F-150 Lightning

Ford has announced its plans to introduce new battery options for its Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning electric vehicles (EVs). This new venture strengthens the company’s goals of being more eco-conscious and improving its EV offering by 2026.

Ford is working with Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) to add lithium iron phosphate batteries (LFP) in both the Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning by 2024. These batteries will be made using a similar nickel cobalt manganese chemistry as Tesla. Ford is utilizing these battery packs to help advance the company towards its overall EV goals in the imminent future.

By late 2026, Ford is targeting a build of 2 million EVs globally. In part, Ford is partnering with CATL to “explore a cooperation” to build batteries in North America, China, and Europe. In the U.S., two battery plants have been announced for Kentucky and Tennessee. To further help reach its 2026 goals, Ford is investing $50 billion in EVs.

By “late 2023” Ford aims to build 600,000 electric cars and trucks annually. This is in part thanks to the company’s battery cell capacity, which Ford claims is now at 100 percent. Ford has doubled the capacity at the LG Energy Solution Wroclaw facility in Poland. Additional cell production capacity is also being reached by SK.

Since pulling back the curtain on the F-150 Lightning, the EV has become a core component of the company’s electric lineup. Alongside the Mach-E, Ford’s F-150 Lightning has generally seen a lot of positive feedback in Canada since its launch earlier this year.

Image credit: Ford

Via: The Verge

Ford is investing an extra $250 million USD (roughly $318 million CAD) to boost production and add more electric vehicle-related (EV) jobs to its production facilities.

The automaker says that this investment will add a total of 450 jobs and bring Ford’s Lightning production capacity up to 80,000 per year. This seems like a nice amount of trucks, but since the company is sitting on over 130,000 pre-orders, it will be over a year before everyone who wants one gets one.

The first trucks should start rolling out to consumers and dealerships in the spring of 2022.

These numbers are nothing to scoff at and Ford getting into the electric truck game is a big deal, but these stats illustrate how small the EV market actually is for the automaker. For comparison, Ford sold 900,000 F-150 trucks on average every year before the pandemic.

Over the next few years, with Tesla, Rivian, GM and Ford all releasing electric trucks, it will be interesting to see what company becomes the next major North American truck supplier.

Image credit: Ford

Via: Engadget