DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. on Sunday said it's more than doubling its investment in electrification and planning to roll out 16 fully electric vehicles within five years. It said the first of those EVs would arrive in 2020.
The automaker said it would spend $11 billion on the technology by 2022 and introduce 40 electrified vehicles globally within that time. Executives said 16 would be battery electrics and 24 would be hybrids or plug-in hybrids, without specifying how many of each type. It's unclear how many of them would be sold in the U.S.
Ford had committed in late 2015 to spending $4.5 billion to develop 13 electrified vehicles over a five-year period, including one battery electric: a 300-mile range crossover expected in 2020.
Ford announced the expanded plans after revealing the 2019 Ranger, Edge ST and Mustang Bullitt the Detroit auto show.
"We're all in, and the only question is will the customers be there with us?" Bill Ford, Ford's executive chairman, told reporters.
The announcement comes three months after Ford set up a group of employees, dubbed Team Edison, to study vehicle electrification. Its crosstown rival General Motors has vowed to introduce at least 20 fully electric or fuel-cell models by 2023. GM has not put a dollar amount on its investment plans.
"We see it as an increase in an important part of where we are going forward," said Raj Nair, Ford's president of North America.
Ford hinted at a performance battery electric vehicle called Mach 1, coming in 2020. Nair said the vehicle could be a crossover based on the Mustang.
Basing EVs on existing nameplates that customers know, such as the Mustang, can help the company make the vehicles more successful, Bill Ford said.
"The idea is we're going to electrify our most iconic vehicles," he said.
Ford previously has said it would sell hybrid versions of the Mustang and F-150 by 2020.
Send us a letter
Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.
