Ford announces plans to invest billions in plug-in hybrid vehicles

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Motor manufacturing company Ford has announced a R5.2 billion investment into the manufacturing of plug-in hybrid vehicles as a first move towards electric car manufacturing in South Africa.

Ford joins the likes of Mercedes Benz South Africa and Toyota which are already producing hybrid cars in the country mainly for the export market. This also comes at a time when South Africa is still working on electric vehicle incentives.

South Africa will in the coming months see the production of plug-in hybrid vehicles by Ford as a first move towards the company’s electric cars manufacturing targets in South Africa.

The vehicles are powered by both fuel and rechargeable batteries.

President of Ford Motor Company Africa, Neale Hill says, “ The investment that we announced today of R5,2 billion should be critical for our progression of the production of new energy vehicles and there’s been so much written, so much said, so much spoken about in terms of new energy vehicles, it’s absolutely crucial that we do make that first step and the announcement today is really about us introducing production for our hybrid plugged in hybrid vehicle of the ranger platform. It’s a huge milestone also looking that we are going to be the only manufacturing facility in the world, so a proud moment for South Africa. Production of hybrid vehicles is absolutely crucial as we see legislation moving all around the world in terms of the demands of reducing emissions.”

The cars will be manufactured at Ford’s plant in the country and exported to countries such as Australia and New Zealand, adding to the country’s 5% contribution to GDP from the automotive sector.

Ford International Operations Director Andrea Cavallaro says, “As the world moves to EVs and customers ask us for more choice which hasn’t readily been available, we are gonna change that, I am super proud to announce that we will begin producing the first ever plug-in hybrid Ranger next year so let’s have a look at it.”

Policy on electric vehicles

The lack of government policy on the adoption of electric vehicles in South Africa could threaten the country’s vehicle export market with some of the country’s major markets planning to outlaw internal combustion engines from 2035.

Nearly two-thirds of locally produced vehicles are sold overseas. But there are growing concerns that South Africa could lose out if the country lacks the capacity to produce electric vehicles on a large scale.

Ford Motor Company Africa President Neale Hill says, “We, as the automotive industry and specifically, Naamsa have been engaging very extensively with the government in terms of helping to formulate a policy that allows us to really protect a very important part of our manufacturing base in South Africa, the automotive Indios a key contributor to South Africa on over 5% as an industry to the GDP of South Africa and one of the things we are all concerned about is our future of producing vehicles, especially in scale for export. So we are engaging to formulate a strategy that says we can continue to be a key player in the South African economy.”

Ford is celebrating 100 years of operations in South Africa. The company currently employs 5 200 people in South Africa, some of whom say they’ve already started training for the new regime of hybrid and electric cars.