Ford announces Chevy Bolt competitor

[gmvoltguy]

Later this year, Ford will unveil a 200+ mile electric vehicle designed to compete with the Chevrolet Bolt EV.

With this car, Ford also will be ready to compete with Tesla, which has promised an “affordable” pure electric called the Model 3 for under $40,000 after its oft-delayed Model X debut, as well as with potential rivals from Google and Apple. Last year, Google unveiled its own fully autonomous, electric prototypes, assembled by Roush, a close and longtime supplier to Ford Motor Company. Apple has hired away engineers from Ford Motor Company and is rumored to be working on a car of its own.

Full article here: http://www.automobilemag.com/features/news/1503-ford-will-unveil-chevrolet-bolt-competitor-this-year/

 

[lukestuke]

Ford will need to introduce 100kW fast charging too, in order to make this a serious competitor.

Plus, the pathetic way Ford ahs marketed the Focus Electric, it's hard to see this as a serious competitor to the Bolt EV

 

[Anonymous]

Not sure what all the fuss is about.

Reports have shown that neither Ford nor GM plan on producing these 200 mile range cars in greater volume than 30000 per year. Who's building the battery cell factories for all these wonder cars?

I can believe they can build one, but wish they would be in serious volumes to make a dent in ICE sales...

Meanwhile, I'll toddle along in my city EV and see when a used Tesla comes at reasonable $$.

 

[lukestuke]

Even Tesla had to ramp up sales and is now ramping up battery production with the Giga-factory.

Maybe it's a chicken-and-egg thing... do you build a battery factory before you can sell the vehicles, or do you develop, build and market a vehicle, and then when sales require it, build out a battery factory?

 

[Anonymous]

do you build a battery factory before you can sell the vehicles, or do you develop, build and market a vehicle, and then when sales require it, build out a battery factory?

Tesla nailed this one. The timing was near perfect.

Panasonic was producing massive quantities of 18650 laptop batteries in 2012 at a time when Apple was changing the market and form factor of computers with the iPad and mini laptop which used flat battery formats.

With laptop production rapidly falling, Tesla negotiated a deal for 18650 cells and eventually Panasonic needed to re-open production lines to keep up with Tesla's demand. Win-win.

Meanwhile every other major car maker built (Nissan, GM, ...) or purchased (Ford, BMW, ...) pouch format cells which were produced in far smaller quantity. They could not compete on price compared to the 6+ years of massive build out in laptop cell production facilities which were already scaled out and producing in large quantities.

 

[marta]

Interesting to know. I knew Tesla used the 18650 cells but didn't realize Apple had moved away from using them in laptops around the same time - smart timing!