Ford To Unveil 200-Mile Chevy Bolt Competitor Later This Year (Update)

[Rivu]

I found an old article about Bolt competition from ford that I hadn't seen in Chevy Bolt EV forum.

Joining the “quick, everyone play catch-up” game in the race to produce a 200 mile EV first, is the Ford Motor Company.

The Debut Of The Chevrolet Bolt Is Putting Pressure On Other OEMs To Not Get Left Behind

Automobile magazine says that the Detroit-based automaker has been spurred into action, and is rushing to show an affordable 200 mile concept of its on own under pressure from the recent debut of the Chevrolet Bolt – which is also confirmed to go into production late next year at GM’s Orion facility in Michigan.

Not a lot of additional details are available at this time, nor if Ford will be able to actually bring this long range, affordable 2nd generation EV to market in 2017 alongside the expected release of the Tesla Model 3, Chevy Bolt and next generation Nissan LEAF.

What is known however is that Ford is apparently scrambling to get the concept completed and onto an auto show stand near you.

Automobile says to not look for the 200 mile Ford next month at the New York Auto Show, but rather a fall release in Los Angeles is more likely.

Our take on the situation if true? The more the merrier!

Update: Like GM, who twice threw cold water on production rumor report on the Chevy Bolt (here and here) just weeks before they themselves announced production, Ford has broken its own ‘we don’t comment on future product’ policy and issued a statement casted doubt on the report:

“We do not comment on speculation but can confirm these reports are not accurate”- Ford spokesperson

The question now is, which part is not accurate? We can’t help but note that similar to GM, Ford’s statement is pretty vague, and the company isn’t denying the long range EV flat out. And really how can any company that wants to stay in the fully electric vehicle business not have a longer range EV in the works?

 

[SeanNelson]

I give Elon Musk a huge round of applause for lighting a fire under the seats of the traditional automakers. I'm not a particular Tesla fan, and the Model 3 is not the right kind of vehicle for me. But he's made it pretty obvious that there's a lot of demand for the right kind of electric vehicle and the other manufacturers are starting to realize that they're going to be left in the dust if they don't get their act together.

What this is all going to do is to spur competition to innovate in the battery industry, and that will drive prices down and capacities up. Within the next 10 to 15 years it will be just as cheap to build an electric car with 2-300 mile range as to build an ICE vehicle, and given the much superior driving characteristics of an EV the writing may well be on the wall for gas-powered cars even before then.

At the same time the charging infrastructure continues to grow and the charge rates continue to increase. With a 2-300 mile EV you only need public charging for long trips, but that's the last piece of the puzzle that needs to be tackled. That and getting universal access to all chargers with no more than a simple swipe of your credit card.

 

[Diggle]

I give Elon Musk a huge round of applause for lighting a fire under the seats of the traditional automakers. I'm not a particular Tesla fan, and the Model 3 is not the right kind of vehicle for me. But he's made it pretty obvious that there's a lot of demand for the right kind of electric vehicle and the other manufacturers are starting to realize that they're going to be left in the dust if they don't get their act together.

What this is all going to do is to spur competition to innovate in the battery industry, and that will drive prices down and capacities up. Within the next 10 to 15 years it will be just as cheap to build an electric car with 2-300 mile range as to build an ICE vehicle, and given the much superior driving characteristics of an EV the writing may well be on the wall for gas-powered cars even before then.

At the same time the charging infrastructure continues to grow and the charge rates continue to increase. With a 2-300 mile EV you only need public charging for long trips, but that's the last piece of the puzzle that needs to be tackled. That and getting universal access to all chargers with no more than a simple swipe of your credit card.

Elon Musk is a true visionary. I'm not a fan of Tesla either but I appreciate what he's done for the car industry and it's future course.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

http://www.autonews.com/article/201...0-mile-electric-car-in-fords-immediate-future

One thing I notice in this article is that Ford does not say that they aren't working on a 200-mile EV. What they do say is that the 2017 Focus EV will go ~100 miles, and then they try to sell that as "good enough". Makes sense to me, if they are behind the curve. What they offer doesn't measure up to the Bolt, but they will undercut in price and try to convince buyers that it is "good enough".

I am more of a Ford fan than a Chevy fan (I hope I don't get flamed for saying so on a Chevy forum ). But I really have no idea what's going on at Ford. The article does end with a nice little tidbit though:

In December, Ford committed $4.5 billion to rejuvenate its electrified vehicle lineup.

$4.5B could go a long way to getting a 200-mile EV on the road, not to mention making the Energi cars (Fusion/CMax) more competitive with the Volt.

 

[MINK]

This article is quite an old one, right? So, do we have a name for this Ford car? When is it coming?

 

[michael]

I am a big Ford fan and currently drive a Focus electric, but the name of this car is the "Fictitious"

I kept hoping that Ford would introduce a 200 mile class car, possibly with a Lincoln badge, as a Tesla competitor. But no indication of this whatsoever.

My Focus goes back in a few weeks, and I'm planning to replace it with a Bolt as soon as they become generally available

 

[GetOffYourGas]

I am a big Ford fan and currently drive a Focus electric, but the name of this car is the "Fictitious"

I kept hoping that Ford would introduce a 200 mile class car, possibly with a Lincoln badge, as a Tesla competitor. But no indication of this whatsoever.

My Focus goes back in a few weeks, and I'm planning to replace it with a Bolt as soon as they become generally available

How do you like the Focus? I've heard that it and the eGolf were amongst the better handling affordable EVs. I hope that the Bolt is fun to drive, and that's more than just acceleration. My Leaf is quick off the line, but it is really soft around the turns and generally not overly fun.

 

[michael]

Focus has been a good car. Fun to drive, plenty zippy, looks like a real car. The interior appointments are very nice, literally the only option was leather seats. Nav, premium sound, etc were all standard. Handling much more solid than leaf.

Main complaint is limited range. I wish they had provided a heat-pump heating system rather than resistive which wastes a lot of energy.

All in all, quite satisfactory but now becoming obsolescent as 150 and 200 mile cars become available.