• Ford Motor Company will increase its planned investments in electric vehicles to $11 billion by 2022
• The figure is more than double Ford's previous commitment
• Ford wants to develop 40 different models for hybrid and fully electric vehicles
Ford Motor Company will significantly increase its planned investments in electric vehicles to $11 billion by 2022 and have 40 hybrid and fully electric vehicles in its model lineup, Chairman Bill Ford said on Sunday at the Detroit auto show.
The investment figure is sharply higher than a previously announced target of $4.5 billion by 2020, Ford executives said, and includes the costs of developing dedicated electric vehicle architectures.
Ford's engineering, research and development expenses for 2016, the last full year available, were $7.3 billion, up from $6.7 billion in 2015.
Ford Chief Executive Jim Hackett told investors in October the automaker would slash $14 billion in costs over the next five years and shift capital investment away from sedans and internal combustion engines to develop more trucks and electric and hybrid cars.
Of the 40 electrified vehicles Ford plans for its global lineup by 2022, 16 will be fully electric and the rest will be plug-in hybrids, executives said.
"We're all in on this and we're taking our mainstream vehicles, our most iconic vehicles, and we're electrifying them," Ford told reporters. "If we want to be successful with electrification, we have to do it with vehicles that are already popular."
SUVs figured in Ford's electric vehicle presentation. The automaker's president of global markets, Jim Farley, said on Sunday that Ford would bring a high-performance electric utility vehicle to market by 2020. The company will begin production of a hybrid version of its popular F-150 truck at a plant in Dearborn, Michigan, in 2020."What we learned from this first cycle of electrification is people want really nice products," Farley said.
'THINK BIG'
Ford's shift to the electric vehicle strategy has been more than six months in the making after Hackett replaced former Chief Executive Mark Fields in May.
The plan was finalized in recent months after an extensive review, a person familiar with the process said. In October, Ford disclosed it had formed a team to accelerate global development of electric vehicles, whose mission is to "think big" and "make quicker decisions."
Some of the electric vehicles will be produced with Ford's JV in China aimed at the Chinese market. One aim of Ford's "Team Edison" is to identify and develop electric-vehicle partnerships with other companies, including suppliers, in some markets, according to Sherif Marakby, vice president of autonomous vehicles and electrification.
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