Ford has a goal to become the second-biggest manufacturer of electric vehicles with a projection of the next two years. To do that, it estimates that it will have to produce roughly 600,000 EVs per year.
Ford Puts Huge Investment in the F-150 Lightning
Moreover, the Blue Oval does think it can achieve that thank. This is in no small part to the huge interest in the F-150 Lightning. Approaching 200,000, there are retail reservations for the all-electric pickup truck. This is according to Lisa Drake, Ford North America’s North America COO, has told Reuters.
Vertical Integration
Speaking at an investor conference, Drake said that Ford is working to create more vertical integration at its plants. That will mean that existing factories that build parts for combustion vehicles will also be able to build parts for EVs. “We haven’t used vertical integration in this industry in a long time,” Drake said, but “you’re going to hear it a lot more.”
Ford has said that the reason, previously, it can offer the F-150 Lightning at its sub-$40,000 starting price. Therefore it is because of the economies of scale to it by its traditionally-powered F150. Ford’s general manager of electric vehicles, Darren Palmer, said, at the time, then removing the price barrier from electric vehicles is crucial to enticing buyers.
Meantime, in order to fulfill its battery requirements, said the automaker is working with five battery suppliers globally. Moreover, they will help Ford to develop and produce up to 240 gigawatt-hours of production capacity globally by 2030. Also, Ford is also looking at new cell chemistries plus cell-to-pack structural batteries which will help reduce costs. It is through that work, Ford does expect to get battery prices down to $80 per kilowatt-hour at the battery pack level well before the end of the decade, said Drake.
