Ford unsure of EV demand
Back in January, we questioned Ford’s commitment to the electric vehicle (EV). Based on what we found at the time, we did not see a strong commitment on the part of the manufacturer to this nascent area of the transportation marketplace. It seems Bill Ford, Chairman of the company, set the tone regarding the uncertainty about the future of EVs expressed by the company. “I really like our model a lot better from a business standpoint” said Ford to Jeff Ball of CBS Marketwatch, comparing Ford’s strategy to that of Nissan and General Motors. Mr. Ford goes on to say “We’ve chosen to electrify a vehicle that people know but don’t think of necessarily as electric.”
Mr. Ford contends that other manufacturers have no clear idea of the future of the EV. “Any sales projections that you all see now don’t mean anything. Who knows is the real answer.” He also seems unsure of the capability of the power generators to be able to provide needed electricity – “The ability of the grid to ramp up and handle it”. Interestingly, he does say “We’ve made a big bet on electric”. If so, we would like to see on what the bet was made. Immediately after talking about the big bet that Ford has made on electric vehicles he goes on to say “It’s also important that we continue to invest in biofuel technology, continue to invest in cleaning up the internal combustion engine, and we continue to invest in hydrogen.”
Just last month we talked about Honda’s decade long hydrogen experiment. Ford talks about the lack of EV infrastructure but fails to mention that in the last 10 years only 86 hydrogen refueling stations have been created in the United States. “I’m a little less excited about hydrogen today than I certainly was a few years ago, but we don’t want to drop it completely.” He goes on to mention the use of clean diesel and bio-diesel (which (in the case of diesel), last we checked, was still made from crude oil).
Don’t get us wrong – we are not against research in all of these areas. But clearly most drivers in the United States have shown over the years that unless the vehicle has 36″ tall tires and says 4X4 on the side, they have no interest in having a diesel engine under the hood for the most part (bio-diesel or not). And if anyone thinks that electric vehicles are experimental at this point, the idea of a hydrogen vehicle is only a concept in the minds of most.
At this point, we will reiterate our previous statement that Ford is hedging its bets in the EV segment, and unfortunately, this will probably leave one of America’s premier auto companies behind the eight ball as this new automotive technology comes of age.
Clearly Ford sees the EV as simply a marketing tool. Grab a roller, stuff a battery and motor in it, then hype it at the car shows. Zero R&D and look how much money they saved! Ford assumes that if they’re wrong they can always come in late and grab market share with a true purpose built EV. How did that whole wait and see strategy work for the OEMs in the hybrid market, after Toyota launched the Prius? All the other OEMs know they blew it with the hybrids and so they simply dismiss the Prius. 2M sales worldwide and the OEMs pretend the Prius, as well as the overall hybrid market, was a flop.