Alan Mulally, the chief executive of Ford Motor Co., said in a recent interview from the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that the automaker is poised for “tremendous progress” in its turnaround endeavor – the company not only posted a 33 percent increase in sales during December, but also improved its share of the US auto market in 2009, for the first time since 1995.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker said that its shares have increased more than four times in the past year, marking their highest level since 2005; and added that orders for its new models, like the Ford Fusion, are gathering notable momentum.

Saying that the goodwill that customers have always had for Ford Motor prevailed over all else, Alan Mulally added that during the global downturn, Ford chose to increase its investment in new vehicles, for which it spent a large chunk of the $23 billion borrowed in late 2006.

Noting that Ford Motor is delivering on the new product promise, the CEO further said that the financial health of the company is improving. He said: “We’re actually paying the loans back and improving our balance sheet.”

Furthermore, Ford is also committed to bringing more technology into its vehicles; and is making the most of the CES platform for demonstrating its plans to bring social networking, Web browsing and iPod-style thumb controls to almost 80 percent of its models by 2015.