Ford imagines a way to remove "the smell of a new car"

Car manufacturers often adapt their vehicles to different markets in order to comply with regulations or satisfy the tastes of their customers. But Ford is apparently considering a new modification of the cars destined for the Chinese market: remove "the smell of the new car".

While the fresh but sometimes dizzying smell of a new car may be popular in the United States, it is seemingly confusing in China. More than 10% of the country's drivers complain about aggressive new smelly cars, making it a "major industry problem," said Brent Gruber, senior director of J.D. Power, at Detroit Free Press. "To put this in context, it's almost double the problem rate of the second most prevalent problem, excessive fuel consumption."

Ford has explained its solution to this problem in a recent patent application (although consumers worried about excessive fuel consumption may not like it). In simple terms, the "new car smell" has to do with heating materials like wood and leather. Ford's workaround is to speed up this process. The patent application describes semi-autonomous or fully autonomous cars driving themselves in a pleasant and sunny place (probably on a hot asphalt), parking, turning on the heater, slightly breaking the windows and running the engine intermittently. In this scenario, the vehicle "removes" the smell of the "new car".

The patent application is "just an idea" that Ford is considering, said Debbie Mielewski, the company's chief technical officer for sustainability of materials, at the Free Press. There is no concrete project to put it into production if the patent is never even granted, she says. And to be sure, Ford regularly tries to patent a lot really weird ideas.

That said, Ford has had a period of disorder in China. The company's sales figures have fallen over the past two years, largely because of Ford's insistence on controlling operations instead of relying on local expertise. Ford has recently given in and hired a long-time Chinese leader in the auto sector to lead the company's operations in that country, which means it may have finally developed some sense while trying to appeal to the senses of the customers.