Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, December 13 (Xinhua)-- Ford has announced that it will invest more money at its Harley Wood plant in Merseyside, England, to significantly increase the production of planned electric vehicle drive units.

In October last year, the company signed an investment agreement of 230 million pounds (1.971 billion yuan) to produce about 250000 motors and single-speed gearboxes for electric vehicles.

This month, Ford announced an additional investment of 150 million pounds (about 1.286 billion yuan) to achieve production of 420000 electric vehicle drive units, an increase of 70 percent, and the total investment will reach about 380 million pounds (about 3.257 billion yuan).

The latest move is highly relevant to Ford's electrification strategy in Europe. Recall that the company will launch nine all-electric models within two years and sell all-electric vehicles at a rate of 600000 a year in 2026. 70 per cent of the drive units used in these electric vehicles will come from Halewood, which currently makes gearboxes for a number of Ford passenger and commercial vehicles.

By 2030, Ford hopes to sell only all-electric vehicles in Europe (trucks will also be fully electric by 2035).

CTOnews.com learned that Ford's latest investment will be divided into two parts:

125 million pounds belonging to the Hallwood factory.

2400 million pounds will also be invested in a new E:PRiME (Electric Powertrain in Manufacturing Engineering) development centre in Esxton. With the assistance of the Advanced Propulsion Center, E:PRiME has begun to build prototypes of electrical installations and trained Halewood staff in machining and assembly.

Tim Slatter, chairman of Ford UK, said:

"this is a very important next step for Ford, and we will launch nine electric vehicles within two years. Our UK employees play an important role in Ford's all-electric future, as can be seen in Halewood's shift to a new zero-emission power system and E:PRiME 's innovation in Dunton's production process."

Ford also mentioned that the Halewood will provide electric drive units for the Ford E-Transit Custom, E-Tourneo Custom, Transit Courier, Tourneo Courier and Puma, as well as "other future products", which are likely to be MEB-based medium-sized crossovers and sports crossovers.

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