Ford has announced new details about its electrification strategy for Europe and, as part of that, confirmed a Ford Puma Electric launch. The Ford Puma EV will be the Blue Oval’s smallest electric SUV worldwide.
Following the Ford Mustang Mach-E in 2021, the Ford E-Transit will arrive in Europe this year. Beyond that, Ford has lined up seven new electric vehicle launches in Europe, the company said in an announcement on March 14, 2022. It plans to release all seven new EVs by 2024.
Three of the seven new Ford EVs for Europe will be passenger models, and the remaining four will be commercial EVs. The first passenger EV will be a “five-seat, medium-sized crossover,” probably a technical cousin of the VW ID.4, and it will enter production at the Cologne plant in Germany in 2023. A “sports crossover,” also built in Cologne, will follow in 2024. The same year, the Ford Puma Electric will become available. The production of the electric variant of the best-selling Ford passenger vehicle in Europe will take place in Craiova, Romania, from 2024.
The Ford EV line-up in Europe will include nine models in 2024, and one of these EVs will be a Ford Puma Electric. Image Source: Ford
Ford hasn’t revealed any specifications of the Ford Puma Electric yet, but it has confirmed a 500 km range for the medium-sized EV due in 2023. The company could target a range of 325-350 km (202-217 miles) for the Puma EV, which will compete with the likes of Peugeot e-2008, Opel Mokka-e, and the first Jeep electric SUV (Jeep 516).
Ford plans to locally manufacture the batteries of its upcoming EVs in Europe to price them affordably. The company intends to form a tripartite joint venture company with SK On Co. Ltd. and Koc Holding for establishing an EV battery production plant in Turkey. Located near Ankara, the joint venture plant will produce high-Nickel NMC cells from as early as mid-decade. The annual capacity of this factory will likely be 30-45 GWh.
Ford expects to sell more than 600,000 EVs annually in Europe in 2026. The company expects to manufacture 1.2 million EVs at the Ford Cologne Electrification Centre over a six-year timeframe. Its long-term goal in Europe is to switch entirely to EVs by 2030. Globally, the company aims to sell more than 2 million EVs – about one-third of its volume – by 2026 and convert half of its volume to EVs by 2030.
Keyword: Ford Puma Electric – Everything we know as of March 2022