Ford’s Jim Farley says he wants his company to become the biggest electric vehicle (EV) maker in the world.
In a series of tweets on Thursday, the CEO outlined the plan he believes will help get them there, announcing a doubling their EV production target to 600,000 vehicles by the end of 2023.
Farley said that should be enough to put them as the second biggest EV automaker, without specifically naming who would be ahead of them.
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Tesla is on track to sell around 900,000 vehicles this year. That’s before Giga Texas and Giga Berlin open their doors.
Ford’s new goal is double what they had originally planned for, and will take place using their existing facilities before the purpose-built Blue Oval City in Tennessee comes online.
According to Farley’s plan, they will reach the goal with the Ford Mach-E and their commercial E-Transit vans.
The F-150 Lightning will also figure in their plans, but production of the electric pickup truck will be constrained due to a lack of space at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, according to a report by Automotive News.
As of the most recent update, they will only be able to manufacture 80,000 trucks per year until 2024. That is already double their initial target, but still well below what is needed to meet demand. According to Farley, there are now more than 160,000 reservations for the Lightning.
Our current EV lineup is wildly popular.
🐎#MustangMachE is selling on three continents ⚡️#F150Lightning has +160k reservations
🚚and E-Transit will be huge in Europe & N.AmericaOur job now is to meet the demand.
— Jim Farley (@jimfarley98) November 18, 2021
We aim to become the 2nd biggest EV producer within the next couple years.
Then as the huge investments we're making in EV and battery manufacturing come onstream and we rapidly expand our EV lineup, our ambition is for @Ford to become the biggest EV maker in the world.
— Jim Farley (@jimfarley98) November 18, 2021
