Ford has been lagging behind in all-electric vehicle programs since its first vehicle designed to be electric from the ground up is only planned for 2020.
Now the American automaker wants to accelerate its electric vehicle effort with several more vehicles in their lineup over the next 4 years.
Ford’s new CEO, Jim Hackett, has been working on a new electrification plan since being appointed last year.
He formed a new internal team, called ‘Team Edison’, to oversee electric car programs and he shifted one-third of internal combustion engine investments to electric cars, but the company is still investing more in the former than the latter.
But this new investment should result in 40 hybrid and electric vehicles in their lineup by 2022, said Chairman Bill Ford said on Sunday at the Detroit auto show via Reuters.
He told reporters:
“We’re all in on this and we’re taking our 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.”
Ford added that of the 40 electric vehicles, 16 models will be all-electric.
Electrek’s Take
As we mentioned when Ford announced that it was shifting parts of its ICE investments into EVs, it’s a step in the right direction, but I don’t think I trust Ford when they claim to be “all in” in the electrification of their lineup.
If that was the case, they would be investing more in batteries and electric motors than they are investing in internal combustion engines, which is still apparently not the case.
Furthermore, it would be important to know where those all-electric vehicles will be available. If they are available everywhere then that’s great news, but Ford has previously announced a focus on electric vehicles in China where it plans to launch 15 new electric models.
That’s a more aggressive rollout than in any other market in order to comply with their local electric vehicle mandate.
Regardless of all that, it should result in an exciting few years for Ford between 2020 and 2022 since their first new EV, an all-electric CUV with 300 miles of range, is planned for 2020. Therefore, it should result in the company launching many new EVs over a short period of time.
