Photo: Ford
Ford feels it’s in a position to take on Tesla as the number one EV maker, so it laid out plans to reach a capacity of 600,000 units per year by the end of 2023. But this is just the beginning, warns Ford CEO while sharing a video detailing Ford’s plans.
Ford is far from being the number one carmaker in the world by volume, and it will most probably never get there. But when it comes to electric vehicles, the success with the Mustang Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning made Ford’s CEO Jim Farley euphoric. In November last year, he expressed confidence Ford will produce 600,000 electric vehicles per year by the end of 2023, twice as many as originally planned.
It is a very bold statement, especially as Jim Farley vowed Ford would become “the 2nd biggest EV producer within the next couple years.” The funny thing is, Ford aiming for number two in the EV market means beating Volkswagen, a company that is key to Ford reaching its goals. That’s because building an EV in Europe based on Volkswagen’s MEB platform is an important part of the plan to get to 600,000 EV capacity.
Jim Farley shared an interesting video on Twitter, explaining how Ford is going to scale up its BEV capacity to 600,000 by the end of 2023. A big part of this plan is ramping up production at existing facilities in Dearborn (where the F-150 Lightning is assembled) and Kansas City (the place where the E-Transit is made). The former is expected to reach 150,000 units per year by the end of 2023, on top of the 200,000 volume for the Mustang Mach-E built in Mexico and China.
As we’ve said, a new crossover based on Volkswagen’s MEB electric platform will start production in Europe next year. This will not be a reengineered Volkswagen ID.4, but a proper Ford developed on top of MEB. Farley promises this is “just the beginning” and the investments Ford made in three battery gigafactories in Tennessee and Kentucky prove he means business.
Even so, 600,000 electric vehicles a year will not get Ford very close to its goal to become number two in the EV field, let alone surpass Tesla. It’s safe to say Tesla will have a capacity of two-million cars by next year in China alone, and Volkswagen is not standing still either. And remember GM? They are eager to put behind the Bolt blunder and they have the means to leave Ford in the dust. It would be interesting to see which traditional carmaker will challenge Tesla in the end.
It is a very bold statement, especially as Jim Farley vowed Ford would become “the 2nd biggest EV producer within the next couple years.” The funny thing is, Ford aiming for number two in the EV market means beating Volkswagen, a company that is key to Ford reaching its goals. That’s because building an EV in Europe based on Volkswagen’s MEB platform is an important part of the plan to get to 600,000 EV capacity.
Jim Farley shared an interesting video on Twitter, explaining how Ford is going to scale up its BEV capacity to 600,000 by the end of 2023. A big part of this plan is ramping up production at existing facilities in Dearborn (where the F-150 Lightning is assembled) and Kansas City (the place where the E-Transit is made). The former is expected to reach 150,000 units per year by the end of 2023, on top of the 200,000 volume for the Mustang Mach-E built in Mexico and China.
As we’ve said, a new crossover based on Volkswagen’s MEB electric platform will start production in Europe next year. This will not be a reengineered Volkswagen ID.4, but a proper Ford developed on top of MEB. Farley promises this is “just the beginning” and the investments Ford made in three battery gigafactories in Tennessee and Kentucky prove he means business.
Even so, 600,000 electric vehicles a year will not get Ford very close to its goal to become number two in the EV field, let alone surpass Tesla. It’s safe to say Tesla will have a capacity of two-million cars by next year in China alone, and Volkswagen is not standing still either. And remember GM? They are eager to put behind the Bolt blunder and they have the means to leave Ford in the dust. It would be interesting to see which traditional carmaker will challenge Tesla in the end.
The @Ford team is unstoppable when we set our mind to something. Watch how we are going to scale up our BEV capacity to 600,000 by the end of 2023 - and that's just the beginning. pic.twitter.com/dfHUJFhTiW
— Jim Farley (@jimfarley98) February 23, 2022
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