Ford bets on the production of electric vehicles, invests 1 billion dollars in Europe

Ford  is taking an important step towards its European transformation, committed to investing in its electric passenger vehicles and substantially growing and electrifying its leading commercial vehicle business.

The North American company has a plan that by mid-2026, 100% of Ford's range of passenger vehicles in Europe will be fully electric or plug- in hybrids with zero emission capacity, and will be fully electric by 2030. 

Similarly, all of Ford's commercial vehicle will be zero-emission capable, fully electric or plug-in hybrid, by 2024, and two-thirds of the automaker's commercial vehicle sales are expected to be fully electric or plug-in hybrids by 2030.

The news comes after Ford reported, in the fourth quarter of 2020, a return to earnings in Europe and announced that it was investing at least $ 22 billion globally in electrification through 2025 , almost double the plans of investment in the company's previous electric vehicles.

Stuart Rowley, president of Ford of Europe, said they are successfully restructuring the company on the old continent and returned to profitability in the fourth quarter of last year. 

“We are now embarking on an all-electric future in Europe with expressive new vehicles and a world-class connected customer experience. We look forward to continuing our strong momentum this year and staying on track to achieve our goal of an EBIT margin of six percent as part of Ford's plan to restructure our global automotive operations, "he commented.

Central to Ford's transformation of its European operations over the past two years was a $ 1 billion improvement in structural costs, addressing underperforming markets, creating a more targeted line of vehicles within three groups customer-focused business and partnerships to drive growth and higher profitability levels across the business.

Heading Ford's move toward an all-electric future is this new investment to modernize its vehicle assembly plant in Cologne, Germany , which is one of its largest manufacturing centers in Europe and the home of the company in this region. .

The capital injection will transform the existing vehicle assembly operations at the Ford Cologne Electrification Center for the production of electric vehicles, making it the company's first facility of its kind in Europe.

Ford  also confirmed that its first volume fully electric passenger vehicle built in Europe will be produced at the facility starting in 2023, with the possibility of a second fully electric vehicle built there under consideration.

"We will offer an exceptional range of electrified vehicles, backed by customer-centric digital experiences and services, enabling our customers to join us on the journey to an all-electric future, starting right now with the launch of the electric Mustang Mach-E." , he concluded.