Ford’s electrification strategy in Europe will focus on producing hybrid models in the next three years.
Tesla has just signed a 300 million land purchase contract in Germany, and Ford announced that it will reinvest in European plants. According to Insideevs, Ford Auto announced the investment of 42 million euros (320 million yuan) in the Valencia manufacturing plant in Spain to support its electrification strategy.
Ford Europe President Stuart Raleigh said, “As electrification becomes mainstream, we are increasing our investment in Valencia, and we expect to launch 14 electric vehicles in Europe by the end of 2020.” Among them The funds will be mainly used for the production of the main hybrid models S-MAX and Galaxy. In addition, due to strict European environmental policy restrictions, according to the plan, Ford will provide 24 million euros (180 million yuan) to build a battery assembly plant, and is expected to begin production in September 2020.
As one of the American automobile giants, Ford is now facing a decline in market sales and losses in non-home areas: For the third quarter of 2019, Ford lost $ 179 million in the European market and in the Chinese market that Ford attaches great importance to, Net loss in the third quarter was $ 281 million, new car sales fell 30.1% year-on-year, and market share fell from 2.9% last year to 2.3%.
For this reason, as early as 2017 Ford proposed a $ 14 billion cost reduction plan. After that, Ford will lay off 20% of its workforce in Europe, shut down some production bases in Europe, and gradually withdraw from the Russian passenger car market, plus two more electrified and more demanding markets in Europe and China. At the same time, Ford is also updating its old SUV product line, eliminating car production lines, increasing hybrid models and increasing cooperation with other car companies on electrification.
In the Chinese market, Ford has previously stated that it will accelerate product development and launch in China, and plans to launch more than 10 electric models in China by 2023; in the European market, Ford has been in Valencia since 2011. The plant has invested 3 billion euros (approximately RMB 22.8 billion), and it is estimated that from now to the end of 2022, 1 million electric vehicles will be sold throughout continental Europe, of which 54% of European sales will come from hybrid vehicles And pure electric vehicles.
However, Ford’s electrification strategy in Europe will focus on producing hybrid models in the next three years. In order to reduce research and development costs, Ford has previously reached a cooperation with Volkswagen Germany to pay for the use of Volkswagen’s MEB electric vehicle production platform, and plans to launch a pure electric vehicle built on this platform to the European market in 2023.
With Tesla MOdel 3 has become a popular model in the Netherlands and Norway. In addition, it is building factories in Europe to promote localization, which is not a good thing for foreigners like Ford and European car brands.
Image from Pexels