Ford EV or not to be

FORD Australia has poured cold water on the prospect of becoming the first local car-maker to produce a fully electric vehicle (EV), saying it would not be profitable.

This is despite the fact that more than $1 billion in green-car funding is available from the federal government (on a three-to-one basis) and that Ford is likely to have the technical ability to beat its most direct rivals to produce an Australian EV, after confirmation that a plug-in version of the next-generation Focus small car will be produced in North America in 2011.

In the same year, Ford Australia will begin production of the redesigned Focus – styling elements of which were revealed via the Iosis Max concept at the Geneva motor show in March – powered by imported petrol and diesel engines.

Australia’s number-three car-maker concedes there is no technical reason preventing it from also undertaking Broadmeadows assembly of the Focus EV, which will be the Ford Motor Company’s first all-electric passenger car.

The technology it will use was previewed under the skin of the current US Focus at this year’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit, where Ford confirmed that the EV was being developed “with the potential to migrate to the European and Asia-Pacific markets” after its US release.

Ford has committed to building four-door sedan and five-door hatchback derivatives of the all-new Focus in Australia from 2011 and is on record as saying it is actively pursuing ways in which it can access the federal government’s $1.3 billion Green Car Innovation Fund (GCIF).

Toyota Australia was the first local manufacturer to access the GCIF when it was last year awarded $35 million towards the cost of the 2010 Camry Hybrid, which will be based on this year’s facelifted Camry.

Left: Ford Iosis Max. Below: Ford's Battery Electric Vehicle test car shown at the Detroit motor show.

GM Holden became the second when it was pledged $149 million in GCIF funding for its small-car model family based on GM’s global Delta II chassis architecture, which will be manufactured at Elizabeth from September 2010.

Holden has also committed to selling the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid as a Holden in Australia from 2012, and has confirmed it will have the ability to produce any model based on the Delta platform, including the Volt.

Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV electric car is the first EV to receive official Australian Design Rule (ADR) certification. It is being tested by government and business vehicle fleets. Whether it beats to market an as-yet-unidentified EV from Nissan, which has committed to selling its first all-electric vehicle in Australia in 2012, remains to be seen.

Either way, if Ford chose to produce the plug-in Focus EV here, it would likely become Australia’s first homegrown all-electric vehicle.

But Ford Australia product development director Russell Christophers said that despite having the technical ability to manufacture the Focus EV, between just 5000 and 8000 examples of which are planned to be built in the US annually within two years, limited sales volumes would make it unlikely to be profitable in Australia.

“We could build anything,” he told GoAuto this week. “(But) as a business case, it is not viable”.

Ford Australia spokesperson Sinead McAlary agreed the company theoretically would be able to produce any derivative of the next-generation Focus, but said an electric version would not be part of its initial Focus line-up.

“I would need to talk to the engineers to confirm that, but I don’t believe there is any reason why we couldn’t (produce the Focus EV),” she said. “We’re importing engines for the vehicles anyway, so … anything’s possible in this environment. We look at everything.

“There are no plans to do that in 2011 here, but we would obviously look at anything that continues to make us competitive.

“We’re looking at ways to be competitive and offer customers whatever it is the market tells us they want.” Worldwide, Ford says it expects to produce more than two million vehicles on its new global front/all-wheel drive small-car platform, dubbed C1, which also underpins the Kuga compact SUV and the next S-Max mini-people-mover.

The current C1 platform forms the basis of the Mazda3, Volvo’s S40/V50 family and, in stretched “C1 Plus” or “EU C/D” guise, Ford’s Mondeo and Fusion mid-sizers.

Ford confirmed at the Detroit show in January that it was working on electrification of two key global platforms – one for Focus-size small cars and the other for Fusion-size C/D cars – with the EV powertrain using the existing structure of the vehicle platform, to keep costs down and ensure the vehicle was affordable for consumers.

The pure-electric, battery-powered Focus is being developed in partnership with supplier Magna International and will employ a lithium-ion battery pack.

The pack on the “battery electric vehicle” (BEV) prototype shown in Detroit comprises seven modules of 12 lithium-ion cells, giving the vehicle 23kW/h. It can be charged from either a 220-volt or 110-volt power outlet, with respective charge times of six or 12 hours.

The BEV is claimed to have a range of more than 130km, although Ford and Magna are targeting a range of up to 160km when the vehicle is introduced to the market.

