Ford Motors Corp (NYSE:F) CEO Jim Farley has indicated that that the automaker is confident with its electric vehicle strategy and the company is ready to compete strongly in the booming EV market.
Ford posts better-than-expected Q4 results
The CEO’s comments come a day after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings. Farley said as part of the earnings announcement that the company will increase its EV investment to around $22 billion through 2025 which is almost double what the company had pledged before. Following the announcement, Ford saw its shares inch higher by 2.7% on Friday to around 411.7 per share.
According to Farley, Ford is not ready to cede the future to anyone considering the company has a very specific electric strategy. He said that the company will put money in segments it is a dominant player such as the Transit van, the mustang, and the F-150 truck. As the company commits capital for the future, the CEO said that already the EV transition is yielding results and indicated that the all-electric Mustang Mach E SUV is already in the market. Farley added that the Mach-E is a huge competitor to Tesla Inc.’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Model Y SUV.
Ford expects to launch its all-electric Transit Van this year
Additionally, Farley noted that the all-electric Transit van will arrive later in 2021 and work is already progressing well in the Michigan plant where the company will build the EV version of the F-150 truck. Farley who took over the CEO role in October said that this year they were not talking of aspirations.
Electric vehicles’ focus has been on the rise on Wall Street. There are currently several players in the segment including charging station and battery making companies that have gone public recently. Interestingly, even Ford’s rival General Motors (NYSE:GM) has captured Wall Street’s attention for its EV investments. Recently GM indicated that it will end production of all-gasoline and all-diesel cars by 2035. Before GM’s announcement, its CEO Mary Barra had indicated that the automaker was orchestrating a turnaround strategy in its operations.