--- title: Ford Considers Ketchup Tomato Car description: Ford considers making a car that runs on tomato. canonical: https://time.com/2853025/ford-and-heinz-consider-making-cars-that-run-on-ketchup/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-10T17:15:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:48:36.906Z og:title: Ford and Heinz Consider Making Cars That Run on Ketchup og:description: Another use for ketchup besides slathering it on every food ever og:url: https://time.com/2853025/ford-and-heinz-consider-making-cars-that-run-on-ketchup/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ford and Heinz Consider Making Cars That Run on Ketchup twitter:description: Another use for ketchup besides slathering it on every food ever twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Ford and Heinz Consider Making Cars That Run on Ketchup  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jun 10, 2014 5:15 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jun 10, 2014 5:15 PM UTC Ford and Heinz announced today that their researchers have teamed up to explore making car parts from the tomato by-product that is leftover from ketchup production. If dried tomato skins are durable enough, then they could be used to make wiring brackets or the bins that hold change and other personal objects.  Tomato fiber pellets Ford The companies claim that the idea — which boasts the kitschy tagline “You Say Tomato; We Say Tom-Auto” — is part of an effort to look into developing “sustainable bio-plastic material for vehicles” that could “reduce the use of petrochemicals in manufacturing and reduce the impact of vehicles on the environment,” according to a news release. Research on this ketchup car concept is in the very early stages, so no word on whether drivers would get fries with that. **MORE:** [Finally, You Can Wrap Your Ford in Bacon](http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/08/28/finally-you-can-wrap-your-ford-in-bacon/) Ford Considers Ketchup Tomato Car ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2853025/ford-and-heinz-consider-making-cars-that-run-on-ketchup/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2853025/ford-and-heinz-consider-making-cars-that-run-on-ketchup/"},"headline":"Ford and Heinz Consider Making Cars That Run on Ketchup","datePublished":"2014-06-10T17:15:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:48:36.906Z","description":"Another use for ketchup besides slathering it on every food ever","url":"https://time.com/2853025/ford-and-heinz-consider-making-cars-that-run-on-ketchup/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Business topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2853025/ford-and-heinz-consider-making-cars-that-run-on-ketchup/","name":"Ford and Heinz Consider Making Cars That Run on Ketchup"}}]}] ```