It is part of Ford’s promise to deliver four new electric vehicles in the US by 2012, and to leverage its global small-car resources to bring six “world-class” small cars to the American market in the same period.

As well as the Focus EV, Ford plans to launch an electric version of its Transit Connect van in the US in 2010, plus a “next-generation hybrid vehicle” and a plug-in hybrid vehicle in 2012.

Ford’s president of The Americas, Mark Fields, said Michigan Assembly, which according to Ford was one of the world’s most profitable automotive plants during the SUV boom of the late 1990s, would be designated as Michigan’s first “automotive technology anchor site”.

“We’re changing from a company focused mainly on trucks and SUVs to a company with a balanced product line-up that includes even more high-quality, fuel-efficient small cars, hybrids and all-electric vehicles,” he said. “As customers move to more fuel-efficient vehicles, we’ll be there with more of the products they really want.” Ms McAlary said the all-new Focus remained on target for local manufacture from 2011 and confirmed Australia would produce a version of the European-designed Focus that was last week committed for production in Michigan from 2010, while a three-door version would continue to be imported from Europe.

“It will be more likely early 2011 for us. We won’t get the actual dates for that until it goes through the next stage of the product development gateway. We’re working through the gateway process and the next one of them will be in a couple of months so, yes, we’re still on target,” said Ms McAlary.

Ford has invested $US550 million ($A715.8m) to retool its Michigan Assembly Plant (formerly known as Michigan Truck Plant) to manufacture the new Focus from 2010 and the “battery-electric” version from 2011, in a deal this is claimed to support about 3200 jobs at the plant.

The plant previously manufactured the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator, and is one of three truck and SUV plants Ford is converting to produce passenger cars.

The other two are Cuautitlan Assembly in Mexico, which will build the new Fiesta light-car from 2011, and Louisville Assembly in Kentucky, which produce other models based on the new Focus platform.

The current generation Focus is also produced at St Petersburg, in Russia, Valencia, in Spain and Saarlouis, in Germany (which was in March named as the lead plant for production of its successor), as well as in Taiwan and Argentina.

Ford is yet to disclose where in Europe or Asia it will build the new Focus, which will be Ford Australia’s first small car since it ended Sydney production of the Laser in the 1980s.

Ford Australia says “significant” export markets are being developed beyond New Zealand and South Africa, which produces Australia’s current Focus.

Ford Australia’s Focus plan is believed to comprise about 40,000 cars a year, with 15,000 set for export. GoAuto understands Holden’s 2010 Delta plan involves up to 20,000 exports, most likely to South Africa.

Ford has committed to powering more than 90 per cent of all models sold in North America by 2013 with its new “cornerstone” petrol engine technology, EcoBoost, which comprises both direct-injection and turbocharging.

“As we’ve said, EcoBoost technology will eventually power 90 per cent of all Ford models, so I imagine it will come to Focus as well, but I can’t be any more specific than that,” said Ms McAlary.

Ironically, Holden’s new Delta-based Cruze sedan, which goes on sale next month and will form the basis of a unique Australian version to emerge next year, also enters production in Michigan (Lordstown) from late 2010 as a 2011 model, and will be powered by a turbocharged, direct-injected 1.4-litre ‘Family 0’ engine.

Meantime, FoMoCo’s Cleveland Engine Plant No 1 will resume production when it becomes the first Ford manufacturing site in the world to produce (six-cylinder) EcoBoost engines, which will be first available in the 2010 Lincoln MKS, Lincoln MKT, Ford Taurus SHO and Ford Flex.

Idle since 2007, the lauded Cleveland engine plant, which opened in 1951 and has produced 35 million engines, including 24.3 million examples of the famed 302 and 5.0-litre V8 family, is now ramping up pre-production of the same 3.5-litre EcoBoost petrol V6 that should eventually power Ford Australia’s Falcon.

EcoBoost technology is claimed to reduce fuel consumption by 20 per cent and CO2 emissions by 15 per cent, compared to larger-displacement engines with similar power outputs.

In 3.5-litre V6 form its produces 265kW and 475Nm of torque, but in conjunction with a 1.6-litre engine in the Iosis Max concept (which also featured a six-speed double-clutch automated manual gearbox, “intelligent” alternator and idle-stop technology) EcoBoost’s first four-cylinder application is said to yield 132kW yet return average CO2 emissions of 125g/km.

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