This week, Ford has come out and said that it thinks its plan to go EV only in Europe by 2030 may have been "too ambitious" as it sights apparent "uncertainty" around EV demand. This is in stark contrast to the most recent figures from SMMT, which show rising EV sales and declining ICE sales. Despite this, Marin Gjaja the COO of Ford Model E spoke to Autocar and said that it cannot continue its plan to go EV only by the end of this decade.

Gjaja said that there is currently some “uncertainty” around EV demand and legislation. Again, despite the sales figures from the SMMT, he claimed that there is wavering customer adoption of EVs and that the main reasons for this are due to battery costs and the removal of government incentives. To this end, Ford will now focus on hybrid vehicles.

Regardless, the UK Labour government is planning on reinstating the ban on the sale of new ICE car from 2030 in the UK. There is also of course the ZEV mandate, which requires manufactures to sell a rising percentage of zero emissions cars per year, otherwise face large fines.

In the UK, Ford currently offers the Mustang Mach-E, Explorer and Capri - all SUVs. Soon the Focus willl be discontinued and only leave the Tourneo, Mustang, Puma and Kuga as its ICE models. The Puma is also due to get an EV version soon.

Our Take

Ford don't make EVs for the every man, so no wonder they are seeing not much demand for their EVs. The only promising side of its business when it comes to EVs is Ford Pro and its commercial vehicles. It has the Ford E-Transit and pretty soon the E-Transit Custom will go on sale as will the E-Transit Courier, nicely serving every segment of the LCV market. However, when it comes to passenger cars, the lineup leaves a lot to be desired. Ford canned the Fiesta and didn't replace it with an EV of the same size and every EV it currently sells, is an expensive SUV and does not compete on price with Tesla.