Hydrogen vs electric is on the boil again after Ford revealed its plans last week to inject a further $250 million to increase production capacity of its all-electric F-150 Lightning trucks to 80,000 trucks a year, ahead of sales earmarked for March–May next year.

The first Ford F-150 Lightning pre-production units have started to roll out for real-world testing, and over 150,000 reservations have been made.

This comes only a year after construction of the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan commenced, and further marks what has been described by the company as a chance to make history and lead the electric vehicle movement in America.

Pic: Supplied.

Meanwhile in Australia, companies such as H2X Global are rushing to meet demand on orders for its Australian designed hydrogen fuel electric vehicle (FCEV), the Warrego Ute.

It’s not Holden versus Ford anymore; it’s hydrogen versus EV.

 

US plan to accelerate EV industry

Back in May, US President Joe Biden said its American Jobs Plans aims to accelerate the EV industry by driving demand for advanced cars and trucks, reinvigorating the automotive sector and battery factoring in the US, deploying a network of chargers and advancing the innovation capacity for the next generation of technology.

Ford will create 450 additional hourly direct jobs, with workers at the Rawsonville Components Plant poised to assemble the batteries and the Van Dyke Electric Powertrain Center increasing capacity to supply electric motors and electric transaxles for the F-150 Lightning.

The company’s executive chair Bill Ford said while it has been known the F-150 Lightning was special, interest from the public has surpassed expectations and changed the conversation around electric vehicles.

Reiterating this message, Ford’s president of the Americas and International Markets Group Kumar Galhotra said: “Electrifying the F-Series and assembling it at this high-tech facility in Michigan represents a significant step towards mass adoption of electric vehicles in America.”

Pic: Supplied

 

Rush to meet EV demand

H2X has already received more than 200 order requests for the Warrego ute all over Australia and the world, including Netherlands, Germany and Malaysia.

The Warrego will make its debut at its global launch on Queensland’s Gold Coast in November with delivery expected to start in April 2022.

According to EV-Volumes, Tesla leads global EV sales with 386,000 units delivered during the first half of 2021 (all battery electric), followed by Volkswagen Group with 332,000 units (around 172,700 battery electric).

Other companies including Japanese motor giant Toyota has also disclosed its plans on becoming a leader in the battery space with its first fully battery-powered model, the Toyota bZ4X.

The vehicle is set to hit the market in mid-2022.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While H2X Global is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.