Ford Killing All Gas-Powered Vehicles In Europe By 2030
The internal combustion engine is on its way to obsolescence. Ford Motor Company has announced it will sell only full-electric vehicles by 2030. Its strategic alliance with Volkswagen means it will use VW’s MEB EV platform to achieve part of this goal. The other part is Ford investing $1 billion into a new factory within its Cologne, Germany, facility.
The first of these all-electric vehicles will start rolling out of the factory in 2023. This is the same factory that currently builds the Fiesta hatchback. For the time being both the Fiesta and new EV will be built there, before converting over to all-electric production by 2030.
Though Ford will be using the VW MEB platform it will make changes
Even though Ford will be using the VW MEB platform it will make significant changes to it. This is so it handles and feels like a Ford. So though it shares the basic platform that is used by the VW ID models it will be different.
“We successfully restructured Ford of Europe and returned to profitability in the fourth quarter of 2020. Now we are charging into an all-electric future in Europe,” Ford of Europe President Stuart Rowley said in the statement to Automotive News. This essentially confirms that Europe will be a big part of Ford’s future.
As a first step, all Ford products will be either battery or plug-in hybrid powered by 2026. Though it is not committing the same deadline for Ford commercial vehicles in Europe commercial vans will be full-electric or plug-in hybrid by 2024. Ford wants two-thirds of its commercial vehicles to be all-electric or plug-in hybrid by 2030.
The UK already announced it would ban sales of internal combustion by 2030
The UK already has announced it would ban sales of internal combustion engine vehicles by 2030. It is Ford’s biggest market in Europe so this news mirrors the UK’s announcement from last year. Full hybrid and plug-in hybrid sales in the UK will continue through 2035.
This announcement is just the latest from automakers signaling the end of internal combustion engine production. Jaguar Land Rover kicked the week off by announcing Jaguar will be electric-only by 2025. Bentley has also announced it will drop all gas-engines by 2030. Volvo’s CEO Hakan Samuelsson said in December last year it would become all-electric by 2030.
So it is happening now. The end of the internal combustion engine is around the corner. It is almost stunning that with less than five percent sales in the US to Ford signaling the end of internal combustion production means a lot of consumer preferences will have to change.
