Ford reportedly plans to increase EV spending by up to $20 billion

Ford Motor is reportedly planning to accelerate its deployment of electric vehicles and could increase investments in EVs by up to $20 billion, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.

The effort, led by a former Apple Inc. and Tesla executive Doug Field, calls for Ford to spend an additional $10 billion to $20 billion over the next five to 10 years converting factories worldwide to electric-vehicle production from making gasoline-powered cars, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the plan.

The potential investment would come on top of the $30 billion Ford already plans to invest in electric vehicles through 2025. That includes $7 billion the company already spent from 2016 through February 2021, but doesn’t count another $11.4 billion it’s investing with South Korea’s SK Innovation to build three battery factories and an EV truck plant in Tennessee and Kentucky.

The investments are part of Ford CEO Jim Farley’s Ford+ turnaround plan that was announced in May.

A Ford spokesperson declined to comment directly on the Bloomberg report, citing the company’s policy to not comment on rumors or speculation. He said the company is “carrying out our ambitious Ford+ plan, and continue to carry that out.”

Adding another $10 billion to $20 billion over the next decade wouldn’t be outlandish given automakers across the globe are pledging billions of dollars for such efforts through 2025.

The Bloomberg report added that Ford has evaluated spinning off a small portion of its EV business as a part of the reorganization in an effort to capture value that investors have been awarding some EV start-ups.

The restructuring is a work in progress and some elements may be changed or dropped, including the EV spinoff idea, according to the report. 

Shares of Ford were up by as much as 2.7% during trading Tuesday afternoon. As of 3 p.m., they were up by less than half a percent to $20.38 a share.