Amid a storm of electrification announcements that included plans for hybridized Mustang and F-150 variants, Ford said it plans to build a fully electric crossover SUV with at least 300 miles of range by 2020. The vehicle will be assembled at the automaker’s Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Michigan as part of a $700 million investment at the facility and is slated to be sold in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Ford president and CEO Mark Fields wrote Tuesday that the small utility “will be a breakthrough vehicle for Ford, given its extended range and the versatility people love about SUVs.” Beyond those tidbits, Ford was mum on details of the forthcoming EV. “We’ll have more details about it at a later date,” company spokesman Mike Levine told Car and Driver when reached for comment.
In total, Ford announced plans for seven of the 13 new electrified vehicles it said will be introduced in the next five years as part of a $4.5 billion investment. The new models will include traditional hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and fully electric vehicles. Globally, Fields said, the company sees electrified offerings outnumbering conventional vehicles in the next 15 years as consumers shift toward urban areas and as battery-pack prices fall.
Competition Is Thin
A handful of automakers are in the process of launching electric crossover vehicles, with Tesla’s Model X already on the market. The “falcon winged” Model X has an all-electric range of about 289 miles and a starting sticker price of about $74,000. Another EV utility in the works is a production version of the Jaguar I-Pace, which is scheduled to go on sale in 2018. Mercedes-Benz is launching an entire electric sub-brand called EQ, and it showed off the crossover-like Generation EQ concept at the Paris auto show last fall. The sub-brand’s first model isn’t expected on the roads until 2019. Audi also plans an electric Q6 crossover and promises 300-plus miles of range; the Q6 also will be offered with hybrid and hydrogen-fuel-cell powertrains.
Note that all of these models are from luxury brands. So if Ford’s electric SUV arrives with an attainable starting price, its competitive set would be minuscule, with only the Chevrolet Bolt and the Tesla Model 3 to spar with at the lower-cost end of the EV market. If the Ford is a true crossover SUV, the field of competitors thins to zero. Chevy likes to state that the Bolt hatchback is a crossover, but, well, it’s not.
Hybrid Cop Cars
Ford also announced a plug-in hybrid Transit van and two new pursuit-rated hybrid police vehicles. The company said one of the cop cars will be built in Chicago—which currently produces the Taurus- and Explorer-based Police Interceptors—and both will be equipped with law-enforcement gear at Ford’s police-vehicle modification center in the Windy City.
Nixed Plans for Mexico
At the same time, Ford said it’s axing plans for a $1.6 billion plant in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. The automaker now plans to build its next-generation Focus at an existing site in Hermosillo, Mexico, to maximize profits. It’s part of Ford’s strategy to shift small-car production south of the border where lower wages help maintain the notoriously thin margins on such vehicles; higher-margin vehicles such as trucks and SUVs will remain the purview of U.S.-based production.
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