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BUSINESS
Ford says loan guarantees would speed new technologies
DEARBORN, Mich. -- Ford Motor Co. will keep investing in new fuel-saving technology even if it doesn't get any government loan guarantees, but the loans will help the automaker get the technology to market more quickly, Executive Chairman Bill Ford said Friday.
Congress reconvenes next week, and the auto industry plans an aggressive campaign to get lawmakers to guarantee up to $50 billion in low-interest loans. Auto executives say the money would help modernize assembly plants and develop next-generation vehicles.
Ford, in an interview at an event marking the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Model T, said the loans are important to help the industry deal with higher fuel economy standards, carbon dioxide emissions limits and a marketplace that has shifted from trucks to more fuel-efficient cars.
"I think it's important to our whole industry, all the retooling we're doing as an industry, to really meet the future demands of fuel economy and CO2 and all the new technology that's really going to be needed to achieve that," Ford said.
The company that bears his family's name, he said, will go on without the loan guarantees, but its work will be tougher.
"We're fine, but this certainly would help," he said after signing hats, books and business cards for many of the more than 100 Model T owners who had gathered outside the company's world headquarters. "It would just make everything more difficult, and we may have to go slower, and that's clearly not what society wants."
