Ford boosts spending on electric vehicles

Ford Motor Co on Wednesday outlined plans to boost spending on its electrification efforts by more than a third and said it aims to have 40% of its global volume be all electric by 2030, sending shares up 6.8% to a near five-year high.

Under a plan dubbed “Ford+” meant to have investors value it more like a technology company, the No 2 US automaker said it now expects to spend more than $30 billion on electrification, including battery development, by 2030, up from its prior target of $22 billion.

“This is our biggest opportunity for growth and value creation since Henry Ford started to scale the Model T,” Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley said at the company’s Capital Markets Day meeting online. “Our ambition is to lead the electric revolution.”

Ford and other global automakers are racing to shift their gasoline-powered lineups to all electric power under pressure from regions like Europe and China to cut vehicle emissions.

US President Joe Biden has called for $174 billion to boost US EV production, sales and infrastructure. Ford’s 2030 sales target would translate to more than 1.5 million EVs, based on last year’s sales.

By comparison, rival General Motors Co has targeted annual sales of more than one million EVs in the United States and China by 2025. GM aspires to halt US sales of gasoline-powered passenger vehicles by 2035, and has said it was investing $27 billion in electric and autonomous vehicles over the next five years.

Some analysts see Ford as trailing rivals in the electrification race, but Ford officials disagree, pointing to the rollout of the Mustang Mach-E electric crossover, and the electric versions of the Transit van and F-150 pickup.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2021.

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