Back in 2021, the European branch of Ford adopted a strategy according to which the company was supposed to ditch all internal combustion engines on the Old Continent and focus on making exclusively electric vehicles by the next decade. Reports are now coming in that ICE cars aren’t going anywhere as soon as that.
According to Martin Sander, General Manager of the Passenger Vehicles division, as quoted by Automotive News Europe, the company will instead monitor the market situation closely and react accordingly. For example, if it sees the demand for hybrids, it will keep producing hybrids through the 2030s. He also stressed that the customers’ interest towards pure EVs had proven much smaller than the original estimates from a few years ago.
Despite this, the corporation is still convinced that ICE car production will trickle out eventually due to other causes. In particular, the latest EU legislation envisions a complete ban of most fossil fuel cars in the region since 2035. This means that, while the terms specified in Ford’s electrification strategy will not be met, its implementation will continue.