Ford and Jaguar announce plans to go all electric
Wed 17 February 2021
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In the same week, Jaguar and Ford made eye-catching announcements unveiling plans to make their new model line-ups fully electric by 2025 and 2030 respectively.
Ford said that its passenger vehicles in Europe will be all-electric by 2030 adding that by the middle of 2026, all its cars will be available as electric or hybrid models.
Ford added that it commercial vehicle range in Europe will also be 100% zero-emissions capable, all-electric or plug-in hybrid, by 2024. The company expects two-thirds of its commercial vehicle sales to be all-electric or plug-in hybrid by 2030
Earlier, Jaguar Land Rover said its cars would be all-electric by 2030, with its Jaguar brand electrified by 2025. GM and Volvo Cars have set similarly ambitious targets.
Ford said it would spend $1bn (£720m) updating its factory in Cologne, with the aim of producing a mass-market electric vehicle by 2023. The investment will make it one of its largest manufacturing centers in Europe aiming to transform the existing vehicle assembly operations into the Ford Cologne Electrification Center for the manufacture of electric vehicles, Ford’s first such facility in Europe.
Jaguar Land Rover has also announced that the Jaguar brand will be all-electric by 2025, with the entire Jaguar and Land Rover line-up following suit by 2030,.
JLR said it would keep all three of its three British plants open as part of its new strategy but has dropped plans to build an electric version of its XJ saloon at the Castle Bromwich plant, so the site will eventually stop making cars. In total, the company says it will spend about £2.5bn a year on new technology for its cars. It says it will also invest in hydrogen fuel cell technology.
According to analysis by a BBC business correspondent, the challenge for smaller car makers like JLR is that electric cars cost more to design and build than conventional models and it is currently hard to make a profit from them. Bigger manufacturers benefit from access to larger resources and are more likely to be able to benefit from economies of scale later.
Commenting on the JLR announcement, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the announcement was "a huge step for British car manufacturing".
In earlier announcements, the luxury car brand Bentley Motors (owned by VW) said that its range will be fully electric by 2030, while in January General Motors said it aimed to have a zero tailpipe emission line-up by 2035.
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