* Ford CEO: Co must see “reasonable margins” on EV, hybrids
* CEO: Trucks benefit more from “light-weighting” than cars
* EV batteries can cost $15,000, third of car price
By Deepa Seetharaman
LOS ANGELES, April 17 (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co will be
slower to build electric-powered pickups and other larger
vehicles because the batteries to power them are still extremely
costly, Ford CEO Alan Mulally said on Tuesday.
The second-largest U.S. automaker is now electrifying the
platforms used to build compact cars and mid-size sedans, a move
that allows Ford to curb costs by building electric, hybrid and
gas-powered versions of the same car on a single assembly line.
But for larger vehicles, “the electrical components are so
much bigger and costlier,” Mulally said at a meeting with
reporters in downtown Los Angeles. “So I think the migration to
the bigger vehicles will be slower.”
Ford says American car buyers have increasingly focused on
fuel economy since 2008 when gasoline prices shot past $4 a
gallon. As a result, Ford has made improving fuel economy the
centerpiece of its design strategy.
For now, Ford can better boost the fuel economy of its larger
vehicles, which include the top-selling F-150 pickup truck, by
lowering the vehicles’ weight by using lighter materials.
“The value of light-weighting in the bigger vehicles is so
much bigger than on the smaller vehicles,” Mulally said.
Ford also forged a partnership with Toyota Motor Co last year
to develop hybrid trucks and SUVs that will be ready to market
by the end of the decade.
By 2020, Ford expects hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric
vehicles will comprise between 10 percent and 25 percent of its
sales as oil prices rise and government standards on fuel
economy and emissions grow stricter.
Cost has been the major curb on sales of low-emission
vehicles: The battery used in an all-electric vehicle such as
the Focus Electric, Ford’s first all-electric passenger car, can
cost between $12,000 and $15,000, Mulally said this week at a
conference in Dana Point, California.
That would represent around a third of the Focus Electric’s
overall price of around $39,000. At the conference, Mulally said
the batteries used in hybrids cost around $2,000 while those in
plug-in hybrids can be between $7,000 and $8,000.
Building these types of cars alongside traditional
gas-powered vehicles is one way Ford can maintain “reasonable
margins” on those vehicles, Mulally said Tuesday.
“We’re not doing loss leaders to subsidize some other
altruistic reason,” he said. “It has to make business sense
otherwise we can’t keep investing.”
Vehicles built on the same platform typically have similar
design and engineering characteristics and share parts.
Ford’s push to electrify platforms differs from the strategy
adopted by Nissan Motor Co, which builds its Leaf electric car
on a separate platform. By contrast, Ford is building its 2013
Focus Electric at an assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan alongside
the gas-powered Focus.
