A day after announcing it would spend billions to build gas-powered trucks at a North American plant once earmarked for electric vehicles, Ford's European division also admitted it would rethink its plans to go all-EV there by the next decade.
Back in 2021, Ford pledged it would have an all-electric lineup of vehicles in Europe by 2030, but that plan has now changed to include more hybrid vehicles which are currently unknown.
“I think customers have voted, and they told us that [the plan] was too ambitious, is what I would say—and I think everyone in the industry has found that out the hard way,” Marin Gjaja, chief operating officer of Ford’s Model E division, told Autocar. “I would also say reality has a way of making you adjust your plans,” he added.
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Sales figures
In May, European sales of all-electric vehicles were down 11% compared to the same period last year, while plug-in hybrids saw a 10% decrease. Meanwhile, sales of traditional hybrids that don't have a charge plug went up 15%.
The executive cited the faltering adoption of EVs—which has been slower as of late in Europe than in the U.S.—coupled with high battery costs and disappearing government incentives as the main reasons for the decision. "We don't see that going all-electric by 2030 is a good choice for our business or, especially, for our customers,” Gjaja added.
It's a story we've been hearing a lot lately.
The American-based automaker follows in the footsteps of Volkswagen, Kia, Genesis and General Motors, all of which are planning on launching more hybrid and plug-in hybrid models in the years to come in place of ambitious electric-only plans. Some, like Volkswagen, have cited the same EV demand slowdown, while others, like General Motors, said they’re going down the hybrid route to make it easier to comply with upcoming emissions regulations.
A new European Union law says that car manufacturers will no longer be allowed to sell new vehicles that have tailpipe emissions from 2035, essentially restricting the market to EVs only. However, one of the major political groups in the European Parliament intends to water down those rules to “allow for the use of alternative zero-emissions fuels” beyond 2035, which would include biomethane, hydrogen, ammonia, biofuels and e-fuels like that developed by Porsche.
Currently, Ford sells just two EVs in Europe, the Explorer EV, which has nothing in common with the namesake model sold in the United States, and the Mustang Mach-E. The new Ford Capri will join them soon, and battery-powered versions of the Puma crossover and Tourneo Courier van are also in the works.
Come mid-2025, the Focus hatchback will be retired, leaving only the Tourneo, Mustang, Puma and Kuga as the only combustion-powered Ford models on sale in Europe. Gjaja said that a new “multi-energy” platform is under development for European cars–in other words, a hybrid setup that might first make its way under the hood of the next generation Kuga crossover which is due in 2027, although this has not been confirmed.
