Ford to invest additional $4.5B in electric vehicles by 2020

Ford also plans to add 13 new plug-in hybrid, and hybrid or electric vehicles to its lineup by 2020, moving to more than 40pc the share of the company’s vehicle lines that will be electrified.

Besides the main markets of Europe and North America, growing EV markets such as Taiwan, China and South Korea are in Ford’s plans.

The investment in electric vehicles will include hybrid cars that still have a traditional engine, but also pure battery-powered vehicles.

The electric Focus will feature a fast charging system capable of recharging the car’s battery to 80% in just half an hour – around two hours faster than today’s Focus Electric.

Electric vehicles with a range from 100 kilometers to about 150 kilometers can receive 25,000 yuan for subsidy; Electric vehicles with a range from 150 kilometers to about 250 kilometers can receive 45,000 yuan for subsidy; Electric vehicles with a range of 250 kilometers or more can receive 55,000 yuan for subsidy. Ford now sells electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of its Focus, Fusion, C-Max and Lincoln MKZ sedans. It is scheduled to start production in late 2016.

The new electric Focus is expected to debut in 2017. As we say here all the time, electric cars have a slew of benefits that are user-preferred and just need to get over the early battery R&D hump before they explode into mainstream adoption.

In October, Ford announced it was a partner in a new $9m battery lab at the University of MI that will help the company build smaller, lighter and cheaper batteries. This represents Ford’s largest-ever electrified vehicle investment in a five-year period.

This move is supported by internal upgrades to the Ford Electrified Powertrain Engineering program, which will see an infusion of 120 new staff who will be tasked with stepping up the pace on electrifying the fleet.

The money would not only go to pure EVs, but hybrids and diesel as well, besides more attention to the enhancement of its EcoBoost engines.