GM said that will spend $ 27 billion in the next five years in the development of autonomous electric cars, which certainly seemed a lot until today, when Ford said it would be investing $ 29 billion. That is $ 2 billion more! In addition, Ford had its first loss of the entire year in more than one of each.
The $ 29 billion will be invested in the development of electric and autonomous cars by 2025, said Ford, although the numbers for Ford and GM are not much more than marketing at this time.
What matters, instead, are the actual products. Tesla currently sells four fully electric cars that many people are very fond of; Ford currently sells a fully electric car that people don’t seem to hate; and GM currently sells an electric car in the U.S., which is the definition of “meh”, which you can currently make a good deal on.
In 2025, I’m not sure how this graph can be read, although I think it’s safe to assume that GM and Ford will each have more than one EV per So.
From Automotive News:
CFO John Lawler said the “majority” of the $ 22 billion dedicated to electrified vehicles would be spent on battery-powered electric models, although he declined to say how many Ford plans to add to its lineup. He also refused to live up to GM’s stated ambition to become fully electric by 2035, noting that Ford was focused on introducing new models like the F-150 EV and the E-Transit.
Lawler said the $ 7 billion pledge for autonomous vehicles would include spending on Ford Argo AI, as well as the planned 2022 launch of autonomous commercial services.
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Ford assigned your loss for the year – $ 1.3 billion – for several one-time charges, including $ 2.5 billion to leave Brazil and more than $ 600 million because of Takata’s airbag recalls. swhat you would expect Ford to return to in the blue next year, billions and billions spent on electric vehicles or not. What happens after that nobody knows.
In any case, I’m legitimately excited about Ford E-Transit, maybe a little too excited, due to its potential to replace last mile delivery trucks in a world so dependent on home delivery. And I’m at least curious about the F-150-EV, although for other reasons I don’t think it will be that successful, because truck owners are a stubborn and loyal species.
Everyone seems to like the Mach-E too, which is a good start for Ford, but it really won’t be that significant until the Blue Oval goes after the core of its line: Explorers and trails and edges. And hybrids, for the purpose of this conversation, do not count. That’s because what was so surprising about GM’s ad was not the price tag but the aspiration to become 100% fully electric by 2035. This thing that General Motors did for more than a century – building cars with an internal combustion engine and selling them – now plans to stop altogether. It was as if Budweiser had announced that it was switching from beer to cannabis.
Ford’s ambitions today fall short of that, but whenever – if ever – they say something similar, you’ll know that they really are serious.