Ford has announced a pair of dedicated EV platforms at its online Capital Markets Day, alongside a pledge to ramp up its connectivity capabilities and EV investment drive.
The firm expects 40% of its global sales to be fully electric vehicles by 2030, and, under the new Ford+ strategy, has boosted its EV development spending to more than US$30 billion (AUD$38.74 billion) by 2025. This will fund the conception of a pair of new modular EV platforms, as well as an array of battery technologies that could reduce manufacturing costs, increase usability and minimise environmental impact.
Crucial to the firm’s renewed electrification push will be the introduction of a bespoke rear- and all-wheel-drive platform which, between now and 2030, will be used for a wide variety of vehicles in the active, commercial, pick up, rugged SUV and full-sized SUV segments.
It will be joined by a larger architecture that will be used for vehicles in Ford’s crucial full-sized pick up and commercial markets. Ford will, however, continue to use Volkswagen’s MEB platform for mid-sized passenger cars in Europe from 2023, given its German strategic partner’s relative strength in that segment.
Together, the two platforms will drastically reduce manufacturing costs, increase scalability and boost profit margins per vehicle; Ford anticipates it will be able to share 80% of vehicle components across its entire portfolio.
Ford will also partner with Korean firm SK Innovation to form BlueOvalSK, a battery production outfit which will produce 60GWh worth of power units per year for Ford and Lincoln vehicles at two separate sites in North America.
Aside from the planned platforms, the headline technological announcement at Ford’s Capital Markets Day was the announcement of a new IonBoost battery programme. Developed under the same ethos as the brand’s downsized EcoBoost petrol engines, IonBoost lithium ion batteries will