Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
Venerable American auto manufacturer Ford is going all-in on its bid to secure a piece of the electric car market.
The company announced late last week that it had arranged to be supplied the batteries it needed to meet its lofty electric goals – specifically, to bring 600,000 electric vehicles to market per year by 2023, with major escalations in production to follow. However, as first reported by Bloomberg, sources within the company warned that some 8,000 jobs might be lost as Ford seeks to offset costs.
“Ford’s new electric vehicle lineup has generated huge enthusiasm and demand, and now we are putting the industrial system in place to scale quickly,” Jim Farley, Ford’s president and CEO and president of Ford Model e, said in a statement. “Our Model e team has moved with speed, focus, and creativity to secure the battery capacity and raw materials we need to deliver breakthrough EVs for millions of customers.”
The effort to reach capacity has included partnering with Contemporary Amperex Technology, a Chinese company based in Ningde in the Fujian Province through which Ford intends to get low-cost batteries; it’s a partnership Ford assures investors will yield upward of 2 million electric cars per year by 2026.
Ford is clearly seeking to answer a major criticism about electric cars – that they are so expensive as to be unaffordable to most everyday Americans. Whereas Tesla, the unquestioned current market leader, creates luxury-priced automobiles, Ford intends to market lower-cost rides.
Additionally, the creator of the original Model T plans to offer, indeed already offers, a variety of packages ranging from pickup trucks to cars and SUVs.
By the end of 2023, if Ford has its way, 270,000 Mustang Mach-Es will be available in North America, Europe, and China; 150,000 F-150 Lightnings will be available in North America; 150,000 Transit EVs will be available in North America and Europe; and 30,000 units of an as-yet-be-named SUV will be sold in Europe.
“Our team has been actively engaged with partners in the United States and around the world,” Lisa Drake, a Ford Model e vice president, said. “We will move fast in the key markets and regions where critical supplies are available, meeting with government officials, mining companies and processors and signing MOUs and agreements that reflect Ford’s ESG expectations and underpin Ford’s plan to bring EVs to millions.”
For all of the encouraging chatter, there remains the real threat that another 8,000 jobs might soon be lost in an already tough economy.
To afford the raw materials and technology needed to expand its electric vehicle presence, Farley is looking to lop $3 billion from Ford’s budget by 2026. An 8,000-job downsizing alone would not achieve this, but it would make a significant dent.