Ford reportedly opens a new EV-focused assembly plant in Germany. The cologne facility of the company which reportedly dates back to 1930 has now been transformed by a $2 billion investment from the car firm.
Ford EV-Focused Assembly Plant Germany
Today, Ford has now opened its Cologne Electric Vehicle Center, which is part of the automaker’s push for its passenger vehicle range to be all-electric in Europe by the year 2030. The Cologne plant of the American automaker was originally founded in the year 1930, but in 2021, the company stated that it would be transforming it into an EV manufacturing center at a cost of $1 billion. And as of today, the company states that the transformation of the plant is “part of a $2 billion investment.”
The very first car to be produced at the plant is the new all-electric Explorer made exclusively for Europe by Ford. The firm is also billing the crossover SUV built on top of VW’s MEB platform as its fourth electric vehicle right behind the Mustang Mach-E, E-Transit, and F-150 Lightning. A “sports crossover” is also scheduled to be the second electric vehicle that will be produced at the plant. The Cologne EV center in question will reportedly have a total production capacity of 250,000 electric vehicles per year, according to Ford.
The Main Aim of the Company
The company in the previous year said that it plans to offer seven new electric car models in Europe and this is inclusive of three passenger vehicles as well as four commercial vehicles by the year 2024. The compan7 in total hopes to sell more than 600,000 EVs across the continent by the year 2026, and at the same time also producing more than 2 million worldwide a year.
Ford in its own capacity is describing the facility as its very first carbon-neutral assembly plant globally and says that it hopes to be carbon-neutral across its European “facilities, logistics and direct suppliers” by the year 2035. Bill Ford, the company’s executive chair, states that the Cologne EV center will be “one of the most efficient and environmentally responsible plants in the entire industry.”
Ford’s Electric-Focused German Assembly Plant Obvious Competitor
The obvious comparison for the electric-focused German assembly plant by Ford is Tesla’s Berlin Gigafactory, which officially opened its doors in March 2022. Tesla however reportedly spent €5 billion (which is around $5.3 billion) on the plant and was then granted approval to produce up to 500,000 electric vehicles a year at the facility. (And this year, the company submitted an application to increase this limit to 1 million annually.) And as of the end of February, the factory was celebrating the production of 4,000 Model Y cars each week, which would directly translate to a little just over 200,000 cars per year.
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