Ford Halwood plant will get a £230M investment to produce electric powertrain components in two years for the company’s European EV fleet.
An undisclosed amount of that has come from the UK Government and it will safeguard about 500 jobs on Merseyside which have been under threat as the industry moves from internal combustion engined cars and vans to pure electric models by 2030.
Ford has already entered into an agreement with Volkswagen to utilise its EV platforms and technology in a new generation of models and that includes making zero emission cars and vans in Germany and Eastern Europe.
The opportunities for Welsh and UK supplies to develop businesses in the new era of automobiles is one of the subject areas to be discussed at tomorrow’s (tuesday) Autolink conference in Cardiff organised by the Welsh Automotive Forum.
INEOS Automotive is backing hydrogen as a clean energy solution for future versions of the Grenadier.
As part of this, the business is delighted to confirm that it is to partner with powertrain engineering specialist, AVL, to build the Grenadier FCEV Concept, a hydrogen powered car which will begin on- and off-road testing by the end of of this year.
Thanks to a partnership agreement signed in November 2020, the Grenadier FCEV Concept will use fuel cell technology from Hyundai Motor Company. An automotive fuel cell pioneer, in 2013 Hyundai was the first company in the world to begin mass production of fuel cell electric vehicles.