Ford to spice up EV half funding for UK plant by $180 million By Reuters

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A normal view of Ford’s Halewood plant in Liverpool, Britain, October 18, 2021. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photograph

By Nick Carey

HALEWOOD, England (Reuters) – Ford Motor (NYSE:) Co will make investments an additional 149 million kilos ($180 million) to boost electrical automobile (EV) energy unit capability at its engine manufacturing unit in northern England by 70%, because the U.S. carmaker accelerates its push to go electrical.

The Detroit-based carmaker stated on Thursday the extra funds will increase electrical drive unit manufacturing capability on the Halewood plant to 420,000 items yearly from 250,000 items beginning in 2024. The transfer would convey Ford’s complete funding to transition the combustion engine manufacturing unit to EV components manufacturing to 380 million kilos.

“Our imaginative and prescient in Europe is to construct a thriving enterprise, by extending management in industrial autos and thru the electrification of our automobile vary,” Kieran Cahill, Ford’s vp for industrial operations in Europe, stated in a press release. “Halewood is enjoying a essential half as our first in-house funding in EV element manufacturing in Europe.”

The EV energy unit, which consists of an electrical motor and gearbox, replaces the engine and transmission of a fossil-fuel automobile.

Ford has dedicated to promoting solely fully-electric automobiles in Europe by 2030, and electrical industrial vans solely by 2035. That places it forward of the European Union’s plans to successfully ban the sale of latest fossil-fuel passenger automobiles by 2035.

The carmaker stated Halewood ought to provide 70% of the 600,000 EVs the corporate plans to promote in Europe yearly by 2026.

The most recent Ford funding contains 125 million kilos within the plant itself and 24 million kilos into growing and testing new EV components for manufacturing at Halewood.

The UK authorities contributed to the preliminary EV energy unit funding at Halewood, which was introduced by Ford final yr.

($1 = 0.8326 kilos)