotive and Financial Services. The company is headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan. During the financial crisis of 2008, Ford nearly had to declare bankruptcy but has since returned to profitability.

If there is one on-going trend in the automobile industry, it’s that every company involved is trying to turn their product into self-driving electric cars.  Ford is no exception to this trend as they have recently invested $4.5 billion dollars in order to achieve their electrified goals by 2020. 2015 has been an up and down year for Ford, by starting the year at $15.36 per share, then falling for the next nine months to a year-low of $12.90 on August 25, before having a strong rally over the past four months, to where it currently stands at $13.80. Whether or not the stock will continue to rise depends on whether or not its investments will pay off.

Plan for Self-Driving Cars

While it is yet to be confirmed, it has been highly speculated that Ford will team up with Google to make the self-driving cars come out faster.  The alliance between the two companies makes sense as the former CEO of Ford, Alan Mullaly is now on Google’s board of directors.  Google has also met with ford and other big automakers because they have expertise in engineering and building cars. Ford has also announced that they have received permits from the state of California. This shows that Ford is doing what they can to put themselves in a good position as the auto industry begins to evolve.

Electric Cars

The first of 13 models that will come from $4.5 billion dollar investment will come out in 2016. It will be called the Focus Electric. The focus electric will have a smart feature called Brake Coach. Brake Coach shows the driver how to use smooth braking to maximize the energy captured through the regenerative braking system.