It wasn’t too terribly long ago that most automakers were touting all-electric vehicles as the future – or more specifically, the very near future. Most – including Ford – were announcing plans to invest billions in electrification and even transition entire lineups to EVs within just a few years, but much has changed over the past few months. With consumers not quite gravitating toward EVs at the same rapid pace as previously expected, automakers have dialed back investments in that area, though at least one Ford executive believes that mass EV adoption is still going to happen – the question is when.
“It’s going to end at a highly electrified fleet – maybe ultimately completely electrified if we can get the battery costs and energy density right. That’s a destination, and is that 10 years out or is that 30 years out? I don’t think anyone’s crystal ball is good enough to say,” Marin Gjaja, chief operating officer of Ford Model e, told Autocar in a recent interview.
Previously, Ford planned to transition its entire European passenger vehicle lineup to EVs by 2030, but chose to ditch that goal this past May amid waning demand and ever-changing regulations. Gjaja recently admitted that this plan was “too ambitious” from the start, adding “I don’t think we can go all in on anything until our customers decide they’re all in, and that’s progressing at different rates around the world.”
Regardless, Ford CEO Jim Farley believes that consumers will eventually embrace EVs, though he also admitted that such vehicles “aren’t for everyone.” In the meantime, the exec is content to continue to build and sell hybrids as long as customers are buying them, though Farley also stated in a separate interview that the automaker is “going to bet the company on” its skunkworks EV team, which is currently developing a low-cost platform for future models.
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Comments
Stick with the hybrid. A lot of us are older. And for some of us with a medical issue or two, are concerned that we will be stuck in the north 40 with our thumb out. No thanks.
Translates 25-30 years maybe.
And they will probably have perfected hydrogen by then
I’m 66 years old and have owned over a dozen Fords. I currently drive a F250 Superduty. I will never buy an electric Ford
That sounds a bit more realistic, although still maybe a bit ambitious. I guess I’m surprised that other automakers so quickly followed Tesla’s lead. I guess reading the market has become a real challenge, but in reality, really shouldn’t be. You’ll always have some portion of the buying market be “early adopters”. When their need to be first on the block is satisfied, then you really get into the “meat” of any market, and they generally take much longer to transition. Speaking of transition, that is exactly what hybrids satisfy. That’s where the smart money went. Just ask the Asian manufacturers.