Ford is stepping up its electric vehicle push in Europe
16 March 2022
The Ford Motor Company made the announcement on Monday (Tuesday in Manila), that it would be releasing seven new models of electric vehicles (e-vehicles) in Europe by the year 2024. Additionally, the company stated that it would be expanding its operations in Germany, Romania, and Turkey.
The previous month, Ford launched a new business that is solely focused on electric vehicles, and the company stated that it planned to sell more than 600,000 of these vehicles in Europe alone by the year 2026. This is one component of a larger objective, which is to sell 2 million electric vehicles around the world by that year.
Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, stated that the company is “all in” and moving quickly to meet demand in Europe and around the world.
In addition, the business plans to sell only electric passenger and commercial vehicles in Europe by the year 2035, and it also intends to make its entire supply chain, beginning with its factories and ending with its suppliers, carbon neutral by that same year.
It also announced on Monday that it would increase its investment in a plant in Cologne, Germany, to $2 billion. This plant is anticipated to produce 1.2 million vehicles over a period of six years and will include a battery manufacturing facility that will begin operations in 2024. The announcement was made on Monday.
This facility will be responsible for the production of a midsize crossover vehicle that has a range of up to 500 kilometers on a single charge. Later on in this year, it will be revealed, and then in 2023, production will get underway.
There will also be production of a second sports crossover electric vehicle there beginning in the year 2024.
In Turkey, Ford has entered into a verbal agreement with SK of South Korea and Koc of Turkey to construct an electric battery factory for commercial vehicles near Ankara. This agreement is not legally binding.
It’s possible that production won’t start until 2025, with a capacity of between 30 and 45 gigatonnes.
Ford is also increasing production at its plant in Craiova, Romania, which will be responsible for the production of the electric version of the Puma crossover, which was the best-selling passenger vehicle in Europe in the previous year.
Additionally, the automaker revealed that it intends to begin production of its Transit Courier and Tourneo Courier commercial vehicles in that location beginning in 2023, with production of electric variants to follow in 2024.
