With the overall transition to electrification, Ford has put forward higher expectations. At a recent investor conference, Ford said it plans to increase its electric vehicle production capacity to 600000 vehicles a year within two years, making it the second largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the world.
"given the explosive growth in demand for the electric pickup Fmur150 Lightning, we can be optimistic about this goal." Ford will also cooperate with five battery suppliers, including Ningde Times, BYD and SK, LG Energy Solution and Panasonic, Ford Chief operating Officer Lisa Drake (Lisa Drake) said at the investor meeting. "our goal is to build a global production capacity of 240 GWh by 2030."
Battery suppliers Chinese enterprises account for five of the second.
This is the first time that Ford has confirmed that the Ningde era has become a supplier of power batteries for Ford cars; this claim has also been confirmed by Ford China.
"the Ningde era has already begun to supply us." On December 7, a senior Ford official in China revealed to the Financial Associated Press. On the other hand, Ningde Times said, "the caliber of the customer shall prevail."
As early as March 2019, it was reported that "Ford sent a representative to Ningde Times to view the factory", but neither side confirmed it at that time. In April, with the revelation of Ford, BYD's "No. 1 customer", the industry thought that Ford had chosen to "stand in line" with BYD in terms of power battery supply.
"for a mainframe factory, it is too normal to have one supply, two supply and three supply." In the view of people in the field of power batteries, under the wave of electrification, the major engine factories began to race the enclosure to build a stable battery supply chain system; and unlike other supply relationships, batteries are not only auto parts, but also scarce resources. "at present, Ningde era in the new energy vehicle power lithium battery field to maintain technology, scale, supply chain and other advantages, its choice to become a mainframe factory is beyond doubt."
In order to achieve its annual production target of 600000 electric vehicles by the end of 2023, Ford has selected five power battery suppliers worldwide. According to the plan, by 2030, these suppliers will help Ford develop and produce battery capacity up to 240GWh worldwide.
Although the specific cooperation plans with Ningde Times and BYD were not disclosed, the cooperation between Ford and SK has taken the lead in the domestic market of the United States in the huge plate of 240GWh battery capacity in the future. In September, Ford announced that it would work with SK Innovation to build two "giant plants" in Tennessee and Kentucky to make electric trucks and batteries. The project plans to invest a total of US $11.4 billion, of which Ford contributed US $7 billion.
As one of the "giant factories", Ford will build a large 1500-acre, $5.8 billion plant in Kentucky, which will be called BlueOvalSK Battery Park. The plant is mainly used to produce batteries for Ford electric vehicles, and the first plant is expected to be operational in 2025 and the second is scheduled to open the following year.
The second goal in the world is a big challenge.
According to the plan, production capacity in 600000 will be mainly allocated to Ford's first three pure electric vehicles: the Mustang Mach-E, the Fmur150 Lightning and the E-Transit.
"at present, consumer demand for F150-Lightning is on the rise, with cumulative orders approaching 200000 vehicles, and Mustang Mach-E has achieved sales of 22000 vehicles this year." Drake predicts that by 2030, the full-size pickup market will be fully electric.
Ford announced on its capital markets day (Capital Markets Day) on may 26th that it would make a full transition to electric vehicles, accounting for 40 per cent of all electric vehicle sales by 2030. At the same time, Ford raised its forecast for electrification spending to more than $30 billion (200 billion yuan) by 2025. "it is estimated that by 2025, our business revenue will increase from $27 billion (about 172.6 billion yuan) in 2019 to $45 billion (about 287.7 billion yuan)." At that time, Ford said.
"judging from the current market situation, although Ford executives are optimistic enough, it seems to face a lot of challenges in order to achieve the 'goal'." Some industry insiders believe that compared with Ford's previous plan, the expected production capacity of 600000 vehicles in 2023 has tripled, while with the exception of Ford, major automobile production giants, including Volkswagen and General Motors, are accelerating the transformation of electric vehicles and promoting capacity expansion. Volkswagen is building new plants in markets such as China and Europe to increase capacity and close the gap with Tesla, and General Motors, Ford's other competitor, is also seeking a leading position in the electric vehicle market. "
Volkswagen is the only traditional carmaker that has a chance of overtaking Tesla in electric car production, according to Bernstein, IHS and EV-Volumes.com 's 2024 forecasts for the big six automakers. These institutions also mentioned that while other carmakers will also rapidly expand their lineup of electric vehicles, they will not be able to get close to Tesla's level.
Production forecasts provided by AutoForecast Solutions show that by 2025, Ford may compete with Stellantis for third place in the electric vehicle market, after Tesla and Volkswagen Group.
