The Blue Oval brand turns the cards apart and separates battery-powered activities from those related to traditional propulsion
Gianluigi Giannetti
03 March
The moment in which the electric car will make history in society is perhaps still far away, but in recent days it has already written a page of it in industrial culture. It happened with an announcement passed in Europe in relative silence, even if it tells of a necessary transformation that risks making school, as well as history, precisely. “We literally split our company in half,” enthuses Jim Farley, CEO of a Ford Motor Company that splits into two distinct production units, one called Ford Blue which will continue the development of vehicles with traditional engines, and a second baptized Ford Model e to which the entire horizon of electric mobility is entrusted.
the division
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“We create separate but complementary companies that can give us start-up speed and unbridled innovation in Ford Model and, coupled with Ford Blue’s industrial know-how, with volumes and iconic brands that start-ups can only dream of.” This is Jim Farley’s strategy, evidently called to a blatant move that goes beyond what has been done by traditional US and European competitors, but also with respect to the aggressive working method of new names such as Tesla, Rivian and Nio. Not surprisingly, Farley will be president and chief executive officer of Ford Model E, but joined by Doug Field, former head of Apple Car project and former senior vice president of engineering at Tesla, in the new role of Chief EV & Digital systems officer. The new company was born with a budget of 5 billion dollars already allocated for 2022, and aims to increase production up to 2 million electric vehicles by 2026, reaching 3 million by 2030. The announced protagonist will be the pick- up F-150 electric, with a share of assembled units set to quadruple by the middle of next year.
the thermal part
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Farley will be supported by Kumar Galhotra, the new president of a Ford Blue inevitably directed to the more traditional values of the American car, which focuses on evocative acronyms with cylinders and pistons such as Bronco or Raptor. According to Galhotra, Blue will become “a revenue and profit engine for the entire group” by competing on prices. However, both companies will share the potential of the new Blue Oval City, the first new Ford factory in 50 years, the result of a 5.6 billion dollar investment and built in Stanton, Tennessee, with rationalization and digitization criteria considered among the most advanced in the world. A parallel development hub where Ford Blue will take care of traditional engines and chassis while Ford Model E will dedicate itself to electric powertrains on dedicated platforms, while the batteries will come from the BlueOvalSK Battery Park plant in Kentucky, which as for Blue Oval City will see the gates open to starting in 2025.
no more one ford
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During the great American car crisis of 2008, Ford did not behave like General Motors or Chrysler, not surprisingly then bought by Sergio Marchionne’s FCA. The Dearborn company did not accept even a dollar of a soft loan from the then Obama administration, but rather gradually pulled out of a series of holdings, from Volvo to Mazda, and returned to profit as early as 2009 by counting on huge profits from its European division. The motto One Ford of that decade he described a multinational but monolithic company, by vocation and tradition. The same term “Fordism”, in addition to the political sense acquired subsequently, is to the automotive industry as a synonym for a standardized and centralized production method, with the extreme reduction of assembly times to control the market with a product offer as massive as possible .
the giant of dearborn
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Nothing tells that idea better than One Ford like the sensational Dearborn plant, the Rouge Complex built on the banks of the Rouge River on the outskirts of Detroit, operating continuously since 1927. A colossus designed to bring together and assemble thousands of tons of components produced by external suppliers in an area that has come to occupy a covered area 1.6 km long. The plastic image of what was once the large and traditional, horizontal industry, precisely today that the electric car demands the agility of vertical companies.
downscale mission
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Ford’s choice turns the cards upside down because no one expected Dearborn to embrace the idea of industry 4.0, which is extremely compact in the chain of decisions, the downscale, with working groups dedicated to individual projects and a high degree of sharing. Above all, with a vertical model that would lead to taking up the real challenge of the electric car. We are talking about accumulating internal skills such as to be able to produce the mechanical components and the software platform completely in-house, without depending on the suppliers, the related costs and above all those delays in the transition from one technical solution to the next that are inevitable when external companies are involved. . In recent months, Herbert Dies, Volkswagen’s number one, has often called to the smaller and more vertical car factory, as well as Carlos Tavares has aimed at greater speed in development in his industrial plan. Give Forward 2030 just presented, which foresees a drop in costs for the electric car by as much as 40%. Ford’s move goes further, and is destined to inspire a double-track policy to which the Renault group of Luca De Meo could soon comply, strong in the product ranges with traditional engines as demonstrated by the success Dacia, but at the same time committed to the development of a completely zero-emission range by 2030. The agreement with Volkswagen in 2029 for the production in Europe of electric cars based on the modular Meb platform of the German group, at this point, is to be considered a passing stage. The American company plans to invest a total of 50 billion dollars in its new electric strategy until 2026. At that point, the old continent will have to deal with a manufacturer never seen before, Ford.
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