Hey everyone it's Emme Hall here at the North American Auto Show at the Ford booth with the chief technical officer for Ford, Raj Nair.
Raj, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today.
My pleasure.
Now, big news, Ford just announced 13 EVs by 2021 plus an autonomous vehicle.
What prompted that announcement and how do you guys plan on meeting those goals?
Well, the electrification strategy has been out there for a little bit.
$4.5 billion we've [UNKNOWN] electrification.
That's a reflection of consumer desire as well as what we need to do to meet federal regulatory requirements.
And it was great to announce that part of [INAUDIBLE] F-150 hybrid and the Mustang hybrid.
Co-pilot vehicles, green transit connection taxis, and the autonomous vehicle.
So it's been a fun day finally getting some of that news out there.
So can we go back a little bit to this hybrid Mustang?
All right.
So please tell me this hybrid's gonna more like a Porsche 918 than a Prius.
I mean how are you going to use that hybrid technology to give the Mustang that performance that consumers and fans are expecting?
That's exactly right.
We're talking about using electrification to give Our consumers are more and in Mustang, it's about performance so, we're talking about V8 like performance at the low end.
even more torque available with the electric motors, so it's gonna be very very fun hybrid.
So maybe, like an all electric launch.
Come on, you can tell me.[laughs]
I wouldn't say all electric but the great thing about electric motors is that it makes torque at very low rpm, instant torque.
So you couple that with an eco boost type engine.
Mm-hm.
And you have a great combination.
Well, we'll see if that crosses over to any of the muscle cars that we're gonna be seeing now.
Hybrid Camaros, Hybrid Challengers, I mean, who knows, it could be you guys could launch a whole new segment.
Yeah, well, hopefully we'll be the first in that segment.
[LAUGH]
Now also speaking of hybrids, Hybrid F150, now will that truck be able to drive on it's own, on electric power only at all.
No it's a regular hybrid as well.
So made it to a gas engine.
But again, it's all about what our customers are looking for.
In a truck they're looking for capability.
So we're talking about a hybrid that can tow.
And also serve as a mobile generator on a work set.
Yeah.
So explain that.
So it just means that I have all of my 110 voltage power that I could possibly need to run any of my power tools?
Exactly.
On the work set you've got 110 volt generator built into your truck.
You know, I don't know why more people don't do that.
That is awesome.
That's one of the things that I'm super excited about about that hybrid 150.
Yeah, and I think our customers will be too.
Yeah, definitely.
So, tell me a little bit now about this autonomous vehicle.
Is it gonna be launch just for car sharing or will it be available to consumers as well?
We think the initial launch of autonomous vehicle is gonna be something like car sharing or maybe package delivery.
I mean they're still expensive vehicle to start out with.
And so it's gonna have to make business sense.
Right.
And in those two areas it will.
But it will be high volume, serving A lot of customers were just luxury customers.
So Rodge, you have your pick of any car in the Forbes fleet, I know you do, so what are you daily driving right now.
My daily driver is the Mustang G10
Yes.
[LAUGH]
Awesome.
Even in the winner.
Even in Detroit.
Even in the Detroit winner
[INAUDIBLE]
Exactly, exactly.
Well, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today.
Again, this is Emme Hall here at the Detroit Auto Show for 2017 at the [UNKNOWN], talking with Chief Technical Officer Raj Nair.
