“We’re taking our most iconic vehicles, and electrifying them.”
In a surprising development, Ford has announced at the Detroit motor show that it will be significantly upping its commitment to electrification in the coming years, by earmarking some US$11-billion ($13.7-billion) for investment towards bringing 40 electrified models to market in the next 4 years. The announcement was made by Ford chairman Bill Ford on Sunday, to the media.
This is particularly noteworthy because previous announcements by the Detroit giant have pegged their investment towards electrifying their portfolio at a (relatively) more modest US$4.5-billion (or $5.6-billion), about half of what it’s publicly committing to at this time. Critically though, it was clarified that the sum would cover the cost of chassis and platform development as well, and wasn’t a sum that'll only partially cover the immense cost incurred in bringing in a highly-electrified model to market.
“We’re all in on this. We’re taking out mainstream vehicles, our most iconic vehicles, and we’re electrifying them. If we want to be successful with electrification, we have to do it with vehicles that are already popular.” — Jim Hackett, CEO, Ford Motor Company
Companies like GM are still anchored by commitment to profit margins (something they underline repeatedly), and their chief executive Mary Barra has told their investors that their electric vehicle division will be profitable by 2021. Toyota too is doing its best to realise economies of scale with its electric vehicles, with their target to be sometime before the middle of the next decade.
It seems that the electric offensive was finalised not long after Jim Hackett replaced outgoing CEO Mark Fields in May of 2017, report Reuters. With the goal to “think big” and “make quicker decisions,” the company formed a team with a specific goal to accelerate the firms’ development and formulation of electric vehicles. Some 16 pure-electric models will debut in the next four years, while the remaining 24 will be electrified models, consisting either of mild-hybrid or plug-in hybrid technology. A number of the pure-EVs will be produced hand-in-hand with Ford’s partners in China, for models geared to that market.
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