Ford; the Future of the Automobile Industry is the Electric car.

Ford; the Future of the Automobile Industry is the Electric car.

Electrical cars have gained a lot of traction in the recent past. A few decades ago, electric cars looked so futuristic and a feat whose measuring up to looked a Davidic – Goliath challenge for most gasoline manufacturing companies.

As we are talking today, electric cars are no longer an option for even the maestros in the field. It is now very clear that the future of the industry is electric cars. In an earlier post, I wrote about the race by giant automobile companies such as GM, Toyota, Mercedes, and even Volkswagen to start manufacturing electric cars.

This week on Wednesday, Ford announced its intentions to do serious restructuring in a bid to separate the electric vehicle division from its legendary internal combustion engine. One fact is true. And that is the fact that Ford will have a lot of work to do to catch up with the rest of the industry players.

The two divisions will be operating as distinct businesses with the electric division called Ford Model E whereas the internal combustion engine will be called Ford Blue. In a heroic shot, the company intends to produce over 2 million electric cars per year by the year 2026.

In addition, Ford expects to generate half of its annual sales from the sale of electric cars by the year 2030. To achieve this fete, the company intends to pump 5 billion dollars this year in the electric card division which almost double its investments in the division in the year 2021.

But how much catching up does Ford have to make to compete with the rest of the industry players?

Ford’s electric vehicle sales combined with the plug-in hybrid electric vehicles totaled slightly above 100,000 units. Precisely the exact sales were 117,497 with battery electric vehicles totaling about 50,000 units. To achieve its targets by 2026, Ford will have to double up its efforts fivefold.

 Tesla, the market leader in the battery electric vehicle division sold almost a million units in 2021. Precisely, they sold 936, 147 units. They were followed closely by the Volkswagen group whose battery electric car sales totaled slightly above 400,000 units.

In combination with the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, Volkswagen sold a total of 762,850 units. They were followed by BYD who sold a combined total of 597,836. General Motors came in fourth with a total combined of 516, 634.

But then, in the Battery electric vehicles, General Motors came in second as its sales were about 500,000 units. As a matter of fact, in 2021, GM sold very few units of the Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and if anything, are doing quite great in catching up with Tesla motors which does purely the battery electric vehicles.

Stellants closed in on the 5th position with sales totaling 388,024. Of these, over 200,000 units were battery electric vehicles. The trend seems to point at some skewness where the Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will be phased out in favor of the battery electric vehicles.

What this means is that every major automobile is in the race towards electric cars. Some have made quite great strides. Ford is just beginning the race. The only disadvantage to Ford is that other automakers have a competitive edge already as far as electric cars manufacturing is concerned.

Yet the solace is that their decision points to the realization that the future of the car is electric. And not to be left behind, they have made a great announcement whose futuristic ultimate stop is an automobile purely in the battery-electric car space.

We are aware that the oil reserves we have the world over may not clock the next 100 years which means one thing for sure, the need to go electric. This is a wake-up call for Africa and the rest of the world who have a lot of work to catch up with the electric car.

Postscript: Is anybody out there seeing the necessity to start specializing in the electric car engineering space here in Africa?

Geoffrey Ndege

Geoffrey Ndege

Geoffrey Ndege is the Editor and topical contributor for the Daily Focus. He writes in the areas of Science, Manufacturing, Technology, Innovation, Governance, Management and International Emerging Issues. For featuring, promotions or support, reach out to us at info@dailyfocus.co.ke
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