Ford officially confirmed that the company is working on an electric car of its own and it will deliver a total of 200 miles on a full charge, making it the next big competitor to the upcoming Tesla Model 3 and Chevrolet Bolt.
Mark Fields, CEO of Ford confirmed the news to the press today during an investors’ call. While details related to the car is sparse at the moment, Fields talked in length about what they have planned for the future of Ford. Even though, they didn’t reveal a model name or the year in which we can expect such an electric car to roll out, he said that the team is excited to be developing a vehicle with increased mile range.
During the meet, the CEO expressed his interest in making Ford the best company in the world in every category and not just one. It obviously includes the electric segment and in order to succeed in this highly competitive area, they are supposed to have a model with high mile range which is what they are working on at the moment.
At the moment, the Ford Focus electric is the compact EV available from the brand. Fields said that they have planned to increase the capacity of the battery so that it could achieve 100 miles on a single charge. By pricing it competitively, the brand is going to make it one of the best price to performance ratio electric car in its segment.
General Motors is already ready with the Chevrolet Bolt which has a total range of 200 miles. The benchmark point has already been achieved by Tesla with its Model 3. The company has priced their car at $35,000 while the Bolt will sell for $37,500. Tesla car however is not going to get launched in 2017 which gives Bolt the much needed edge in the field.
GM will bring its model much earlier so that buyers who like EVs go for it rather than waiting for the Model 3. Despite their late launch, Tesla is not far behind as they have made business worth more than $7 billion with pre-orders made for the budget EV. The segment is further expanding with models including Ioniq hybrid, electric car from Hyundai, Nissan Leaf and the BMW i3. They are not just working on battery powered cars but are looking forward to make them autonomous as well.
