Need convincing to go electric? Ford says focus on personal benefits not just cutting CO2
European boss Jim Baumbick talks sense when he says the industry must do more to spell out compelling reasons to go electric
The car industry must do a better job convincing people that electrified vehicles offer personal benefits rather than just lowering CO2, Ford’s European boss has argued.
“I personally don’t believe the fastest path to net zero is the most restrictive one,” Jim Baumbick told the Financial Times’ Future of the Car summit in London. “How do we engage everybody in this massive systems problem, which is trying to get the whole fleet [electrified]? Partial electrification – PHEVs and E-revs (range-extender hybrids) – play an absolutely critical part in that mission.”
Rather than make the monomaniacal argument that all cars must be EVs like the Ford Capri or Explorer and fast, Baumbick made the case for nudging customers to try hybrid vehicles too, giving them part-exposure to the benefits of silent running and snappy e-motor power. As well as lowering emissions by getting older, more polluting vehicles off the road, punters would get to sample the surprise and delight benefits of electrified vehicles, such as having a car that’s a mobile power source.
People who love camping and on-site tradespeople could benefit from being able to use their plug-in hybrid or EV as an energy cell, Baumbick argued. The Blue Oval’s European boss said that the new plug-in hybrid Ranger pick-up could help reduce emissions from petrol-powered generators, an essential but polluting appliance in the trade.
Ford is calling for less zealotry that pure EV is the only solution “on the mission to reduce CO2”. “We are not walking back from the mission, we are committed to making progress every year,” he stressed, while also calling for the EU to reform the industry’s CO2 framework. “As an engineer, I never found the silver bullet [to eliminate CO2].”
Baumbick said he understood the debilitating effect range anxiety could have on EV owners and prospects, and that many needed to see a more holistic charging infrastructure before making the zero emissions leap.
“Many customers don’t realise that their average daily drive could be served by an EV,” he added.
Embrace the electric lifestyle
Multiple factors nudge people to embrace the electric lifestyle, said Baumbick. Spiking petrol prices caused by the US war on Iran has triggered a 10 per cent rise in charging Ford plug-in hybrids, data reveals. In Sweden, 70 per cent of plug-in hybrid owners charge their PHEVs because they get a tax break for doing so; the equivalent figure is between 10 and 20 per cent in the UK, he claimed.
Baumbick also recalled visiting Finland, where almost 60 per cent of all new cars registered last year were plug-ins, with the boss wondering why electrified cars contributed such a high proportion of drivetrains in a cold climate. “People told me: we grew up plugging in our cars’ engine block heaters: it’s a habit that’s built up over time.”
“[Any EU CO2] reform needs to focus more on EV miles driven and recognise [this is] change management. You’ve got to bring people along [on the journey],” he counselled.
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