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Transportation Earth

Ford Plans for All Cars Sold in Europe To Be Electric by 2030 (theguardian.com) 246

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
Ford has pledged that all of its cars on sale in Europe will be electric by 2030, in the latest move by the world's biggest auto manufacturers to set out plans to move away from polluting internal combustion engines before looming bans on fossil-fuel vehicles across the world. From a report: The US car giant said on Wednesday that it was going "all in" on electric vehicles and would invest $1 billion converting a vehicle assembly plant in Cologne, Germany, to become its first electric vehicle facility in Europe. It said the first all-electric cars would start rolling off the production line there in 2023. Ford promised that all of its passenger cars in Europe would be "zero-emissions capable all-electric or plug-in hybrid" by mid-2026, before ramping up its ambitions to be "completely all-electric by 2030." "We are charging into an all-electric future in Europe with expressive new vehicles and a world-class connected customer experience," Stuart Rowley, the head of Ford's European operations, said. "Our announcement today to transform our Cologne facility, the home of our operations in Germany for 90 years, is one of the most significant Ford has made in over a generation. It underlines our commitment to Europe and a modern future with electric vehicles at the heart of our strategy for growth."
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Ford Plans for All Cars Sold in Europe To Be Electric by 2030 More

Ford Plans for All Cars Sold in Europe To Be Electric by 2030

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  • Well that'll give them time for nine years of battery development.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Sique ( 173459 )
      Ford is using the MEB (Modularer E-Antriebs-Baukasten, modular e-power building set) from VW as platform for their European car production. So they don't develop any cells themselves.

    • This is for Europe not the United States.

      250km range is more than adequate for a good portion of EU Drivers. That would be considered an overnight trip for a lot of them. While in the US. 500km is more appropriate. Compared the US, Europe is very densely populated and there isn't so much of a need to go more than a few dozen kilos. If there is, then you have charging.

      Even in the US a 250 mile range electric car isn't that unheard of, and that will give you about 2-3 hours of driving on a charge. In which

      • Seconded. Americans that come here always find it interesting, that you can travel to five countries in fivr days, or often, more than one other country in a single day. (And back if you are quick.)

        There really is no need for long range vehicles unless you go to the far east of Europe.

        That being said, I still think batteries suck, and them being popular right now ruin the motivation for developing actually not shit technologies.

        • Americans that come here always find it interesting, that you can travel to five countries in fivr days, or often, more than one other country in a single day.

          Well yes, a large portion of Americans are stupid and know little to nothing about the outside world. They think everything revolves around them.

          Driving through five countries in five days while interesting, isn't that big a deal when one considers you can drive across the U.S. in five days and go through ten states, some of which are larger than some

        • There is still demand for better power storage so if someone comes up with something better than batteries (how can they "suck" if there is nothing better?) then they will have no trouble selling it.

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @05:27PM (#61073316)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Zocalo ( 252965 )
      You can get a subsidy on a home charge point installation in the UK of £350, or somewhere in the region of 40-60% of the price of a mid-range unit depending on the make/model, at present but that only applies to people with off-road parking. For the rest, there are also a number of local and central government schemes to help with the deployment of shared chargepoints, both on public roads, in car parks, and at places of employment - e.g. all the places where cars can typically be parked up for a sui

      • Many jurisdictions the world over, have already thought about the changes in taxation and are adjusting. Don't think that they won't have their fingers in your wallet when you buy electricity.

        Preparing now and using solar generation will get you a bit ahead of the game, but already several US states charge an surcharge for electrical and/or hybrid ownership. If you don't pay, you don't get a valid license plate.

        COVID debt or not, at least the air gets clearer if the local grid isn't powered by coal.

    • Upgrading isn't so bad. It would be a 220 power cable, being dropped with charging ports.

      An enterprising company can probably do the work for free, and collect 80% of the revenue for charging, and paying the property owner 20%.
      For the property owner, they get a feature which they can advertise to attract higher rent buyers, and will get a few bucks from the charging as well.
         

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by drnb ( 2434720 )

        It would be a 220 power cable, being dropped with charging ports.

        OK, don't charge the car when running the clothes dryer. Got it. :-)

      • In Europe hardly one would rent something were he can not choose freely which power company is providing the power.

        I certainly would not.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Many European countries have said they will ban fossil cars by 2030. Some have got on with installing the charging, some have not.

      Ford doesn't need to do anything though, the law will be that you can't buy a fossil car anyway. It's up to citizens to kick up a fuss about charging.

      In the UK I think the pavements will be covered in charging cables running out of houses.

    • Are they going to be rolling out free charging ports to every home as well?

      Of course not. The government does that on request. It's why you see a lot of charging stations in the street.

  • Would you by an non-electric car in 2028? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FeelGood314 ( 2516288 ) on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @06:13PM (#61073466)
    I think this market might make the decision for Ford before 2030. I doubt many people 5 years from will want anything other than all electric. They are so much cheaper to run and convenient. And yes the grid can handle it. Most charging will be done overnight when most of the first world has plenty of electricity. 1 KWh of charge will take you 10km. So a 40km commute is only 4KWh. About the same as drying one load of laundry...except you are doing it from midnight to 6am, when the wind is blowing (most places north in Europe, Canada and the US north east) and there isn't much other consumption.

    • I reckon that about a third of all new cars will be electric by then, assuming that battery prices continue to fall. It will depend on how far people drive, and whether they can charge their cars at home (i.e. not renters or people that park on the street). And how fashion conscious they are. The total cost of ownership will be about the same by then.

      But that will not be good for the environment in either the USA or Australia. We will still be burning lots of carbon to make the electricity that charge

    • Re:Would you by an non-electric car in 2028? (Score:4)

      by pherthyl ( 445706 ) on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @07:59PM (#61073936)

      Bingo. There will be some use cases for quite some time that rely on gas, but most of the automotive market will shift much faster than people expect that haven't driven an EV yet and don't understand how good they are.
      It's not about environmentalism, it's simply a better product. The environmental benefits are a nice side benefit.

    • What exactly is changing in the next 5 years that would cause that market shift?? Where I live we already have charging infrastructure everywhere - those who never leave their warm climates seem to forget we've always needed to plug in our vehicles overnight for months out of the year for block heaters Having the ability to charge overnight has given no boost to electric sales at all, which are still a tiny portion.

      Also, public transportation has improved to the point I haven't commuted to work in a vehi
      • Increasing market share of electric cars is a feedback to itself, seeing more electric cars on the roads makes people more likely to consider buying one of their own. The adoption curve is quite similar everywhere, different countries and areas are just on different points along it. Where an outlier like Norway is today, rest of the world will be some years down the line.

  • Instead of quick battery swap in 30 seconds at the "gas" station, with a standardized battery with a guaranteed minimum charge and a fair deposit, we get ... this.

    Instead of high-energy-density synthetic fuels in a fuel cell and carbon-recapturing with free solar energy, we get ... this

    Instead of a good HUD and controls you can control without looking at them, we get ... this.

    These half-assed abortions of a solution are why we can't have nice things.

    If cars had been designed that way when they were invented

  • If EVs are so desirable why do they have to be mandated? This is an interesting case of corporations and Wall Street investors trying to create a market. Many people dont want to buy an EV. The people you see driving Teslas are young tech bros and gals who probably have a good income. Batteries are a stop gap measure to some other better technology. A shame that what we have now has to be foisted on the general public when the majority of folks who have limited savings and credit card debt need ch

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