Ford Could Reverse Its 2030 Electric Car Plan for Europe

Ford’s bold plan to go all-electric in Europe by 2030 could fail amid sluggish demand for electric cars, according to one of the company’s most senior executives.

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Ford set one of the most ambitious electric vehicle transition timelines of any mass-market automaker, which would have seen the company beat the European Union’s zero-emissions mandate by 2035 by five years, and now says it will continue to make cars with combustion engines could be sold in Europe beyond the end of the decade if customers still want the technology.

Related: Auto industry fears the worst as demand for electric vehicles falls short of expectations

“If we see strong demand, for example for plug-in hybrid vehicles, we will offer them,” Martin Sander, head of Ford’s passenger car business in Europe, told the Financial Times Future of the Car Summit. Car News Reports. Sander admitted that current demand for electric vehicles has not met Ford’s expectations and that the company has not met its own goals.

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That’s not good news for Ford executives, who spent $2 billion converting their plant in Cologne, Germany, into an electric vehicle hub. The former Fiesta factory will begin building the new Ford Explorer SUV based on the VW ID.4 in June. Ford is expected to unveil a second electric vehicle based on the same VW MEB electric platform in the same month. An electric version of the smaller Puma crossover (pictured below) will go into production in Romania later this year.

Despite the slowdown in electric car sales, Ford says it has no plans to extend the life of the Focus model. Autocar Sanders reported.

“Long term, we still have a strong belief that electric vehicles will be the future and we will see a significant increase in volume,” he said.

Sanders also promised that Ford would not dump discounted electric cars on the British market just to comply with controversial rules that require electric cars to make up 22 percent of a car maker’s sales, with that figure rising every year. Instead, the supply of ICE cars is simply reduced and they are sent to other countries instead. Car News says.

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