Ford's Electric Vehicle Push Will See Double Investment, Lower Climate Impact

After falling behind Tesla in terms of market value last year, Ford is now eager to increase its electric vehicle efforts. In fact, the American automaker has already vowed to double its investment on EVs as the market for this type of vehicles continues to grow. In part, Ford is doing this to help mitigate climate change.

At this week’s Detroit auto show, Ford’s president of global markets Jim Farley presented the carmaker’s plan of shelling out $11 billion to introduce 40 EVs to the market by 2022. This is more than twice the $4.5 billion the company said in 2015 it would use to invest in the EV market through the end of the decade, as per Bloomberg.

Ford’s more aggressive approach in the EV market is quite understandable, since most automakers are already squandering to step up their game when it comes to bringing electric cars to consumers. The move has become inevitable due to the declining costs of batteries and the efforts of regulators to crack down on the internal combustion engine and eventually phase out gasoline and diesel engines.

By spending more on EVs, Ford hopes to help in the fight against climate change. “We believe man-made CO2 is contributing to climate change and we’ve got our part to play,” Ford’s head of North American operations Raj Nair said. This explains why 16 out of the planned 40 EV models will be battery-only vehicles.

Ford did not identify its planned cars as of the moment, but it did introduce a model called the Mach 1 at the Detroit auto show. The company described the model as a performance battery-electric SUV that is due for release in 2020. The automaker did not say anything more about the vehicle. Even its short teaser video about the project did not show the Mach 1’s appearance, or provide details about its performance, as pointed out by The Verge.

It is worth noting that the name Mach 1 rings a bell because the name was previously used for a performance package variant of the Mustang that’s dated all the way back to the 1969 model year. The last time the Mustang Mach 1’s name was heard was back in the early 2000s when a special edition version was sold in 2003 and 2004.

Since Ford is now using the same moniker for its upcoming electric car, could this mean that the new Mach 1 is also inspired by the Mustang? Unfortunately, when Jalopnik asked Nair about this, the latter said that the new Mach 1 will be built on a unique platform because it is a battery-electric vehicle.