Source: Ford
Ford will boost its electrification strategy by up to another $US20 billion ($A28 billion), focusing on more factory conversions, and employing more engineers and staff to work on batteries and software, Bloomberg has reported.
Citing information shared by sources, Bloomberg says between $US10-20 billion over the next five to ten years will be spent on converting global factories, and upping the ante on battery research and development as well as artificial intelligence and electric vehicle software.
The push is reportedly being led by Doug Field, who formerly worked for Apple and Tesla, joining Ford in 2021 to lead its advanced technology and embedded systems department.
It is also considering spinning off a company to focus on the EV startup space. Ford was an early investor in Rivian and owns 12% of the EV startup. The most recent reports indicate it has been lucrative for the company, with an $US8.2 billion ($A15.5bn) gain in the last quarter of 2021.
While the above report came from “sources familiar with the matter”, Ford has been drip-feeding announcements of its electrification steadily over past months.
In September, it revealed that it will sink $US11.4 billion ($16 billion) into two new EV manufacturing facilities – one at Tennessee to be called “Blue Oval City” where it will make electric F-Series trucks, and another at Kentucky called “Blue Oval SK Battery Park” at which it plans to make 86 gigawatts of cells annually.
It also said in October it will commit £230 million ($A436 million) to transforming its facility at Halewood on Merseyside in the UK to build components for electric vehicles.
In November, CEO Jim Farley said that the company will look to double production of its Mustang Mach-E, the F-150 Lightning, and the E-Transit over the next two years. Ford published order numbers for its electric F-150 that month stating it had already taken 160,000 pre-orders.
While the E-Transit is expected to be launched in Australian shores in early 2022, it is likely to also fall victim to a supply crunch that is seeing local carmaker arms only able to secure limited numbers of electric models.
Keyword: Ford to throw another $28 billion at electric vehicle push led by ex Tesla exec