Panel SA: Vehicle electrification reaches reasonable levels by 2030, says Ford

Ford is preparing to announce the arrival of three electric vehicles in Brazil in 2023, according to Daniel Justo, president of the automaker in South America.

The idea is to meet the demand of different segments. In addition to a pickup, at the beginning of the year, an SUV will be launched in the luxury category and a commercial for fleets.

According to Justo, Ford’s Brazilian operation will play an important role in the company’s electric vehicle production project, which closed its factories in the country in 2020. And electrification in Brazil reaches reasonable levels at the end of the decade.

“We have 1,500 engineers at our development center in Brazil who are involved in cutting-edge technologies for our global markets, including work for the electrified,” he says.

At the electrification plan, what are the launches that Ford will make in Brazil?Three electrified products arrive in 2023. One of them is the Maverick Hybrid, the first hybrid pickup in Brazil. It is a product that we already offer today in the combustion version throughout South America. Another product we will be offering in the region starting in 2023 is the Mustang Mach-e. And then there’s the E-Transit, which is the electric version of our van in a few different configurations.

Is this vehicle for the fleet a demand in the logistics market for the advancement of ecommerce?O [E-Transit] is a product used for delivery in large urban centers. The electric vehicle has a lower running cost than a combustion vehicle. And it delivers decarbonization targets. We are seeing major players in the retail market looking to electrify their fleets in big cities.

Ford says it wants to occupy a leading position in the production of electric vehicles in 2023, but what will be the role of the Brazilian operation?Electrification is accelerating all over the world at different speeds. From the point of view of selling electric vehicles, we will be present in all the segments in which we compete.

But the Brazilian operation has another fundamental role. We have 1,500 engineers at our in-country development center who are involved in cutting-edge technologies for our global markets, including work for the electrified. Each vehicle has a bit of Brazilian engineering in the work we are doing in connectivity, electrification and even autonomous technologies.

This advance in engineering services exports expanded after the closure of Ford plants last year, and how big is that today?At the time of business transformation in the region, we already had a strong development center in Brazil located mostly between Bahia and São Paulo.

And we were in a moment of global transition with the demand not only for product development, but also software engineering, connectivity and new technologies, increasing significantly. We saw the opportunity to direct all this workforce that we had here to support our global operation.

The ability of the team here for many years is highly recognized. This year, we increased the size of engineering by almost 500 positions.

What bottlenecks does Brazil have to massify electrification?Given the difficulties we have in terms of infrastructure and government support throughout South America, especially in Brazil, we see electrification progressing at an annual rate of growth, possibly reaching reasonable levels by the end of the decade.

Some markets are more advanced. California announced that from 2030 onwards, combustion vehicles will no longer be sold in the state. There are countries in Europe with an aggressive decarbonization agenda and restriction of combustion vehicles. I believe that Brazil will evolve as well as other countries in the region in this direction.

Brazil’s energy matrix is ​​one of the cleanest in the world. And this combination of an electric vehicle with a clean matrix is ​​strong in terms of reducing carbon emissions and burning fossil fuels. The future of the automotive industry is electrified, connected and autonomous.

Now, let’s look at adoption flows that are heavily dependent on incentives and infrastructure situations. But we will be there. Starting next year, we begin to accelerate our offer in all markets in the region.

And the election? Is there a difference between the candidacies in relation to this topic?We have no preference between any of the parties or candidates that are running. I believe it is a topic that will naturally progress in Brazil, as well as in the world. I would not differentiate between one government and another in terms of their ability to advance the issue of decarbonization.

How is the component shortage crisis?Starting in the second quarter of last year, we saw restrictions on global automotive operations with regards to semiconductors. In a second moment, we also saw the complexity of logistics increasing. It had a strong impact on the industry. This year we see progressive improvement. It is still a global difficulty.

In some places there is a supply difficulty due to the war in Ukraine, possibly due to Covid lockdowns, but the situation is much better than it was 12 months ago. Our expectation is that it will continue to evolve towards normalization in the next year.

X-ray

Before assuming the presidency of Ford South America in 2021, the executive was CFO of Ford South America since 2018. He joined Ford Motor Company in 1997 and held leadership positions such as financial planning and analysis, auditing and controlling in the areas of marketing, sales and others.