Ford will arrive on the electric vehicle scene a little later than some of its competitors when it finally launches its Ford Mustang-inspired electric crossover next year. However, the automaker isn’t concerned.
During a recent interview with Auto News, Ford’s global director of electrification, Ted Cannis, said the company has decided it will first electrify some of its best known nameplates to ensure they don’t scare off customers with new technology.
Also Watch: See The Ford F-150 Electric Prototype Tow Over 1 Million Pounds
“We’re coming in at the right time,” Cannis said. “We could do all sorts of different things, but we’re going to play to what we’re good at: commercial vehicles, vans, pickups, performance vehicles and SUVs. We have loyal customers, we know our base and the margins are better. It’s just the right business.”
Photo renderings copyright Carscoops / Josh Byrnes ©
Once Ford starts introducing electric variants of well-known models, such as the Mustang-inspired crossover and an all-electric F-150 pickup truck, it will kick off a marketing campaign that’ll tell customers how an electric vehicle can be more fun to drive than gas or diesel-powered alternatives.
Ford provided the world a glimpse of this campaign earlier this year when it published a video showing an electric F-150 prototype towing a train loaded with 42 F-150 models that weighed approximately 625 tons. Cannis says an internal survey conducted by Ford after this video was released revealed that 18 percent of respondents would consider buying such a vehicle, up from 10 percent previously.
“There are people out there looking for electric vehicles,” Cannis said. “Let’s say of the 800,000 F series that we sell a year, just 10 percent are interested. That’s still 80,000 vehicles. These are huge numbers.”