Ford Becomes Strong Contender for Electric Vehicles
While Ford hasn’t been the first to move towards electric vehicles, the manufacturer is set to become a leader in this segment of the market. As it adds more EV models to its lineup, including the awe-inspiring Ford F-150 Lightning, Ford is turning its focus to this area.
BlueOval City
Ford has named its major initiative with three battery plants in Kentucky and Tennessee BlueOval City. This complex spans almost six square miles in the western part of Tennessee. It is part of an $11.4 billion initiative, which will create about 11,000 new jobs.
The complex will be a production facility for the electric F-Series trucks and batteries for the electric lineup. The second site will be in central Kentucky, known as BlueOval SK Battery Park and include twin battery plants. Production here will be for new Ford and Lincoln electric models. Stanton, TN will see nearly 6000 new jobs while residents in Glendale, KY will have almost 5000. Production is slated to start in 2025 after the construction of the complex.
Investing in training
Along with this initiative, Ford is adding to its EV investment by training technicians to service electric vehicles. A total of $90 million goes to Texas with $525 million for the entire US to ensure that technicians are prepared to handle service and repairs on these new models. Ford is partnering with SK Innovation for this investment, which is the largest at one time by any vehicle manufacturer.
Along with this initiative, Ford is continuing to expand production in the current electric vehicle plant in Dearborn, Michigan. The goal for the company is to bring more electric vehicles to the masses while creating jobs to support families and providing a carbon-neutral system for the production of the zero emissions models.
Zero negative environmental impact
The goal with this campus is to have zero waste. This will become possible with no withdrawals for freshwater in the assembly processes because of the use of water reuse and recycling. Moreover, any scrap materials will be collected on-site or at another facility off-site.
By reusing old materials and recycling wastewater and other products as well as manufacturing batteries locally, Ford hopes to cut the costs of production. Overall, this will make EV vehicles more affordable for the average buyer.
Increasing demand
As Ford announces this initiative, the manufacturer is seeing phenomenal sales of its electric models. The demand for the Ford Lightning continues to grow. Reservations for this model are now over 150,000. As a result, the company increased its forecast for EV production to be 40 to 50 percent of the total volume of models by 2030.
Along with this new model, Ford has the Mustang Mach-e, which is a mid-size SUV, and the e-Transit, a commercial van. The manufacturer has invested in reducing its carbon footprint with more hybrid models. While they aren’t zero emissions, they do conserve energy with higher mileage. The 2022 Ford Maverick makes the hybrid engine standard on its lineup while a hybrid engine is also available for the 2021 Ford F-150. The 2021 Ford Escape offers a hybrid and plug-in hybrid option to provide more versatility. While the 2021 Explorer also includes an available hybrid model.
As Ford invests in the electric market, you can expect more EV and hybrid models to replace traditional gasoline vehicles. In conclusion, sales reports show that buyers want to move to electric. Ford is gearing up to satisfy those demands.
What is your reaction?
Its interesting to see how the electric cars are becoming more and more big. I think its a good mechanism however as of right now there arent many charging stations which makes it a little annoying when the car has to be charged. But for those that have the two options i think its super cool.