Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), said Wednesday that he expects U.S. auto sales to rise during the next two years. Vehicle sales in 2009 are expected to range between 10.5 million and 11 million units, and Mulally predicts that number will increase to 12.5 million in 2010 and 14.5 million in 2011.

"It has started to pick up right now because we have had the stimulus packages," said Mulally, speaking before reporters in India. "So, it will be up a little now, then will go down. But overall in the long term, the sales will grow with the GDP number." The CEO added that Ford expects to be profitable by 2011.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) will be receiving a $5.9 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy to make sure some of its most strategic production facilities will be equipped to continue manufacturing the most fuel-efficient vehicles Ford can make.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) has been one of the largest domestic champions of hybrid and electric vehicle technology in the past three years. Its Escape small SUV hybrid and Fusion passenger car hybrid are excellent sellers. What Ford hasn't publicly talked about is how the eventual transition to partial or full electric personal propulsion will affect the supply and demand of electric energy in the U.S.

In other words, the U.S. could not just transition from gas-powered vehicles to hundreds of thousands (or millions) of hybrid or full-electric vehicles in just a decade or so and not expect the electrical grid to be as happy as a clam. Power is cheaper to supply at night and the way we actually use electricity (washing dishes at night, as well as clothes, for example) has a huge impact on cost and other factors. Ford wants to make sure its hybrid and electric customers know this.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) is the only U.S. car company left standing that hasn't succumbed to government aid or taken a path through bankruptcy. But, in a way, it has found a little help from the U.S. government recently, as it posted the first monthly sales gain since 2007 on the back of the "Cash for Clunkers" trade-in program that worked so well, the initial billion dollars for the program is already exhausted.

It took about a week for consumers to plow through rebates up to $4,500 from the government and to swipe almost the entire $1 billion from the program. There was so much demand that the program was feverishly being planned to be extended with new government money. Ford alone saw a 2.4% increase over last year. $2 billion more was approved for the program by Congress, so will Ford continue to see gains with the new money? August could end up being larger than July, yes?

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), after reporting a profit on the back of debt reductions and aggressive cost cutting, (it's still losing money manufacturing vehicles), does have many things going its way these days. For one, it's the only domestic automaker left in the U.S. that's solvent; and, without government aid to boot. Another bragging point: the automaker sincerely looks like it is trying to go as green as possible by ramping up fuel efficiency and heavily promoting those vehicles over gas hoggers.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) has been doing better than formerly-bankrupt competitors Chrysler and General Motors (after years of re-tooling and planning), and in an age where the auto market is being fundamentally re-shaped, the American icon continues its re-invention from the ground up. Ford and its longtime partner, Mazda, have opened a $500 million automobile manufacturing plant in Thailand.

The domestic automakers have all but given up and declared bankruptcy in an effort to survive in some form. Chrysler is about through its process, and GM is well on its way to becoming a completely new company. The standout: Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F).

Ford is not only doing much better than the competition (and has been for a few years now), but it's actually increasing auto production while the bankrupt competitors are having a hard time getting rid of old inventory and shutting down dealers.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), while suffering through the largest auto industry malaise in generations, won't be closing legions of dealerships like General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) or Chrysler. In fact, Ford indicated that it will benefit from the closure of 2,000 auto showrooms from its domestic competitors -- one that has already filed for bankruptcy and another that is expected to shortly.

Ford Motor Corp. (NYSE: F) has been the odd duck out in the domestic automobile market this year. It didn't take federal bailout money, its chairman sees a bright future for the company, and this past week saw the automaker's share price spike.

Ford shares have almost doubled since the start of the year. Take that, economic recession. Goldman Sachs has set a $6 share price target while saying that the structural changes in the U.S. auto industry will redefine Ford and its competitors. Well, that's pretty obvious to most of us.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) may not need any help from the U.S. federal government, but it doesn't want any part of Chrysler should that automaker go through bankruptcy protection and/or be broken up into pieces. Ford also has no interest in Chrysler's brands such as Jeep and Dodge. Ford's Mark Fields indicated at the International Auto Show this week that Ford is only focused on Ford at this time, and the possibility of Chrysler being history could be shockingly near.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), which has not accepted federal bailout money at this time, wants to ensure its parts vendors don't go down if General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) and Chrysler end up in bankruptcy. As such, the automaker is loaning money to parts suppliers to help shield it from what is probably an impending bankruptcy from its two domestic competitors.

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) and all the other foreign and domestic automakers witnessed a 37% drop in U.S. auto sales in March compared to the year-ago period. The good news: that was a better-than-expected decline. When a 37% decline is considered good, there's the sign of a deeply-troubled economy (as if we didn't all know that already).

When Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) decided not to ask for federal bailout money and General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) did decide to take it (out of necessity), one of the truths that finally, finally came out about the state of the U.S. auto industry was the need to match employee costs with our foreign rivals.

This was much to the chagrin of auto unions, but now that the entire American auto industry is a few blinks away from oblivion, apparently labor costs are, well, at the top of the survival guide.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) is at least positioned better than its U.S. based competition, but that doesn't mean it's doing well. Indeed, the recession is costing the automaker plenty in terms of deep losses and other hurt. Now we can add a production decrease in the second quarter of 2009 to that list.

While rival automaker General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) was monopolizing headlines this morning with its quarterly earnings report, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) quietly slashed its forecast for 2009 auto sales. However, unlike GM, Ford says it has "no substantial doubt" about its ability to continue as a going concern.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ford predicted that total U.S. car and truck sales could tumble to 10.5 million in 2009. The new figure represents a drop of 1 million vehicles from Ford's previous estimate. On the plus side, the automaker thinks sales could arrive as high as 12.5 million vehicles if demand begins to recover in the second half of the year.