Ford Decides To Pull Back The Reins On Electric Vehicle Investment
March 9th, 2011 by 
For some time now, announcements have been coming out from the Ford Motor Company about their decision to hybridize various existing models while also presenting full electric and hydrogen vehicles as a part of a green lineup. However, last Thursday the attitude from Ford seemed to change a little bit when they announced that they didn’t believe that electric vehicles were worth a full investment.
The word came down from the Executive Chairman himself, William Ford, last Thursday during his speaking engagement at The Wall Street Journal’s ECO:nomics Conference in Santa Barbara, California. William Ford said that he believed that electric vehicle technology is at this point and time not proven to be the “winning technology” when it comes to green vehicles. He instead thinks that Ford should not squander too many resources on the development of only electric vehicles when the company should also be paying close attention to the developing hydrogen fuel cell and biofuel markets as well. Ford’s reluctance to dedicate a large amount of resources to the development of electric vehicles is apparently due to their belief that the technology and infrastructure is not developing in a way to make it a very safe bet.
While Ford is happy to spread their investment around with green vehicle technology they certainly do not intend to totally abandon electric. They still have a variety of models converted into electric or hybrid versions and still have plans to take the Focus line and turn it electric.
As many companies push forward with electric on a massive scale, it will be interesting to see whether or not Ford’s cautious attitude will pay out in the end. With plenty of years ahead of us before we see any major change in the type of fuel automobiles use on an international or national scale it would seem Ford has time to change their mind.
Article by Richard Cooke, appearing courtesy Justmeans.
photo: Ian Muttoo.
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Tags:  biofuel Electric Vehicles Ford green vehicles hydrogen vehicles Infrastructure William Ford | [ Permalink ] |
As an owner of a Mercury Mariner hybrid, I can honestly say I understand their attitude. Ford really doesn’t get it. Unless it’s a Truck, then they’re scratching their head -efficient, breakthroughs are not what they’re about. My car’s a great example – though I get around 31mpg city, it’s not well made, drives like a tractor and the air conditioning is ineffective because the engine has to be on to work the compressor – unlike a Prius or other hybrid. Even if they did come out with an electric car, I wouldn’t buy it; however, I am looking forward to taking delivery of a Nissan Leaf soon!