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Centennial Ford is now finally starting the escape-type electrification transformation .
After a period of wobbling, Ford made a final decision:
Split electric vehicle and fuel vehicle business and operate independently .
Moreover, the division of labor between the two departments is clear. Fuel vehicles are responsible for making money and blood transfusions, and the electric vehicle business is paving the way for Ford’s electrification transformation.
How to dismantle the electric vehicle business?
Ford's electrification transformation, business and personnel have been greatly adjusted, and the two major departments of fuel vehicles and electric vehicles operate independently.
In the electric car business, Ford CEO James Farley is personally in charge, and there are electric car veterans poached from Tesla to assist.
After Ford's split, the gasoline and electric vehicle divisions are called Ford Blue and Ford Model e , respectively .
Ford disclosed that after the split, the Ford Blue will be mainly responsible for the fuel vehicle business. Ford’s current major fuel vehicles, such as the Mustang, F-150 and Bronk brands, are all under this division.
Model e focuses on the electric vehicle business , including the three electric vehicles Ford currently sells and pre-sells, the Ford Mustang Mach-E, the E-Transit van and the F-150 Lightning pickup.At the
same time, according to Ford's plan, Model e will also be responsible for some of the intelligent network research and development of all models under Ford, including the Lincoln brand.
In addition, chief transformation and quality officer Stuart Rowley, one of the core figures in Ford's electrification transformation, also said that since Ford's Model e electric vehicle business is still in the growth stage, it requires a lot of capital investment. Therefore, Ford Blue, which is responsible for fuel vehicles, will become Ford's profit engine and undertake the task of transfusion for electrification transformation.
Regarding the rumors of the listing of the electric vehicle business, Ford said that Ford has sufficient internal financial support to not consider a separate listing of the electric vehicle business at present .
With the adjustment of business units, Ford's top management also ushered in large-scale personnel changes.
Ford officially disclosed that Ford's current CEO Jim Farley will focus on the electric vehicle business and serve as the president of Model e.
Ge Haohua, president of Ford North America, became the president of Ford Blue, responsible for Ford's fuel vehicle business.
The aforementioned Stuart Raleigh, the former president of Ford Europe, will serve as the chief transformation and quality officer of Model e this time.
Former Ford chief advanced technology and embedded systems officer, Doug Field (Doug Field), will become Model e chief electric vehicle and digital products officer.
It is worth noting that compared with the above-mentioned Ford veterans, Doug Field has not been with Ford for a long time, joining Ford in September 2021.
However, Field has been deeply involved in the smart electric vehicle industry for many years and has experience in the development of electric vehicles. He used to work for Apple and was the vice president of Apple's car project Project Titan, and is the de facto chief engineer of the Apple car project.
In addition to this, Doug Field served as Tesla's senior vice president of engineering, leading the development of the Model 3 .
After splitting the fuel vehicle and electric vehicle business, Ford also offered a timetable for electrification transformation.
According to the plan, Ford will achieve the goal of producing more than 2 million electric vehicles in 2026, accounting for one-third of global sales, and by 2030, electric vehicle sales will account for 50% of its global sales, up from 40% previously planned .
On the earnings front, Ford raised its earnings forecast and operating margin, planning to increase it from 8% to 10% by 2026.
In order to achieve this goal, Ford said that it will cut production costs by 3 billion US dollars from structural costs, mainly in the fuel vehicle business.
Ford Electric Vehicle Business Overview
At present, there are mainly 8 new energy models that Ford is selling or about to deliver.
Among them, 3 pure electric models are the Ford Mustang Mach-E (commonly known as Ford Electric Horse in China), which inherits the name of the Mustang, the electric version of the classic pickup F-150-F-150 Lightning, and the commercial vehicle E-Transit .
Deliveries of the Ford Mustang Mach-E are currently open.
In terms of sales, officials disclosed that Ford sold a total of 64,262 new energy vehicles in 2021, accounting for 3.4% of Ford's total sales last year.
Among them, the Ford Mustang Mach-E has become a popular model in the North American market in one year, with sales of 27,000 vehicles in one year, occupying the third place in the sales list of pure electric vehicles in the United States in 2021.
Mustang Mach-E, not long ago, was named the most popular car in the United States in 2022 by the authoritative American consumer magazine Consumer Reports (Consumer Reports).
At the same time, Ford is not stingy in terms of capital investment. Officially disclosed that it will invest 50 billion US dollars (about 315.9 billion yuan) in the electric vehicle business in the next five years, while Ford's previous budget was 30 billion US dollars (about 189.5 billion yuan) .
On the one hand, it has invested heavily in research and development of popular models, but on the other hand, Ford, a century-old car company, also shows a conservative side in terms of electrification transformation .
The Ford Mustang Mach-E, which is very popular in the United States, entered the domestic market but showed a lukewarm situation. It officially started delivery in China in December last year, and only 352 units were delivered in January.
Although the official explanation is that the weak sales are caused by the instability of the battery supply chain, the conservative tonality of the Mustang Mach-E has also been criticized by the outside world for not moving forward.
Ford is also vacillating in the decision to separate the electric vehicle and fuel vehicle business, and has undergone several changes in just a month.
As early as February, foreign media Bloomberg revealed that Ford would separate its electric car business, and even rumored that the electric car business would be packaged and listed independently, but just over a week ago, the rumors of the separation of the electric car business were reported by Ford CEO Jim Law. Benefit denied.
This is followed by the official final decision to separate the electric vehicle business.
The official attitude has changed many times in a short period of time, and the outside world can also see how Ford’s internal determination for electrification transformation is.
In addition, Jim Farley also said that the separation of the electric vehicle business does not mean that Ford will give up fuel vehicles, and he also emphasized:
Ford isn't giving up on the internal combustion engine and will invest in it.
one more thing
While separating the electric vehicle business, it places special emphasis on continuing to invest in the internal combustion engine. Why is Ford hesitant and conservative in electrification transformation?
The answer may lie in the speech of Ford CEO Jim Farley:
We want to beat the old players, we want to beat the new players.
I want to defeat both old opponents and new forces.
The internal combustion engine singled out old opponents, electric vehicles, naturally, to deal with those "new players".
And the new players here, Jim Farley also pointed out:
It 's Tesla and NIO .So do you think that the electric car track, old Ford can do these two new car-making forces?
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