Ford Motor, which pioneered the affordable mass-produced motor car, is looking to play a bigger role in building public transport vehicles or integrating cities’ transport systems as it grapples with the growing challenge of helping people move around the world’s traffic-choked cities.

Alan Mulally, Ford’s chief executive, said questions of “personal mobility” and “quality of life” were some of the “most important and exciting developments” around the world and simply providing more and more cars was “not going to work”.

Mr Mulally’s comments at a Detroit auto show event offer a rare insight into a senior auto executive’s thinking about the wider transport challenges facing the industry. Younger people in many industrialised countries are putting off learning to drive and buying vehicles, while in the developing world fast-growing car ownership has clogged many cities.