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Ford Motor Company plans to substantially increase its investment in electric vehicles:
Ford Motor Co's plan to double its electrified vehicle spending is part of an investment tsunami in batteries and electric cars by global automakers that now totals $90 billion and is still growing, a Reuters analysis shows.
That money is pouring in to a tiny sector that amounts to less than 1 percent of the 90 million vehicles sold each year and where Elon Musk's Tesla Inc, with sales of only three models totaling just over 100,000 vehicles in 2017, was a dominant player.
[...] "We're all in," Ford Motor Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr said of the company's $11 billion investment, announced on Sunday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. "The only question is, will the customers be there with us?"
[...] Investments in electrified vehicles announced to date include at least $19 billion by automakers in the United States, $21 billion in China and $52 billion in Germany.
Also at CNBC.
Related: Ford Pumps Cash Into Company Creating Maps for Self-Driving Cars
Ford Invests in Michigan's Autonomous Car Testing Grounds
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday January 17 2018, @06:17PM (1 child)
Ford makes most of its money from its trucks. The rest are there for market presence.
The Tesla's Model S outselling Mercedes and BMW in its category, which are the revenue centers for those two, has shaken up the industry. They had written Tesla off as an eco-hippy freakshow, but Tesla stole a march on them by building a luxury car their target market would rather own. Tesla beat them at their own game, in other words, and the fact that it's an electric car just adds a little cachet.
So Tesla's announcement of their EV pickup has Ford concerned they could be next in their favorite category. Anyway my brother's happy; he has been talking for years about jumping ship for Tesla because Ford was hopelessly staid, but now that Tesla is perceived to be a threat Ford has been throwing money and attention at R&D and have been open to do new things in a way they never were before.
Competition is good.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday January 17 2018, @08:22PM
I currently drive a Toyota RAV4 (and am pleased with it), but what I would really like to drive is a small to mid-size electric pickup. Hopefully Ford will eventually offer an all-electric Ranger someday before I get too damned old to drive one.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.