iPhone-like popularity replicated with EVs: Ford
Ford has been caught short by unprecedented popularity in electric vehicles as it looks to introduce five electrified models in Australia by 2024 – starting with the Ford E-Transit electric delivery van in mid-2022.
Ford’s global general manager of battery electric vehicles, Darren Palmer, says the American car maker continues to underestimate the interest and increasing demand in EVs.
“The reaction has been twice or more what we could have expected,” Palmer says, referring to the massive demand for the Mustang Mach-E that means the car is currently not available in Australia.
“We’re struggling to keep up with demand.”
Ford says it is investing US$30 billion ($40 billion) in EVs by 2025 and is anticipating increasing interest in vehicles powered by electricity.
“We’re expecting [EVs] to be over 40 percent of the global product mix [by sales volume] by 2030 and we’re constantly updating that mix,” says Palmer.
The man in charge of Ford’s EV strategy likens the interest in electric vehicles and the acceptance of the technology to that of the switch to smartphones such as the iPhone.
“Every week that goes past and we see customers that are taking these electric vehicles, each one they get they tell 10 family members.
“If I talk to a customer who has taken one of those electric vehicles, I never met one of them who will ever go back.
“The only product I ever saw that was 100 percent people are not going to go back … is iPhones and smartphones.”
Palmer said Ford’s strategy has been to apply EV thinking to some of its most iconic nameplates and models, including the Mustang and F-150.
“We’ve decided to lean into our icons … using what electrification could do to do things that you could never do before.”
For the Mustang Mach-E electric performance crossover it provides huge performance and initially acceleration that many V8s can’t match.
Similarly, the F-150 Lightning can be used to power a house or camping gear or recharge tools at a worksite, as well as delivering better acceleration than the V8 versions. The F-150 Lightning has proved so popular Ford has doubled production capacity.
