Five years ago, almost every automaker’s messaging included aggressive launch plans for battery-electric vehicles to leap into the new energy future. Now, though? We’re starting to see some pull-back. It seems that Ford is cooling its jets on EVs as the industry refocuses on filling a variety of consumer needs, including finding a sort of middle ground in hybrids.
Ford has announced plans to delay production ramp at the new BlueOval City plant by a year from 2025 to 2026 and delay EV three-row crossover production at Canada’s Oakville Assembly plant until 2027. While the re-tooling of Oakville Assembly will start this year, it’ll be three long years before new vehicles start rolling out of that plant once again.
These EV production delays will likely negatively affect workforces, especially at Oakville Assembly where all vehicle production is expected to be offline for years. The local union has voiced its stance on the delays, with Unifor National President Lana Payne stating in a media release, “Unifor is extremely disappointed by the company’s decision. Our members have done nothing but build best-in-class vehicles for Ford Motor Company and they deserve certainty in the company’s future production plans.”
While “best-in-class” probably isn’t in the top-ten adjectives that best fit the Ford Edge, this delay could hit Oakville hard and affect many local families. In a media release, Ford said, “The company will work with Unifor to mitigate the impact the launch delay will have on its workforce at Oakville.” Mitigate, says Ford, not eliminate – so it’s all but certain workers will be affected.
At the moment, Ford offers four consumer-facing U.S.-market products with series-parallel hybrid powertrains: the F-150 Powerboost, the Maverick Hybrid, the Escape Hybrid, and the Lincoln Nautilus Hybrid. In addition, the Escape Plug-In hybrid and Lincoln Corsair Grand Touring offer choices for customers who want to fill up and plug in depending on their daily driving needs.
However, the Lincoln Aviator Grand Touring remains dead, and the Explorer is only sold to police departments as a hybrid, so there’s room to improve the hybrid model count. In fact, Ford has announced plans to offer a hybrid version of every car in its North American combustion-powered lineup by 2030. Hybrid Mustang, anyone?
So, while it looks like Ford is slowing its roll on battery-electric vehicles, a commitment to more hybrid vehicles should appeal to consumers who can’t afford a new electric vehicle; have range and charger-availability concerns (valid or otherwise); or don’t have charging capability at home. Considering how many new-car consumers those situations apply to, the shift to hybrids seems prudent – though precisely how it will affect workers remains to be seen.
(Photo credits: Ford)
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I read the article on a news site and they had a wildly different take, backed up by you know, actual stats, showing that sales are way down for ev’s this year and they know hybrids are as far as buyers will go. The amount of ev’s as a percentage of cars dropped from 7.6% to 7.1%. Oh the growth! Ford wants that action!! So bad its delaying all its fucking ev’s to make Hybrids. What mental gymnastics from the author here.
Your EV articles are propaganda at this point. Ignore reality, and gloss over all the HUGE issues facing EV adaptation. EV’s are not going to happen for the majority of people for decades, if ever. Unpopular take here I am sure, and I can’t wait for the replies.
I would bet that half of fords proposed ev’s never happen, and the same across other big brands.
Hybrids yes, but ev’s? No.
The talk about the limitations of EVs (weight, expensive, charging infrastructure) have all been talked about by the authors here several times. And they’re very pro- plug-in hybrid. Maybe read the site more regularly before you slam this article?
https://www.theautopian.com/americas-plug-in-hybrids-arent-good-enough/
give us the series hybrids
I bet Toyota and all the others that’s been ass-dragging on EVs are laughing their ass-dragging asses right off reading this..
Clearly nobody at the Big 3 were thinking if they were all thinking the same thing.
Wake me when they revive the Focus as a hybrid.
It was called the C-max. It only sold about 20k a year so it died.
Maybe that’s because they didn’t advertise it at all, plus the faulty MPG ratings at first turned some buyers off from it.
Gee. Sure would be nice to have a hatchback that could get 55-75 mpg out of a hybrid…
I just want a PHEV F-150. The PowerBoost is a great start, but give me 50ish miles of electric range for around town and a gas motor to take over during road trips.
I know the Ramcharger is/will be a thing, but I don’t have enough DUIs to drive a Ram.
you should be able to rack up enough before launch…i believe in you
You can get some while owning the Ram…sorry RAM. The Mopar way of life.
This approach makes sense. A lot of automakers bought into the quick EV transition narrative when it was obvious it was going to take time.
Our CEO made a very bad call when turning fully into an Elon Musk. Ford is not Tesla and does not need to be it.
Taking notes on the Toyota approach and success is what we shall be doing!
What’s funny is that Toyota’s secret sauce to their success isn’t so secret yet so many other companies ignore what they’re doing.
Right? I guess that every automaker shit in their pants when they saw Tesla rising at stupid stock prices and everything. Only Toyota stayed calm and believed in their product.
It’s what happens when your CEO and other leadership are car guys and not some MBA that doesn’t have a clue.
Exactly. A disciplined approach is already not the sexiest thing. Throw in the hype machine that is Tesla and people pay even less attention to you. Ford isn’t the worst offender, though. They weren’t committing to crazy BS target dates for full electrification like most other makers. They know what their bread and butter is. Between a bigger push for hybrids that work for every use case and don’t cost 6 digits and their little start-up/spin-off/ skunkworks for cheap EVs, I like their approach.
That can be said about their production system as well. They even taught it to US makers (NUMMI partnership with GM), but no one is as fanatic about lean manufacturing as Toyota. It takes extreme discipline. They also don’t change their underlying designs every 2 years like others. They hone/perfect their supply chain and processes to build stuff that just works. None of it is rocket science, but it sure as hell works.
Every auto media outlet was calling Toyota a dinosaur with their head in the sand for not getting 30 BEVs into their product pipeline. How quickly that has turned.
Gell-Mann strikes again. Even on this site, some of the authors would poo-poo anyone who said that maybe Toyota was right with its hybrid focus (and hydrogen, but thats still further out).
Not sure why anyone’d be afraid of a hybrid Mustang; tie a little e-motor to the front wheels and have some e-boosted AWD. The latest Prius looks quite fine these days and now has some actual pep in its step (should the owner lean into the pedal).
That would be phenomenal, if Ford made a hybrid Mustang that got around 40mpg or so, I’d run to get one, even with how burned I felt with the quality issues on the 2013 Mustang I had from 2012-2016.
Well, actually, no, I wouldn’t. I don’t want to own more than one new car at a time, and my company won’t pay mileage reimbursement on a 2 door passenger car, so the Mustang has to stay out of the picture
But, if Stellantis were to do a PHEV Charger Sedan, now that would tick all the mandatory boxes
A hybrid drivetrain is good enough for supercars, should be good enough for the non V-8 Mustang.
Packaging might be a bit difficult in the RWD Mustang. Prius AWD puts the electric motor for AWD in the back, while in the ‘Stang it would have to occupy the same space as the ICE engine.
Just hybrids? Is there any reason not to make the plug-ins?
Only Europeans can get the PHEV Ranger. We American peasants are not worthy (apparently).
Overdue. Long overdue dedication to hybrids.
They’ve always been the best short term solution, and very well might be the best in the long run as well.
This! Thanks.
Not a corporate guy here, nor a tax guy.
But my gut says that Ford will probably be able to write off all the money previously pissed away on the “pure EV” take?
To bad they don’t make any actual cars besides a mustang. The big 3 have been off my radar for a while now since they abandoned normal cars (yes, I know about the Malibu). Depressing actually.
define “normal cars”. If you mean ICE sedans then GM offers 3 – Malibu, CT4 and CT5.
Semantics, I know. But I consider the Big 3 as Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford.