Ford will make big push for BEV in SE Asia

It’s not exactly a secret that all automakers in the country and the region are pushing to expand into electrified vehicles. From hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) such as mild hybrid, parallel/series hybrid, and plug-in hybrid to battery electric vehicles (BEV, or just EV), automakers are accelerating their efforts for electrification.

One automaker that really needs to put the pedal to the metal is Ford. If you look at their lineup across Southeast Asia, you won’t spot any kind of electrified vehicle technology available for customers. Such is also the case for the Philippine market.

That may change soon.

We’ve been informed by our regional contacts -employed with other companies, surprisingly- that Ford is now looking for a manager to fill a specific role: to handle Ford’s ASEAN BEV Consumer Launch. We received the listing, and it seems legitimate: Ford is looking for a Bangkok-based manager that can “develop and executive innovative launch and Go To Market (GTM) strategy for electric vehicles across ASEAN region”.

The markets cited by the listing include Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and -strangely enough- South Korea. We had no idea that South Korea had become a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN. We jest of course.

We’re actually a bit surprised that such a role hasn’t been filled yet, but perhaps the more important question is what models Ford may be looking to bring to our region and our showrooms in the Philippines. And if we read into certain developments with Ford in Asia, we are likely to get the SUV-ish Mustang Mach-E.

The Mustang Mach-E was revealed in November 2019 in North America; the timing couldn’t have been worse, as the pandemic commenced just a few months after, severely hampering demand for all vehicles and affecting manufacturing. Still, Ford pushed on and the model debuted in late 2020 in North America with manufacturing in Mexico.

The biggest indicator is that Ford has already expanded the manufacturing bases for the Mach-E to include a factory in China with Changan Ford. And given that Ford Philippines already imports the Territory from another of the brand’s JV partners in China (JMC), we won’t be surprised if the Mach-E will come from there.

Hold your horses though: from what we understand, there seems to be some issues with the Mach-E regarding its reception in China as customers aren’t snapping up units as well as Ford would have hoped. As to why, we’re not entirely sure, but it stands to reason Ford may be looking to export the vehicle instead and hope for better results.

What we are really keen on, however, isn’t the Mach-E. It's not even the F-150 Lightning which would come from North America. Rather, we’re looking more at electrified versions of the Ranger.

When Ford launched the new Ranger, we noted that there was quite a bit of extra space in the engine bay; we were told at the time that it was for future electrification plans for the model. Insiders tell us that Ford is working on various hybrid versions of the model; specifically, mild hybrid electric vehicle (MHEV) as well as plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) variants.

And given that the Everest shares a lot with the Ranger, we won’t be surprised if the Everest gets those variants as well.