Ford Announces Plans to Boost EV Production to 600,000 Vehicles Annually

author: Vineeth Joel Patel   

Automakers are quickly moving toward a future where their lineups are filled with electric vehicles and consumers are quickly making the switch to greener vehicles. In a short amount of time, Ford has come out with exciting electric cars that consumers want to purchase. Ford has received so much interest in its vehicles that it's looking to seriously increase the number of electric cars it manufactures annually.

Doubling Annual Production

In a series of tweets and in an interview with Automotive News, Ford CEO Jim Farley laid out the new production plans for the American automaker. Ford plans to increase the production capacity of its EVs to 600,000 units globally by 2023. That, according to Farley, would make Ford the second-largest U.S.-based producer of electric cars behind Tesla. The new goal is roughly double the number of electric cars Ford had initially expected to build over the next 24 months, reports Automotive News.

The increase in production capacity will affect the Mustang Mach-E, E-Transit van, and F-150 Lightning pickup truck. The boost is also expected to come before Ford beings to build electric cars at a new facility in Tennessee.

"The demand is so much higher than we expected," Farley said. "It's a really new experience for this big company, trying to be agile. We had to approach it very differently than we've done capacity planning."

Where Ford Will Rank

There seems to be some confusion on whether manufacturing 600,000 electric cars annually would put Ford in second place behind Tesla. General Motors announced that it plans to sell 1 million EVs globally by 2025, which would put it above Ford, though we're unsure of how GM will ramp up production. Either way, both would be behind Tesla. Tesla produces 600,000 vehicles at its plant in Fremont and roughly 450,000 cars in Shanghai. The automaker is also working on new factories in Texas and Berlin, which will greatly increase its production.

Ford points toward how difficult it is to boost the production of battery-powered electric vehicles. There are battery supply issues, the ongoing chip shortage, and other constraints that you don't have to worry about with gas-powered vehicles. Space at facilities is another issue. While Ford can add a shift at its Mexico plant for the Mustang Mach-E, its facility is constrained for F-150 Lightning production. Ford will have to build a new plant to increase production, like the reported one in Tennessee, but that takes a lot of time and money.

In the future, Ford has plans to electrify a few more of its well-known models. Electrified versions of the Explorer and Aviator are coming in the future. Coming out with electrified versions of well-known vehicles has been a sound business plan for Ford, so we expect interest in its EVs to grow as it comes out with more models.

Vineeth Joel Patel

Joel Patel has been covering all aspects of the automotive industry for four years as an editor and freelance writer for various websites. When it comes to cars, he enjoys covering the merger between technology and cars. In his spare time, Joel likes to watch baseball, work on his car, and try new foods