In 2021, Ford said it would sell only electric cars in Europe by 2030. But now, two years later, the company says it might not do that after all. The reason? Not enough people are buying electric cars.
Martin Sander, who leads Ford’s car business in Europe, talked about this at a conference. He said, “If we see lots of people wanting plug-in hybrid cars, we’ll make them.” He also said that the demand for electric cars isn’t as strong as they thought it would be.
Ford still wants to sell electric cars in Europe, because a law in 2035 will stop most new gas-powered cars from being sold. But instead of going all-electric right away, they’ll slowly get there. Right now, they have a few electric cars in Europe, like the Explorer and the Mustang Mach-E. And more electric cars are on the way.
In Europe, there’s a problem for car companies like Ford. They have to decide: Do they make the cars that the government wants, even if people aren’t buying them? Or do they make the cars that people want, and risk getting fined? Ford’s solution is to send fewer gas-powered cars to places where they might get fined. For example, if they might get fined in the United Kingdom, they’ll send those cars somewhere else.
But this isn’t just Ford’s problem. Other car companies, like Cadillac, are also facing the same issue. They also planned to sell only electric cars by 2030, but now they’re not sure if they can do it. They might still sell gas-powered cars for many more years.
