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By Ben Klayman
DETROIT (Reuters) – Large vans reporting the bulk of profits to Ford Motor Co and General Motors Co are late-century remains – with heavy ladder chassis and large combustion engines internally at the front driving the wheels to the rear.
Now, Ford and GM are embarking on radical new designs on their most profitable models, replacing gasoline engines with batteries to thwart Tesla Inc.'s plan to overshadow their brands. Ford's F-150 pickup truck and GM's Chevrolet Silverado are the best-selling vehicles in the US market.
"This is going to be a real turning point for any industry," Ford President Bill Ford told Reuters in a recent interview. The automaker has revealed little details about the electric F-series, but Bill Ford has hinted that the truck could have under-the-hood cargo space in addition to the traditional bed at the rear.
"You take all that extra space where the engine compartment was," said Ford. An electric F-series could be a work truck whose batteries would be a source of power for construction sites, he said. And it could be positioned as a high-performance vehicle next to the 450 horsepower Raptor pickup truck.
The company based in Dearborn, Michigan, announced that it would invest $ 11.5 billion in the electrification of its vehicles by 2022, adding 16 fully electric models, all of which are profitable.
Ford and GM have more reason to take risks with electric vans – a concept that some analysts and industry leaders believe could be a small niche.
The electric vans could help Ford and GM to generate the significant sales of electric vehicles they will need to comply with more stringent emissions standards and electric vehicle requirements in California and Canada. other States. The Trump administration plans to return to these standards, but electric trolleys are a hedge if California wins.
Governments and businesses – the major buyers of pickups – might consider electric pickups as a way to demonstrate their commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Competition from start-up companies Tesla and EV, Rivian Automotive and Workhorse Group Inc., is another factor, although Ford has recently mitigated some of that risk by investing $ 500 million in Rivian.
Three years ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he wanted to attack the heart of the Detroit automaker's dealerships with an electric Tesla pickup that he described as a "cyberpunk" truck with performance of a Porsche 911 sports car. Tesla is expected to unveil a prototype this year, while analysts plan a start in 2022. Musk declined to comment on this story.
Officials familiar with the plans of Ford and GM said their electric vans would be introduced by early 2022.
"Our strategy is very clear," Ted Cannis, Ford's director of electrification, told Reuters at the product development center of the second largest US automaker outside Detroit. "We are going to build on our strengths, we are good pick-ups."
Ford's electric truck will be built on an EV platform of the company, distinct from the vehicles it will later offer on a Rivian platform.
Ford has announced the launch of an F-150 hybrid next year. Bill Ford said that the all-electric F-150 "will not be very far after that."
GM ELECTRIC PUSH BUTTON
Mary Barra, chief executive of GM, said in April that the automaker would make a full-size electric pickup, but did not provide more details. The company has announced plans to invest $ 8 billion in the development of electric and autonomous vehicles, launching 20 new electric vehicles in the world by 2023.
Officials have not discussed plans for electric pickup, but GM insists on introducing it within two years, according to several people familiar with the projects.
The chief engineer is Josh Tavel, who was the chief engineer of the Chevrolet Volt electric vehicles, Cadillac ELR and Spark and Bolt, as well as the chief engineer in charge of the full-size vans, said GM.
Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe believes that the positive reactions of his company 's R1T electric truck, scheduled for the fall of 2020, testify to the potential demand.
"The question is how big is the demand and how does it affect all price levels or is it more isolated for the higher prices?" he told Reuters at the company's headquarters in Plymouth, Michigan.
Ford representatives will not discuss sales expectations for the F-150 electric. But Bill Ford said the electric pickup could surpass cautious expectations – if potential customers tried it.
Ford had already broken with the conventions of the pickup segment: replacing the traditional V-8 with a six-cylinder turbocharged "EcoBoost" engine, then giving the current generation of the truck an aluminum body rather than a steel body said the president. The aluminum F series is the best-selling range of pickup trucks in the United States; about half of them are equipped with six-cylinder engines.
"As with EcoBoost and with aluminum, it is important to have the vehicle tested by people," Ford said.
Beau Boeckmann, president of Galpin Ford in the Los Angeles area and one of Ford's largest US dealers, said customers were already asking him questions about the truck.
"We will be shocked," he said. "I think the electric van has a huge future."
Everyone is not so optimistic. The industry monitoring company, IHS Markit, has estimated that the segment of full-size electric trucks will account for less than 30,000 sales in 2026, compared to 2.3 million sales in all.
"We are in unexplored waters," said Stephanie Brinley, Senior Analyst at IHS Markit. "We are talking about niche at first."
The other major automaker in Detroit, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, has no plans for a fully electric Ram at the moment, while Toyota Motor Corp is betting more heavily on a Tundra hybrid pickup truck.
"The small volume that will become an electric van does not deserve a business case," said one person familiar with Toyota's projects.
The Detroit automakers are finally looking to defend a segment they consider theirs.
"Why would we let Tesla beat us with a van?" said a person familiar with Ford's plans. "It's our territory."
(Report by Ben Klayman in Detroit, additional report by Joseph White and Paul Lienert in Detroit, edited by Joseph White and Matthew Lewis)
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