Ford ups investment in EVs, says they’ll be “fundamental” to the Lincoln brand

Ford CEO Jim Farley announced Thursday that the automaker will increase its investment in electric cars, and reiterated that EVs for Ford’s Lincoln luxury brand are still on the way.

As part of a report of Ford’s 2020 fourth-quarter and full-year financial results, Farley said the automaker will now invest $22 billion in electrification through 2025—nearly twice what Ford had previously committed to EVs.

“We are accelerating all our plans—breaking constraints, increasing battery capacity, improving costs and getting more electric vehicles into our product cycle plan,” Farley said. “People are responding to what Ford is doing today, not someday.”

The latter statement seemed to be a jab at crosstown rival General Motors, which has announced several new EVs based around a modular architecture and battery system, and recently said it “aspires” to eliminate tailpipes from passenger vehicles by 2035, but hasn’t launched any of the new models yet. The first—the GMC Hummer EV pickup—is expected later this year.

Ford recently launched the Mustang Mach-E crossover, and plans to follow that with the E-Transit van in late 2021, and F-150 Electric pickup truck in 2022.

2021 Lincoln Aviator Grand Touring

During Ford’s 2020 third-quarter earnings call, Farley said the E-Transit and forthcoming F-150 Electric will be “true work trucks” with commercial buyers in mind—not lifestyle vehicles. At the time, Ford also announced that was already making plans to increase F-150 Electric production by 50%, but it never disclosed what the original volume had been.

In his latest announcement, Farley also said EVs will be “fundamental” to the Lincoln brand, without offering further details.

Lincoln was originally slated to get an electric model based on Rivian’s skateboard platform, and built at the startup’s Illinois factory. That project was cancelled last year, but Rivian said at the time that it still planned to co-develop a vehicle with Ford, which invested $500 million in the company in 2019.

So far Lincoln has teased that EVs are on the way, but it currently offers just two plug-in hybrids—the Aviator Grand Touring and Corsair Grand Touring crossovers.

The Corsair Grand Touring has been delayed (along with the related Ford Escape Plug-In Hybrid), due to a European recall over fire concerns.