[ad_1]
New car sales are down significantly this year, including at Ford where total sales fell about 8% last month. That’s the bad news. The good news is that Ford’s sales of electric vehicles doubled to 6,255 units in November. That’s up 103% from last November. Overall, EVs accounted for 4.5% of all Ford sales, making the Blue Oval brand the second best-selling EV brand in the US behind Tesla.
“Ford’s share of the electric vehicle segment has expanded by about 2 percentage points over the past year – standing at 8.6 percent share for the month. Ford’s electric vehicles are taking over from competitive vehicle by more than 60 percent this year,” the company said. The lineup of electric vehicles includes a passenger car (the Mustang Mach-E), a truck (the F-150 Lightning), and light-commercial van (the E-Transit van).
Deutsche Post Orders 2,000 E-Transit Vans
The E-Transit flies under most people’s radar, but Ford is seeing a nice increase in sales every month. It signed an agreement this week to supply 2,000 E-Transit vans to Deutsche Post by the end of 2023. The agreement covers a full range of solutions to operate the electric fleet, including access to the connected E-Telematics software of Ford Pro and charging solutions to reduce costs and optimize efficiency.
Deutsche Post will invest €7 billion this decade to meet its goal of becoming a net-zero-emissions logistics company. To get there, it is targeting a share of 60 percent of e-vehicles used for carbon-neutral pickup and delivery by 2030. It currently has about 27,000 vehicles in its global fleet.
“Ford Pro and Deutsche Post DHL Group share a vision of greater sustainability and a commitment to electric solutions, and this agreement is a major step towards millions of deliveries completed by electrified vehicles worldwide. The E-Transit is the top-selling commercial EV in North America and since June was the best seller in its segment in Europe, that means the all-electric 2-tonne van is already making big strides to support this ambition,” said Hans Schep, general manager for Ford Pro of Europe.
The bulk of the order includes E-Transit panel vans designed for handling express shipments to the Americas and to Europe. Some of the vans are specially equipped with a customized box for inner city distribution in Germany by Ford Pro Special Vehicles.
Ramping Up Production Of Ford F-150 Lightning
Photo courtesy of Ford
Ford says it has 200,000 reservations for its electric pickup truck, the F-150 Lightning. “We were surprised by that. I think it surprised a lot of people in the industry, how ready people are for electric vehicles,” said Darren Palmer, head of Ford’s electric vehicle program. As we recently reported, Ford was also surprised by the demand for the Mustang Mach-E. It is rushing to expand the factory in Mexico where the Mach-E is assembled and it is doing the same at the factory in Michigan where it builds the F-150 Lightning.
“They’re actually building a factory that’s about the same size as the one that’s in production right now,” Palmer said. “We had to tear the walls back down and start over.” Dealing with the increase in demand has become a “huge task. It will take most of this year and some of next year just to convert the reservations,” he added. Ford has not accepted any new reservations for the truck since December of last year. Once the renovations are complete, the factory will be able to produce 150,000 electric pickup trucks a year.
Linda Zhang, Lightning’s chief engineer, says Business Insider at first he had to convince his colleagues to buy the truck, but now it is winning over customers who have never owned an EV, as well as younger drivers who have never bought a Ford.
Palmer thinks the F-150 Lightning will go down in history as the vehicle that brought EVs into the mainstream in the US. He says there’s more to come, with a renewed focus on in-car technology in the next phase of Ford’s EV program. “The things we will bring in the next three years are mind-boggling. They are doing things that cars have never done before,” he added.
CleanTechnica readers may scratch their heads and wonder why Ford (and GM and Stellantis) are so skeptical about the need for electric vehicles. A large part of this may have to do with simply not wanting to disturb the goose that laid the golden egg. The F-150 has been a huge success for Ford and is one of the most profitable vehicles ever sold. It is understandable why it does not want to mess with such success.
But Ford is committed to investing $50 billion in its electric vehicle efforts. That’s no small thing. Seeing the increase in sales – which is modest but steady – must be a big relief to Ford executives.
Appreciate CleanTechnica’s originality and cleantech news coverage? Consider becoming a CleanTechnica Member, Supporter, Technician, or Ambassador — or a patron on Patreon.
Don’t want to miss a cleantech story? Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica by email. Or follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
[ad_2]
Source link
