Ford is to spend at least £1 billion developing a range of global environmental technologies in the UK for its Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo brands.

The new engineering programme will see the development of hybrid electric and bio-fuel vehicles.

"Climate change is one of the greatest single challenges facing the auto industry and society today," said Ford of Europe and Premier Automotive Group chairman and CEO Lewis Booth.

"A broad business strategy that serves all our brands is the only way we can achieve the level of improvement in emissions and fuel economy required.

"We are not going to introduce just one or two high-profile green cars that sell in relatively low numbers and leave it at that. To tackle this issue, we are getting our 3,700 R&D people in Essex, our 2,000 engineers in Coventry and our 3,300 engineers in Warwickshire to work together.

“By pooling our engineering investment, our brands will develop a broader range of technologies, available faster than they could afford individually.”

Booth plans to have a future Focus which emits less than 100g/km and 70mpg.

"By applying the technologies we develop across our product portfolio we will be offering customers more than 100 models and derivatives with improved tailpipe emissions or fuel economy performance over the next six years," he said.