Ford Motor Company (F): A look at the automaker’s plans for its European business

Shares of Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) were down over 3% on Wednesday after the company reported sales declines in its US business earlier this week. The stock has dropped 26% year-to-date. The automaker, however, has some ambitious plans for its European business as it targets an all-electric future in the region.

Europe sales

For the fourth quarter of 2021, Ford’s sales volume in the Euro 20 markets dropped 31% year-over-year to 182,550. Its market share in the Euro 20 sector stood at 5.9% in Q4, down 0.8 percentage points YoY. Ford’s retail market share in its key European markets, which are Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, stood at 4.1% in Q4, down 1.9 percentage points YoY.

Growth plans

Ford has successfully rolled out the all-electric Mach-E and Mach-E GT in Europe and it is set to launch the E-Transit in the region next quarter. Now the company plans to introduce three new electric passenger vehicles and four new electric commercial vehicles in Europe by 2024.

In 2023, Ford will begin the production of an all-new electric passenger vehicle in Cologne and will add another one to the production line-up in 2024. The company will also roll out the electric version of the Ford Puma in Europe by 2024.

In commercial vehicles, Ford will add four new electric models – the Transit Custom one-tonne van and the Tourneo Custom multi-purpose vehicle in 2023, and the Transit Courier van and the Tourneo Courier multi-purpose vehicle in 2024.

Both the passenger vehicles that will be built at the Ford Cologne Electrification Centre will be crossovers – a medium-sized crossover and a sports crossover. In 2021, sports utilities and crossovers made up 58% of all Ford passenger vehicles sold in Europe, up nearly 20 percentage points YoY.

Electric vehicle production at the Ford Cologne Electrification Centre facility is estimated to increase to 1.2 million vehicles over a six-year timeframe. The company plans to invest $2 billion in the electric passenger vehicles that will be built in Cologne. This investment includes a new battery assembly facility that is set to start operations in 2024.

Ford, SK On Co., Ltd. and Koç Holding have entered into a joint venture to create a large EV battery facility that will manufacture high Nickel NMC cells for assembly into battery array modules. Production is anticipated to start by 2025 with annual capacity expected to be 30-45 gigawatt hours.

Ford expects its annual sales of EVs in Europe to exceed 600,000 units in 2026. The company aims to deliver a 6% EBIT margin in the region in 2023. Ford’s goal is to sell over 2 million EVs globally by 2026 and deliver company-adjusted EBIT margin of 10%.

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