The age of electric vehicles has only just begun, and in a few short years, more EVs than ever will be plying American roads. Ford is betting big on battery electric vehicles, and recently maintained its late 2023 600,000 annual production run rate goal on the way to even higher production figures later on in the decade. As Ford Authority previously reported, Ford Mustang Mach-E owners have been highly satisfied with their vehicles so far, but in the move from early adopters to the general public, a prominent Ford exec thinks one big barrier remains before electric vehicles can become more popular.
“I would say that the infrastructure is the biggest thing that really has to be nailed for widespread adoption. Most people will charge their EV at home 90% of the time, but if they have a vehicle that they can’t go longer distances in, past 300 miles, it really becomes much more difficult to commit to one,” Doug Field, chief technology officer at Ford Model e, said at the 2022 Alliance Bernstein Electric Revolution Pit Stop Conference.
Public charging is an issue that has remained on the company’s radar since the automaker solidified its pivot away from internal combustion vehicles. Ford CEO Jim Farley stated earlier in 2022 that the company’s charging network, which relies on third-party companies, needs work. To compound that issue, numerous studies have found that the U.S. public charging network has significant reliability issues, an area of concern that the company is currently trying to tackle with its “charging angels” program. That said, Field also said the EV pricing won’t halt growth, which seems to indicate that the automaker thinks EV infrastructure is the biggest obstacle to a wide embrace of fully electric vehicles.
To help remedy the public charging situation, the Biden administration recently allocated funds to all 50 states and approved of their plans to develop their own charging networks. Additionally, the charging situation is important enough that the EV certification standards Ford presented its dealers mostly centers around costs associated with installing chargers at each franchise location, an expense that has some dealers pushing back.
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Comments
I agree. I would add recharge time.
As availability increases, prices will stabilize and range will increase (even if the range holds steady) these ALL go back to infrastructure!! You can have plenty of EV supply with competitive prices and ranges but if we cant charge…these things become mute points!
Waiting for the states to apply a mileage tax on EVs as they don’t pay gas taxes and if the country switches to EVs, the money for road repairs has to come from somewhere.
Nothing unreasonable about that. Roads don’t pay for themselves.
Besides a separate mileage tax with an appropriately designed charger, the cost could be baked into the kWh charging rate.
Hi RWFA, I said in past comments, road taxes collected from fuel sales can be easily collected via EV chargers too. That is fair and reasonable. What is also fair, is the investment now by hotel chains, entrepeneurs, big oil, automotive and utility companies to deploy more level 2 and fast DC chargers at retail outlets. It is being done in Canada and Europe by entities such as Flo, Petro Canada, Canadian Tire, IVY, BP (British Petroleum) and others. Canada is the second largest country in the world and you can drive an EV across it today. The USA has ten times our population and a lot more wealth. My view is that the folks controlling the big money need to be more onboard.
Full agree Stu.
As we can see by the sock puppetry in the comments here selfishly spreading or mindlessly regurgitating FUD on behalf of Big Oil, and related incumbent interests, until such interests become invested in the EV value chain, they will fight and lie, tooth and nail, subtlety and with stealth and crudely with blather, to protect their cash cow at the expense of all else.
EV prices are way too high for the average buyer. Too much trouble hunting for charging stations for anything except local trips. EV trucks have no range, if you tow a trailer or put something heavy in the bed and that is what trucks are for. In Florida in the summer running A/C on hot summer days kills their range again. EV’s are a great idea but impractical, maybe some day but not yet.
Hi Steve, I am only assuming you have never driven a full EV much less owned one, but please correct me if I am wrong.
To your points;
1) what will the average buyer need to drive, car or truck?
2) what does the average buyer pay now for their new ICE vehicle? The EV prices start around $40k US but do go higher depending on how fancy you want to get.
3) The EVs I have researched and the one I own, have navigation systems that show EV charger locations just like the ICE vehicles show gas stations. Apart from that, any smart phone can have multiple EV charger Apps added that show their locations and facilitate charging and payment via the phone easier than using a credit card at a gas station.
4) The F150 Lightning is no slouch to haul or tow the loads most owners need to move and can power a house for up to 3 days in an emergency as witnessed by the past ice storm in Texas and recent storm outages elsewhere.
Finally,
5) My Mach E has kept us comfortable for the last two very hot summers on all our trips, even the longest one of 1400 km (868 miles) with some impact on range, but hardly any more or even as much as the mileage impact on an ICE vehicle. By the way, that 868 mile trip cost me $85 in charging at public locations. That was for a 4000 pound car with 3 passengers and our luggage travelling between speeds of 50 to 75 miles per hour.
I can do that same trip with my 2022 Maverick AWD for the same cost for fuel, gets almost 600 miles per tank and would have to stop once for the whole trip. Can drive 75 mph without worry about range and price was under 30k loaded up with the XLT lux package, even has the tow package.
Biggest barrier to EV adoption is the pitifully few evs made by American Manufacturers…..
Ford is just trying to pass the buck…. How about the ridiculous $1 Million Ford insists dealers spend to sell the car….. Putting more roadblocks in the way all the time.
You’re talking nonsense my friend.
If you ignore China, which is producing plenty of EV’s but isn’t exporting them (yet)…
In the US, the top EV maker is a US maker, Tesla. It holds the top two spots. Then comes Ford.
How are the dealer upgrades passing the buck? How is it a roadblock? If you want to rationalize the dealer base, have it consolidate, become fit, prepare for business under the sales and business model of the future, this is exactly what you should do.
Hi again guys, I worked for the Ford dealer years ago that sold me my Mach E in 2021. They have one Level 2 charger that was not that expensive to install but they have no spare space at their location. The bigger challenge for dealerships is the land and extra power infrastructure they will need to up their game. This is where the big bucks are required that Ford talks about. Seems to me that collective investment through existing auto dealership member organizations for “charging plazas” in the automobile alleys they already have, is one option. Near me, there are two empty lots where used car dealers used to be before Covid hit. These are on the same street and within a mile of five new car dealerships. Lots of space and a good location. Come on dealers, think outside the box.
I think Ford’s plan is to utilize the dealers that support EV as additional charging points that can be monitored for security and a working charger.
In this way it offers customers one more charge location option until charging points become ubiquitous in places like supermarkets, motels, restaurants (eventually these places will offer reduced rates like old time businesses offered parking validation to drive foot traffic.)
The cost of infra upgrade and charger isn’t the biggest part of the fee, as I see it it will also be upgrades to the showroom and remainder of facility.
By putting a 1M$ of skin in the Model e game, Ford can be confident such dealer will be pushing to learn how to sell this product and being committed to doing it.
If Ford is so insistent on Ford dealerships having EV chargers, then why don’t they pay for it? They should take the responsibility for trying to change the industry, by helping the industry, instead of forcing the dealers to pay outrageous costs ( I wonder how much money Ford is making off of this, since they have the type of chargers already picked to be installed ), and if they do not, close shop, which in the long run, means fewer chargers by fewer dealers, the ones that are left, being in high density areas, not in the country. Kind of self defeating.
See my answer to Stu above.
I’m sorry the biggest barrier I see is that ford dealers want 30,000.00 over on msrp for evs you definitely don’t need to worry about infrastructure if people can’t afford one
Surely you don’t think this is more than a temporary problem.
X
Toyota is a company with a lot of brains. With their new generation hybrid Prius it will continue to eat Ford’s, GM’s and Stellantis’s lunch. Hybrid is the way to go versus pure all electric. Fossil energy is a forever thing. Put your thinking caps on and do a reality check people.