In May, Ford announced that it would boost its planned EV investment, including battery development, to $30 billion by 2030. Now Ford North America COO Lisa Drake says the company expects to be spending more on electrified vehicles than it does on fossil vehicles by 2023.
“In 2023…we’ll spend more on EVs than we will on ICE,” Drake told the Detroit News. “We’ve been over the moon about the success of Mach-E, and the F-150 Lightning, by bringing in over 70% new customers to the Ford brand. What that allows us to do is, now we have an opportunity not only to lead on our ICE business, but also in the EV space with F-150. So our aspirations are high.”
Ford’s strategy of electrifying its most popular nameplates seems to be working well.
“The demand for our first round of high-volume EVs clearly has exceeded our most optimistic projections,” Ford CEO Jim Farley told Wall Street analysts, adding that the company has received over 120,000 non-binding reservations for the F-150 Lightning, approximately 75% of those from customers of other auto brands.
Rival GM has not been idle—it said earlier this year that it is already investing more in the development of electric and autonomous vehicles than in legacy powertrains. In June, GM announced plans to have a zero-emissions lineup by 2035. The latest word from Ford is that it expects to electrify 40% of its global lineup by 2030.
Shortly after Ford’s announcement about 2023 EV investment, Ford joined its fellow Detroit automakers and the United Auto Workers union in an event at the White House to announce the Biden administration’s revised emissions standards. The Big Three announced a goal of 40% to 50% electrified vehicle sales by 2030—but made it clear that even this timid target would be conditional on receiving substantial subsidies from the government.
“We’re going to rely a lot on some of the infrastructure policies and the administration’s aspiration to make this a bit more ubiquitous. We can’t do it alone,” Lisa Drake recently told a Barclays analyst. “We’re very excited to see some of the bipartisan work that’s happening in Washington right now, because it’s going to be necessary to help us.”
Source: Detroit News
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