The delay in the electrification of Ford Almussafes has triggered all the alarms in recent days. Although the company continues to argue that this is part of its plans and seeks help from Perte for the second Electric and Connected Vehicle, this investment is a guarantee of the future (VEC) – Anxieties at the Valencia plant have once again become blurred in the eyes of many workers who are at their maximum. But, The truth is that this blow to the Valencian industry is not the first. Rather, it is the latest in a string of tough decisions the company has been making in recent weeks around the world due to the slow progress of the electric car.
Before he goes any further, these setbacks occur even at the heart of the company he founded. Henry Ford more than a century ago. It is not for nothing that last week the multinational company decided to make a major cut in the production capacity of what will be the first lithium ferrophosphate (LFT) battery production plant.in case Michigan (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA). In particular, the brand decided to reduce the investment allocated to this cell production facility from 3.2 billion euros to just over 1.82 billion euros. However, the originally planned 35 gigawatt hours were reduced to 20 GWh, a third of the sample. last capacity in mind volkswagen for the huge factory sagund. The explanation behind this is again the low penetration of electric cars today.
But this was not a unique decision within the North American country. Because back in October, the company announced that it planned to cut or at least postpone the budget of approximately 11,000 million Euros allocated for the electrical department. With this message came another blow. A second battery production facilityThe project he planned to establish in the State of Kentucky was also postponed.
But Ford didn’t just bring its chips to the United States Due to the low sales rate of electric vehicles. as I predicted Lift-EMV On the same Monday, the company was also deprived of its own battery gigafactory in Turkey, following the construction of an infrastructure with a production capacity of 2,500 liters in principle, which the oval brand, Korean LG and Turkish Koç announced in February. It will reach 25 GWh and then 45 GWh.
Cut of the Mustang Mach-e
Although the situation of both the multinational company’s battery factories in Europe is beyond As in America, recent weeks have seen other restrictive decisions regarding electrification. One of these included the Mustang Mach-e, the company’s 100% electric sports SUV. Mexican. This company, whose future development was predicted before the delay as one of the main candidates to reach Almussafes with electricity investment, had experienced a production boom at the beginning of the year. However, in this difficult sales environment, Ford decided to reverse this decision and reduce its production.
In parallel, the long-awaited electric Explorer, which forms the backbone of the company’s European business, such as the German factory in Cologne, has not yet seen its launch, which was previously postponed until summer 2024. The last example, Finally, electrification passage been full of crashes and lags lately.