Henry Ford's first attempt at a manufacturing company, the Henry Ford Company, was established in 1901 and subsequently became Cadillac. The Ford Motor Company was formally launched in 1903 in a converted factory with $28,000 in cash from twelve investors, including John and Horace Dodge. The first company president was banker John S. Gray, chosen to reassure investors. By 1908, Ford had introduced the mass-produced Model T, which sold in the millions over nearly twenty years. The Model A that replaced it in 1927 was the first production car to feature laminated safety glass in the windshield. Ford launched the first low-priced V8 car in 1932.
The introduction of the first moving assembly line in 1913 at the Highland Park factory transformed global manufacturing. Ford also established the Gorky Automobile Plant in the Soviet Union in 1929, playing a significant role in Soviet industrialization. During World War II, Ford mass-produced the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber at its Willow Run plant.
Ford's involvement in racing traces directly to Henry Ford himself, who defeated Alexander Winton in a ten-lap race in 1901, demonstrating his cars' performance credentials. In 1904, Ford set the world one-mile land speed record on a frozen lake near Detroit driving his rebuilt 999 racer.
Ford's engine partnership with Cosworth became one of the most consequential in motorsport history. The Cosworth DFV engine powered Ford to over 150 Formula One victories and twelve world championships during the 1960s and 1970s. Jim Clark gave Ford its first Formula One win at the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix driving a Lotus-Ford, and Graham Hill won both the drivers' and constructors' championships in 1968 in a Lotus-Ford. The partnership produced 176 Grand Prix victories in total, with the last coming at the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix with Giancarlo Fisichella in a Jordan-Ford. In 1994, Michael Schumacher claimed his first drivers' championship in a Ford-powered Benetton.
In American racing, Ford's legacy spans NASCAR and IndyCar. Jim Roper won the very first NASCAR race in 1949 in a Lincoln. In 1965, Jim Clark gave Ford its first Indianapolis 500 win; Ford via Cosworth won twelve Indy 500s between 1965 and 1996. In 2011, Trevor Bayne's Daytona 500 victory was Ford's 600th NASCAR win, with Greg Biffle's 2013 Quicken Loans 400 win becoming the 1000th.
At Le Mans, Ford's GT40 took four consecutive overall victories from 1966 to 1969. Ford returned to Le Mans in 2016 with the Ford GT, finishing first, third, and fourth in the GTE Pro class in a result that echoed the 1966 1-2 finish.
Ford created the Mercury brand in 1939 to compete with General Motors' mid-priced offerings and acquired Lincoln Motor Company in 1922 to compete in the luxury segment. The Ford Mustang was introduced on April 17, 1964, at the New York World's Fair, creating the pony car segment. Ford introduced child-proof door locks in 1957 and the seat belt reminder light in 1965.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Ford expanded aggressively through acquisition, purchasing Jaguar Cars in 1990, Aston Martin in 1994, Land Rover in 2000, and Volvo in 1999. These brands were later divested: Jaguar and Land Rover went to Tata Motors in 2008, and Volvo was sold in 2010.
Ford entered the 2000s under pressure from rising health care costs, fuel prices, and eroding market share. The company reported a $12.7 billion loss in 2006. Rather than seek a government bailout during the 2008–2010 automotive crisis — unlike General Motors and Chrysler — Ford raised borrowing capacity by pledging corporate assets as collateral and underwent an internal restructuring called The Way Forward. The plan closed fourteen factories and cut 30,000 jobs. Ford returned to a $2.7 billion profit in 2009 and had its corporate bonds upgraded back to investment grade by 2012.
In 2023, Ford produced 4.4 million automobiles and employed approximately 177,000 people worldwide. The company restructured into three divisions in 2022: Ford Model E for electric vehicles, Ford Blue for internal combustion vehicles, and Ford Pro for commercial distribution and service. By late 2025, Ford had announced write-downs totaling $19.5 billion on electric vehicle investments and pivoted toward hybrids and internal combustion vehicles.
In 2023, Ford announced its return to Formula One as an engine manufacturer from 2026, partnering with Red Bull Powertrains. The joint venture, Red Bull Ford Powertrains, supplies power units to Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls, marking Ford's return to grand prix racing after an absence of nearly twenty years.
Ford operates manufacturing plants and joint ventures across six continents. Key joint ventures include Changan Ford and Jiangling Ford in China, Ford Otosan in Turkey, and AutoAlliance Thailand. Ford sold its motorsport engineering subsidiary Cosworth to Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven in 2004. The company relocated its global headquarters to a new Dearborn facility that opened in November 2025.
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