According to a recent Bloomberg report, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) could spend up to $20 billion over the next five to 10 years as it converts factories into electric-vehicle production.
The potential investment would come in addition to the $30 billion which Ford already plans to invest in electric vehicles through 2025, including battery development by 2030.
The shift is part of Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley's endeavors to challenge Tesla's dominance over the EV market, currently the world's most valuable automaker. For the December 2021 period, Tesla outdid deliveries of EVs for both GM and Ford, having delivered over 308,000 vehicles over GM's mere 26 deliveries.
In turn, Ford's investments form part of Farley's plans to focus on the new "Ford+" that will turn around its operations and expand into emerging markets such as connected vehicles and subscription services. Though Chief Communications Officer Mark Truby at Ford said in an email statement, "We would not comment on speculation."
Further to the Bloomberg report, Ford has evaluated spinning off a small portion of its EV business as part of the reorganization to capture the value that investors have been awarding some EV start-ups. According to the source, Ford might hire an unspecified number of specialized engineers in battery chemistry, artificial intelligence, and EV software.
As previously commented by Farley, "This is our biggest opportunity for growth and value creation since Henry Ford started to scale the Model T, and we're grabbing it with both hands," driving home his desire to emulate and hopefully overtake Tesla.
IN RECENT EV NEWS
Last week, President Joe Biden met with Ford & GM CEOs to discuss their carbon neutral efforts and bolstering manufacturing capabilities in the U.S. Following the meet-up, the President took to Twitter, stating that "companies like GM and Ford are building more electric vehicles here at home than ever before."
The tweet sent Musk to criticize the President, who seems to ignore the actual leader of electric vehicles, and said, "Biden is treating the American Public like fools."
During afternoon trading on Tuesday, shares of Ford rose as much as 2.7%.
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