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Fields 'required' to use private aircraft, could make $5.25M as Ford CEO this year

Mark Fields' travels on the friendly skies will soon be a relatively personal affair, as the new CEO at Ford will be required to resume air travel via the company's private planes. Fields caught plenty of flak in 2007 for flying on the company's dime to visit his family in Florida. He's since flown commercial.
According to Ford spokesperson Susan Krusel, who spoke to Bloomberg, Fields (pictured above right, with Bill Ford, Jr. at center and Alan Mulally at left) will switch to private travel "for safety and to maximize his availability for company business." In addition to his new travel arrangements, the 53-year-old exec's salary and bonuses have been revealed.
Regulatory filings by Ford revealed that Fields, whose first day in the big chair was July 1, will receive a base salary this year of $1.25 million and he'll be eligible for $3.5 million in bonuses, both of which are lower than Alan Mulally's $2 million salary and $5.88 million in bonuses received last year. That's also lower than General Motors CEO Mary Barra's alleged $1.6-million salary and considerably less than Sergio Marchionne's $3.19-million fixed salary from Fiat. Despite falling short of other CEOs, Fields' new pay still represents a 33-percent increase over his pay as Chief Operating Officer.

Lincoln dealers to build standalone dealerships separate from Ford

Way back in 2011, Ford Motor Credit Co. established Lincoln Automotive Financial Services as part of what Automotive News called "a campaign to set the Lincoln brand apart." Lincoln's been on a wild, public ride in the seven years since, which included a near-death experience in 2013 under former Ford CEO Alan Mulally. But Ford's luxury brand has rebounded and is ready to take another shot at setting itself apart. Automaker execs have asked dealers with twinned Ford- Lincoln dealerships in 30 major U.S. markets to build standalone stores. According to company data, the move isn't a gamble — dealers with standalone showrooms sell more vehicles. Lincoln's standalone dealerships in the 30 major U.S. markets that account for 70 percent of luxury segment sales increased 48 percent from 2014 to 2017, compared to an overall Lincoln brand sales increase of 18 percent. After a former Ford-Lincoln dealer in Minneapolis opened a devoted Lincoln store this January, sales have climbed 60 percent so far this year. Dealers in Orange County, California, and Atlanta, Georgia have seen sales double since opening exclusive Lincoln storefronts. The sales manager at the Atlanta dealer said, "Customers have pulled up and said, 'This is how it should be.'" Robert Parker, Lincoln's head of marketing, said, "Customers expect the environment to be equal to the product. They want to buy a luxury product in a luxury environment." That issue repeatedly comes up when a mass-market brand launches a luxury product; observers have lately wondered how much the issue affects sales of Hyundai's Genesis brand. Out of 845 Lincoln showrooms nationwide, there are 150 Lincoln dealers in those 30 major U.S. markets. So far, 72 dealers have made or are working to make the standalone switch on their own. Lincoln is asking the remaining 78 shops to follow suit, to agree to a new facility by July 2019 and to have the store finished by July 2021. Only the showrooms would need to be exclusive, service and other back-end departments can remain in Ford-branded complexes. Wielding the carrot, Lincoln will help dealers with relocating, and pay more for every car sold. Wielding the stick, Lincoln said that come Q2 2019, it won't let twinned dealers sell Black Label trims if they don't already. Over the next couple of years, Lincoln will complete the revamp of its lineup. Said marketing honco Parker, "The next phase of the transformation is critical.

Hybrid, electric campers take center stage at Germany's motorhome trade show

Car companies from all over the automotive spectrum will make international headlines next week by presenting hybrid and electric cars at the biennial Frankfurt auto show. Camper van and motorhome manufacturers got a head start on the rest of the industry by presenting their green solutions at the Dusseldorf Caravan Salon. The show confirms electrification is present in the leisure segment, too. German camper experts Dethleffs introduced a plug-in hybrid, pop-top camper based on the full-size Ford Transit van. Called Globevan e.Hybrid, it relies on a 126-horsepower drivetrain built around a turbocharged, 1.0-liter EcoBoost three-cylinder engine. The system can power the camper on electricity alone for up to 31 miles. Adventurers who leave with a full tank and a full charge enjoy 310 miles of driving range, which is an impressive figure for the camper van segment. Charging the battery pack takes 5.5 hours when using a regular household outlet, according to the manufacturer, or three hours when hooking it up to a quick-charging station. Globevan production is tentatively scheduled to begin in 2020, and pricing starts at 75,000 euros, a sum that represents approximately $83,000. EFA-S took electrification a step further. Starting with a Fiat Ducato, a van known as the Ram Promaster in the United States, it yanked out the turbodiesel engine and replaced it with a 140-kilowatt electric motor fed by an 86-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack. The company pegs the camper's driving range at up to 186 miles, a relatively low figure which hardly reflects how most vacationers use their van. The pack takes four hours to charge, Auto Motor und Sport learned. While sustainable, zero-emissions tourism is difficult to argue against, the Ducato-based camper suffers from two serious setbacks. First, the battery pack makes it so heavy that it can't be driven with a regular license. It's considered a heavy commercial vehicle. Second, its 160,000-euro (about $177,000) price tag makes it twice as expensive as a diesel-burning model, and puts it in the same price range as much bigger, more powerful, and more luxurious models. EFA-S will nonetheless move forward with production in 2020, though it plans to build no more than 30 units. The caravan Salon is not only about hybrids and electric cars, however.