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Ford Says No to Europe-Made EVs Until at Least 2023

Ford is one of the few automakers in the industry that does not make a daily fuss of the plans they have for electric vehicles. And considering the Blue Oval is the only company of the now-defunct Big Three that avoided a meltdown during the 2009 financial crisis, their cautious approach is at least worth a second look.
Gunnar Herrmann 1 photo
Photo: Kölnische Rundschau
As all in the industry, Ford too has plans for developing EVs, albeit not as bombastic as the ones announced by Nissan or Volkswagen. First, Ford doesn’t plan a myriad of EV models, but will rather focus on the development of hybrids. Secondly, the target for manufacturing electric vehicles in Europe is not 2020, as set by most carmakers, but at least 2023.

This is what Gunnar Herrmann, head of Ford Germany, told German business daily Handelsblatt. In Europe, there are no plans to produce electric vehicles at least until the mentioned year, when the Fiesta will be put out of production and the assemby lines could be converted.

The reason why Ford is in no hurry to launch EVs in Europe is the fact that it’s not worth it, financially speaking. Retooling of the Cologne facility, which could be done in as little as 15 months, would not make sense unless the electric car market reaches a lot more than 40,000 units a year.

The official estimates that a good time for the start of EV production in Europe would be 2023, but warns that his estimate is purely hypothetical.

“It will be possible if the sales’ numbers are moving up more powerfully. Unfortunately, today electric cars are not especially profitable yet,” Herrmann told the publication, cited by Euronews.

The official corporate plan is that by 2022 Ford will have 40 hybrid and fully electric vehicles in its worldwide model lineup. In Europe, the first Ford EV is expected to arrive in 2020, but from overseas.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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