Ford Motor Co. says every model in its European line-up will be available either as a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) or EV by mid 2026, and also said its entire passenger line-up is going to be fully electric by 2030. The company also said its commercial vehicle range will be zero-emissions capable, all-electric, or plug-in hybrid, by 2024, with two-thirds of its commercial vehicle sales expected to be EV or plug-in hybrid by 2030. Recall last November, when in the U.S. Ford announced its electric E-Transit delivery van.
The news comes after the company reported a profit in Europe in the fourth quarter last year. Ford said it would invest at least $22 billion globally in electrification through 2025, nearly twice the company’s previous EV investment plans.
Ford said it is committing $1 billion to renovate its European headquarters in Cologne, Germany, and the plant, which makes the Fiesta, is changing over to become the Ford Cologne Electrification Centre, producing the company’s “first European-built, volume, all-electric passenger vehicle for European customers” in 2023. Ford of Europe boss Stuart Rowley said the company plans to offer “an exceptional range of electrified vehicles, supported by customer-centric digital services and experiences.”
That new EV is expected to sit atop the Volkswagen Group’s MEB electric architecture. MEB is also used under the VW ID.3 and ID.4, not to mention various Audis, Skodas, and Seats, as part of the platform-sharing agreement between Ford and VW. Ford says it has the option of producing a second EV at Cologne, and says it will have more details soon.
“Ford’s plans for Europe are in no small part enabled by the partnership with Volkswagen and planned use of the VW MEB platform for European Ford products,” Stephanie Brinley, principal analyst at IHS Markit, told Autoweek. “Not all of Ford’s European battery electric and electrified vehicle production will use the VW platform, but it will be a significant contributor.”
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Where does the U.S. market fit into what Ford says is its “fully electric” future? “Fully” should include the U.S., no? Seems logical to us.
Ford officials told Autoweek that the company hasn’t set a specific date yet to go all-electric in the U.S. “But we are choosing a path that is accelerating us to a zero-emissions future,” the official continued, “by investing more than $22 billion [referenced above] to electrify our most iconic nameplates and working to be carbon neutral company wide by 2050.”
Meanwhile a Ford source said it is not a matter of if, but when. Brinley told us, “at the moment that partnership does not extend to products to be offered in the U.S. While Ford may ultimately make a similar statement for the U.S., the European announcement doesn’t mean Ford is quite ready to do the same for here.”
She also talked about Ford’s doubling its investment into EVs from $11 billion to $22 billion through 2025 and said she expects there will be “further announcements as to how that money will be spent on manufacturing investment over time.”
Ford previously announced all its models will be equipped with infotainment and connectivity software provided by Google, ditching today’s Sync-branded platform.
We’ll have more as it develops.
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