Ford Doubling Plans For More Electric Vehicles and Hybrids In Future

​DETROIT January 16, 2018; The NACS reported that Forbes wrote that Ford Motor is planning to invest $11 billion in electrified vehicles between now and 2022 by introducing 16 battery-electric cars (EVs) and 24 hybrids or plug-in hybrids globally.

The news source notes that Ford is more than doubling its previous plan announced in 2016 to spend $4.5 billion on 13 new electrified vehicles by 2020. Ford will divert money from slow-selling passenger cars to fund the new investment.

Forbes says that the new lineup would include a hybrid version of its F-150 pickup and possibly a high-performance electric utility, both by 2020. The automaker has previously said it will electrify many of its popular vehicles, including commercial vans and its Mustang coupe.

Like other automakers, Ford is making a shift toward electrification, even though consumer adoption in the United States has been low. The news source notes that battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) like the Chevrolet Bolt, Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S represent only about one-half of 1% of the U.S. market, while hybrids and plug-in hybrids are less than 3%. Nevertheless, Ford executives are confident that removing barriers such as range anxiety and hefty price tags on alternative vehicles will lead to greater consumer adoption.

"We're expecting more customer acceptance," said Joe Hinrichs, Ford's president of Global Operations. "We certainly can see the day when internal combustion engines go away."

According to the Fuels Institute, the U.S. market is poised to see an increased share of hybrid and plug-in electric hybrid vehicles being sold in 2018 and beyond. Although the Toyota Prius, which was the first mass-produced hybrid EV, has been around for nearly two decades, hybrid vehicles still have a very small share of the market—they made up less than 2.0% of sales in 2016.

The Fuels Institute’s “Tomorrow's Vehicles - An Overview of Vehicle Sales and Fuel Consumption Through 2025” report, prepared by Navigant Research, found that plug-in hybrids are poised to increase market share of new vehicles sold from less than 0.5% of those sold in 2016 to potentially as much as 4% by 2025. Together, plug-in hybrids and traditional hybrids could account for more than 7% of new vehicles sold by that time.

As for EVs, John Eichberger, executive director of the Fuels Institute, said in a Convenience Matters podcast (episode #83) that there is significant growth expected for sales of electrified vehicles. However, when adjusting the assumptions to create a more optimistic scenario for these powertrains, Navigant Research projects their market penetration by 2025 will remain extremely limited. “It will not be until after 2025 that the impact on the market will be felt. The compounded influence of consistent growth rates in new vehicles sales is positioning electrified vehicles to have a greater influence on the market in the 2030s.”