Ford has radically slimmed its combustion-engine passenger car range in Europe to prepare for local production of electric cars. This starts with the Explorer, which will be based on Volkswagen Group's MEB platform Later in the decade, Ford will add cars underpinned by the automaker's second-generation electric platform and made at its factory in Valencia, Spain. Martin Sanders, who oversees Ford's passenger car division in Europe, provided some hints about what to expect from the new EVs. He also shared why Ford will leverage key American attributes to win over European customers during a recent conversation with Automotive News Europe Correspondent Nick Gibbs.
Ford CEO Jim Farley has talked about a three-row, seven-seat SUV and a pickup on the second-generation EV platform. Will there be European-focused cars on that platform?
We are predominantly looking at global products, but of course in a dimension which is suitable for the European market and that can give us the required scale to fill factories in Europe.