Ford boss Jim Farley noticed that the Mustang Mach-E had a lot more cables than necessary: 1.6 km! And this is not trivial, quite the contrary. This error on the brand’s first electric car would have caused it to lose a lot of money.
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Being a car manufacturer is obviously not easy and cannot be improvised. And if traditional brands have a lot of experience in this field, they are obviously not immune to failures. Especially when it comes to getting into the electric, a field still very different from thermal models. We think in particular of Toyota with its bZ4X, whose wheels came off when it was launched. Fortunately, a concern has since been resolved.
A trivial concern, which is not that much
But the Japanese firm, which continues to not believe in electrics, is obviously not the only one to make mistakes. This is also the case for Ford, as explained by its boss, Jim Farley. And for good reason, the blue oval brand acts as a beginner in this universe, while it currently only offers two electric models, but only one in France.
This is the Mustang Mach-E, launched in 2020 and having surpassed the thermal Mustang in terms of copies sold in June 2021. If the latter meets with some success, while it is available in several two- or four-wheel drive versions, it would not actually be that profitable for the manufacturer. And this for a reason that might seem trivial.
Indeed, the brand’s teams recently realized that the electric SUV had a small problem: it was equipped with more cables than necessary. In total, this is the equivalent of 1.6 kilometers which would be too much, as Jim Farley explained to journalists from CNN Business. A concern that may seem insignificant and that could even make you laugh, but it is not.
Because this excess would increase vehicle weight by approximately 70 pounds, the equivalent of 32 kilos. As a result, each battery would then cost 300 dollars too much (about 278 euros according to the current exchange rate). The manager then made his mea culpa during a conference with his investors, adding that ” little did we know we underinvested in brake tech to save on battery size“.
A staggering cost
Result, this concern, as well as others that have not been specified by CNN would have done lose more than two billion dollars in profits at Ford. A new disappointment for the American brand, which also admits to having been number 1 in recalls in the United States over the past two years. But these worries are not new, whereas in 2018, 50,000 electric cars were recalled due to a fire risk linked to the charging cable.
Today, the manufacturer wants to learn from its mistakes, in particular to be able to compete with Tesla. Whether Ford is number 2 in electric car sales in North Americait is then very far from its rival, which delivered more than a million vehicles around the world in 2022.
However, the Dearborn firm does not intend to let it go. In addition to reducing costs and increasing profits, thanks in particular to the use of smaller batteries as at Renault, it also wishes to expand its range. In addition to the Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning, Ford plans to market a future electric SUV based on the Volkswagen group’s MEB platform. It should then see the light of day during the year, but we still know very little about it.
An electric version of the Puma is also planned, but this will not arrive before 2025. In total, no less than seven 100% electric models will see the light of day in the Ford range in Europe, while the brand plans to stop selling thermal vehicles from 2030. It is in particular with this date in mind that it announced in October the end of the sale of its legendary Fiesta next summer.
We have delivered the fireproof electric car: the great crossovers of the summer to the four (three) corners of France. Story of our 3,900 km aboard a Ford Mustang Mach-E and…
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