Ford Motor will boost its investment in electric vehicles to $11 billion by 2022, said chairman Bill Ford at the Detroit Auto Show today. This is a huge increase from the $4.5 billion by 2020 the automaker announced in December 2015 that it planned to invest.
Since then, however, Ford has becoming increasingly focused on electric and smart vehicles. Last May, it replaced chief executive officer Mark Fields with Jim Hackett, who was previously in charge of its self-driving car subsidiary Ford Smart Mobility. The leadership shakeup came after shares of Tesla passed Ford in market capitalization, positioning the Model S maker as the second-largest auto company in the U.S. after General Motors.
Chairman Ford also says the company plans to have 40 electric vehicles in its model lineup by 2022, with 16 fully electric vehicles and the rest plug-in hybrids.
“We’re all in on this and we’re taking our mainstream vehicles, our most iconic vehicles and we’re electrifying them. If we want to be successful with electrification, we have to do it with vehicles that are already popular,” Ford told reporters, according to Reuters.
Ford Motors will also begin testing its self-driving network this quarter in a city that hasn’t been announced yet. The program will use data from Ford’s delivery partnership with Domino’s Pizza and include a new partnership with on-demand delivery startup Postmates.
Big automakers—including GM, Toyota, the VW Group and Daimler—have all launched major electric vehicle initiatives in a bid to meet consumer demand and ward off competition from Tesla.
Another key reason is new regulations put into place by countries like China, India, France and the United Kingdom to reduce pollution from cars that use internal combustion engines and fossil fuels, which means automakers must have a solid lineup of electric vehicles to ensure the growth of their international businesses.
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/ford-boost-electric-vehicle-spending-141851179.html
I heard today that Ford planned to release full electric as well as hybrid versions of the F series and new ranger pickups. Crazy how fast this electric vehicle movement is going.
Kinda weired how everyone is hurrying to make electric cars to replace gasoline burning cars. If I’m not mistaking Lithium, which is the key component of the batteries in those cars, isn’t in abundant supplies on the planet either. It does not occur naturally in element form. As of now, it can not be recycled, and is also dangerous under certain conditions. Sound’s a bit like Gasoline to me!!!?? I’m surprised, and upset, that more companies aren’t investing more in Hydrogen technologies. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. Why are we wasting resources on battery tech??? Not to mention overlooking the cost of making the electricity to charge those batteries. What is everyone going to scream and argue about when there is power shortages and their electric is rationed to their homes and their cars? And what fuel are we going to use to make all that electricity? Solar? Wind? That’s funny! Bet it winds up being “fossil” fuels for a while until we get the wind and solar technology up to snuff. Or maybe they will wise up and use hydrogen to generate the electricity, or nuclear power!!? OK Rant Over! That was fun. 
Hydrogen that is used in the USA is made using copious amounts of natural gas and electricity. Hydrogen is more expensive and less convenient than electric technology at the user level. At the supplier level it is more expensive and less convenient as well. It is essentially a wasteful way to utilize natural gas, because the primary source of electricity in the USA is natural gas. So you are burning natural gas to make electricity in order to convert more natural gas to hydrogen.
Yes, hydrogen atoms are everywhere, but they are quite difficult to separate, use and store.
There are other ways to make hydrogen than just using natural gas and electricity. Hydrogen can be produced by chemical reaction as well through the the use of common acids. So their are alternatives to making hydrogen. I still believe that if they put as much money and research into hydrogen and fuel cell technologies as they have into battery technologies that it would be more beneficial for future generations.
The US government has been forcing auto manufacturers to explore these types of concepts for decades. They have spent billions of tax dollars on it with no tangible results. The automotive engineers that I spoke to personally don’t see any future in hydrogen as an automotive fuel, because it is simply an exercise in converting two or more types of energy into hydrogen. You make lots of pollution in the process and incur great expenses. The car is not any different than any other internal combustion vehicle. Auto manufacturer’s are not magicians. They can’t be expected to make both cars and fuel.
It’s all moot anyway, because compressed natural gas or gasoline are infinitely better suited to the task and cheaper by many magnitudes. We don’t actually have a problem concerning pollution emitted by vehicles or the processes involved in making petroleum products available at your local gas station. Most of the world’s pollution comes from mundane things like factories, electric power plants, and cows. Politicians like to send large sums of your cash to companies like Tesla and Solyndra. Tesla is on its last legs, Solyndra is bankrupt, and our money is gone. The common thread is that government needs to stay away from these sorts of schemes. Make laws that are good for everyone, not laws based on phony “green” themes.
Ford said it plans to start selling an all-electric high-performance SUV in 2020 called the Mach 1.
The hybrid F-150 also has the ability to generate power that can be used for other electric equipment, like lights, saws and pumps.
http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/15/technology/ford-mach-1/index.html?iid=ob_quote_footer
Like in the old days when they had a belt drive off the wheel, or PTO?