Agency Report

US carmaker Ford on Monday said it would offer seven new electric vehicle models in Europe by 2024 and expand operations in Germany, Romania and Turkey.

Ford last month created a new business dedicated to electric cars, and said it aims to sell more than 600,000 of these vehicles annually in Europe alone by 2026, as part of a larger goal of selling two million electric cars worldwide by that year.

“Ford is all-in and moving fast to meet the demand in Europe and around the globe,” the automaker’s CEO Jim Farley said.

The company aims to sell only electric passenger and commercial vehicles by 2035 in Europe, and make its entire supply chains carbon neutral, from factories to suppliers.

On Monday, it announced it would increase to $2 billion its investment at a plant in Cologne, Germany that is forecast to produce 1.2 million vehicles over six years and include a facility to build batteries, which will begin operations in 2024.

That facility will produce a mid-sized crossover vehicle that can travel 500 kilometers on a single charge. It is expected to be unveiled later this year, with production starting in 2023.

A second sports crossover electric vehicle will also be built there starting in 2024.

In Turkey, Ford has a non-binding agreement with South Korea’s SK and Turkey’s Koç to build an electric battery factory for commercial vehicles near Ankara.

Production could begin as early as 2025 with an eventual capacity of 30 to 45 gigawatt hours.

Ford is also expanding production at its plant in Craiova, Romania, where the electric version of its Puma crossover, last year’s best-selling passenger vehicle in Europe, will be made.

The automaker announced plans to produce its Transit Courier and Tourneo Courier commercial vehicles there from 2023, and their electric versions from 2024.

AFP