With its first electric car produced in Europe, Ford wants to make up ground against the competition in the important car market. The manufacturer showed the E version of the Explorer in Cologne on Tuesday. It should be of great importance for the European and German business of the US group. Ford recently made a name for itself here with cuts. And compared to the range of e-cars from other German brands such as Volkswagen, Opel, Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, the people in Cologne are currently quite far behind.
The company sees its new electric SUV as a “pioneer for a purely electric model range with which Ford will reposition itself in Europe”. The “crossover” five-seater is intended to be the prelude to a series of proprietary Stromers that will be built by 2030. The start of production in the e-car center of the Ford works in Cologne is in the third quarter, and the start of sales in Europe is planned for this year. The base price should be less than 45,000 euros.
At the presentation to many employees, the management emphasized that the E-Explorer was primarily developed in Germany. Germany boss Martin Sander added: “We build it in Cologne for our customers in Europe.” Such clarifications may also have been helpful because Ford announced the next round of austerity measures in February. By the end of 2025, 2,300 jobs will be eliminated.
Ford currently has a good 14,000 employees in Cologne and 200 in a research center in Aachen. Product development in particular is going under the wheels – 1,700 jobs are likely to expire, almost half of the jobs there. In Saarlouis, production is scheduled to come to an end in 2025.
Is US influence growing?
There are fears that the design and planning of new vehicles could be dominated too much by US colleagues in the future – with the risk of no longer taking specific customer requests on the European market into account. However, Ford is also investing billions in converting production for electric cars at its regional headquarters in Cologne, even though model development is being slimmed down at the same time. Sander had replied that the latter remained strong enough to continue to have a say. In terms of design, however, the following applies: “We want to become more American.”
A powerful partner has also played a decisive role in some electric cars from Ford: the Cologne-based company has central components of the drive train supplied by the Volkswagen Group. Parts of its e-platform MEB are now open to external customers in the industry. It is therefore not entirely coincidental that the basic structure of the E-Explorer is somewhat similar to that of the VW electric SUV ID.4. The targeted prices are also in a similar range.
The car companies are increasingly moving towards using standardized identical part systems in mass production. This saves costs with large production numbers and reduces the technical effort. The Ford Group and VW also work together on other models, for example in the light commercial vehicle segment. This is how the new version of the Volkswagen Amarok pick-up was created as a cooperation between the two companies. VW wants to do business with other manufacturers for its electrical construction kits, such as the Indian supplier Mahindra.
In the medium term, Ford is considering using self-developed e-platforms or those from other partners. When developing technologies related to autonomous driving, VW and Ford initially poured billions into joint projects at the US software company Argo AI – but pulled the plug there last fall. According to Ford, the new E-Explorer should already have extended assistance functions such as an automatic lane change system.
