Detroit — Ford Motor Co. said May 26 it is upping its spending on electrification by $8 billion to $30 billion through 2025 and expects 40 percent of its global sales will be fully electric by 2030.
Ford is also doubling down on its commercial business, expecting to nearly double the $27 billion it earned in 2019 from revenue tied to commercial hardware and adjacent services, estimating it will be $45 billion by 2025. It's creating Ford Pro, a services and distribution business that will be geared toward commercial and government customers. Ted Cannis, Ford's head of North America commercial vehicles, will become Ford Pro's CEO.
The automaker announced the moves ahead of its Capital Markets Day, which CEO Jim Farley said last week would be "my management team's coming out party." Ford is also expected to announce additional EV plans, including the creation of two new battery-electric vehicle platforms by 2025, according to Reuters.
Ford also said Wednesday that it has booked 70,000 reservations, in the form of $100 refundable deposits, for the F-150 Lightning revealed last week. Farley had previously said it amassed 45,000 reservations in 48 hours.
The company, which last week signed a deal with SK Innovations to build EV batteries, said those batteries will be called IonBoost, a nod to its EcoBoost line of gasoline engines.
Ford said it will offer three types: IonBoost lithium ion batteries; IonBoost Pro lithium ion phosphate for commercial vehicles; and solid-state batteries developed with Solid Power, a company in which Ford has an equity stake.
Ford said last week it would need two battery plants to achieve its production goals through its joint venture with SK.
'Always on'
The automaker is calling its growth plans Ford+, and says it wants to transition away from a transaction-oriented business model to an “always on” relationship with customers.
That will involve what it calls Blue Oval Intelligence, the company’s next-generation, cloud-based platform for integrating electrical, power distribution, computing and software systems in connected Ford and Lincoln vehicles.
Ford recently began offering over-the-air updates, which it calls “Ford Power-Ups,” and expects to have 33 million OTA-enabled Ford and Lincoln vehicles on the road by 2028.
“I’m excited about what Ford+ means for our customers, who will get new and better experiences by pairing our iconic, world-class vehicles with connected technology that constantly gets better over time,” Farley said in a statement. “We will deliver lower costs, stronger loyalty and greater returns across all our customers."
Ford said Wednesday it expects to deliver an overall 8 percent adjusted earnings before interest and taxes margin in 2023. The company still expects to achieve 10 percent margins in North America but has not put a timetable on that goal.
Shares in Ford were trading up 2.2 percent to $13.09 in premarket trading.