"Innovation is our goal," said Kevin Layden, director, Ford Electrification Programs, in a release. "The way to provide the best technology is through constant development and progress. By sharing our research with other companies, we will accelerate the growth of electrified vehicle technology and deliver even better products to customers."
Given Ford’s track record since introducing the FFE, which of course was not even developed by Ford, it really is hard to take this statement at face value or even give them a “benefit of the doubt”. Perhaps there has been a change in the corporate attitude towards EVs, especially BEVs, that will be demonstrated over the next few years but it has yet to be seen in their current or announced future product line. As with everyone else I would love to see Ford develop a 400 Km (250 mile) range BEV in a Fusion/MKZ sized platform (or bigger) that could render 60-75% of the performance resident in the Tesla Model S (acceleration, speed, road handling etc). Announcing and committing to such a BEV, even if it were at a very immature concept phase, would go a long way towards building the EV community’s faith that Ford is indeed pursuing BEV innovation and committing to a long term presence in the BEV market.
"As an industry, we need to collaborate while we continue to challenge each other," said Layden. "By sharing ideas, companies can solve bigger challenges and help improve the industry."
I’m glad I wasn’t drinking anything when I read this quotation or it would have been sprayed all over my monitor and more!! Collaboration is the last thing the traditional car companies have demonstrated in their disparate efforts to develop and exploit the BEV market and Ford is no exception to this. At the risk of sounding like a “broken record” Tesla has lead the way in developing DCQC into a truly practical technology and made substantial inroads with its implementation. Furthermore, they have the highest energy density mass-produced marketable batteries and the highest rate onboard chargers in the industry by a substantial margin. All of which has been released for “good faith use” and yet Ford, like all other manufacturers, have chosen not to collaborate with Tesla to utilize and further develop this technology. Tesla is not necessarily the “endpoint” but it is the current leader and to not collaborate with the industry leader means any efforts made by Ford and/or other manufactures is inherently restricted and will in all probability re-evolve Tesla’s development cycle with an attendant duplication of costs. It would seem Ford’s idea of collaboration is to allow other companies to use their technology under licencing agreements rather than seize upon the current leading technology and work together for its improvement and wider dissemination.
Don’t get me wrong, I truly hope that Ford has chosen to embrace the BEV and makes genuine efforts to exploit both its current early adopter/ “beta test” market and the much larger market potential it holds over the next 5 -10 years. Unfortunately the lack of a single standard/format for critical aspects of BEV technology such as DCQC, onboard charger capacity and charging protocols means that the BEV market is in some ways analogous to the home entertainment market as it went through the Beta/VHS video format schism which was followed by similar although less visible technology standard competitions for surround sound formats and ultimately HD-DVD/Blu-ray.
