Motor News

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General Motors’ Super Bowl ad featured two of its upcoming electric vehicles: the Cadillac Lyriq and the GMC Hummer EV.
The Cadillac Lyriq is set to arrive in late 2022, while the GMC Hummer EV will arrive in the fall as a fully loaded Edition 1 model—cheaper models, including an SUV, will follow.
The 2023 Lyriq is expected to start at around $60,000, and the 2022 Hummer EV Edition 1 starts at $112,595.
General Motors has promised that it’ll have 30 electric vehicles in its lineup—Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC—by 2025. Both of the EVs—the Cadillac Lyriq concept and the GMC Hummer EV—featured in its Super Bowl advertisements, one starring Will Ferrell, Kenan Thompson, and Awkwafina, and another with Winona Ryder and Timothée Chalamet aren’t even in dealerships yet, though. And they won’t be for some time.

General Motors

General Motors

2023 Cadillac Lyriq EV Unveiled as ‘Show Car’

Cadillac says that the Lyriq will be available late next year as a 2023 model, and it’ll be the first electric Caddy. Both single-motor rear-wheel drive and dual-motor all-wheel drive models will be available, and GM is targeting more than 300 miles of range. Its flashy design is 80 to 85 percent complete, Cadillac says, and a 33-inch LED display covers the dashboard. The latest version of GM’s Super Cruise hands-free driving technology, which is currently an option on the 2021 Escalade, CT4, and CT5, will also be available.

GM

Hummer Is Back with a 1000-HP Electric Pickup

The GMC Hummer EV will arrive in the fall, but only in fully loaded Edition 1 guise, which costs over $110,000. Other models, including an SUV version, will join the lineup for later model years priced starting at $79,995, $89,995, and $99,995. The Edition 1, shown here, includes 35-inch tires, an adaptive air suspension, skid plates, and “Crab Mode”, which uses the rear steering to move diagonally. Super Cruise is standard on the Hummer, and it also has up to 1000 horsepower.
Both vehicles will use GM’s new Ultium batteries, which use less cobalt than other electric vehicle batteries. GM says that its biggest battery will be capable of up to 400 miles of range. Other upcoming EVs from General Motors include the Chevrolet Bolt, Bolt EUV, and an electric pickup as well as Cadillac’s flagship EV, the Celestiq. Honda will also use GM’s technology in two of its own future EVs.
Audi Norway has released a few advertisements starring Kristofer Hivju from Game of Thrones, including one where Hivju finds Will Ferrell’s smashed globe, in response to GM’s Super Bowl ad, but they won’t air during the big game. The ads feature the German automaker’s electric e-tron SUV.

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In a first for Bruce Springsteen, the legendary musician appears in a commercial.
He is shown alongside his own personal 1980 Jeep CJ-5 in a two-minute spot for Jeep parent company Stellantis, carrying a message of unity.
The Super Bowl ad will be broadcast only once, and it features an original score by Springsteen.
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In the mid-1980s, then Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca approached Bruce Springsteen and offered him a large pile of money in exchange for the use of “Born in the U.S.A.” in a Chrysler ad. Iacocca kept his money and Springsteen kept his song.
More than 30 years later, in 2018, Olivier François, then chief marketing officer of Fiat Chrysler, told Ad Age that he had continued the pursuit of Springsteen, also without success. “He’s not for sale,” François said. “He’s not for rent. And there’s nothing you have that he wants.”

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All it took to finally change Springsteen’s mind was persistence, a pandemic, a political chasm, and a just-right pitch from François, who’s now global chief marketing officer for what we now know as Stellantis. “The Middle,” a two-minute spot from Jeep that will appear during the second half of the Super Bowl, marks the first time Springsteen has applied the weight of his career to a commercial, even if it is one that looks and sounds a lot like his recent work.
It was shot in Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska, and there’s no new Jeep pitched in the piece, only a web address that steers viewers to a site focused on future products. Springsteen appears behind the wheel of a 1980 Jeep CJ-5 that Variety reports is his own. Instead, the film’s focus is centered on the literal center of the country and the U.S. Center Chapel in Lebanon, Kansas, the geographical center of the Lower 48. “It never closes,” Springsteen narrates. “All are more than welcome. To come meet here, in the middle.”
Rather than license an existing song for the occasion, Springsteen composed and produced an original score with Ron Aniello, with whom Springsteen has worked closely since his 2012 album Wrecking Ball.
Another longtime Springsteen collaborator, filmmaker Thom Zimny, was also involved. Among many projects, Zimny directed and co-directed films related to Springsteen’s last two releases, 2019’s Western Stars and last year’s Letter to You.
“The Middle,” which Jeep says will air just one time, wears the stylistic touches Springsteen and Zimny applied to the Western Stars film, which found Springsteen roaming wide open spaces and looking to the past to help settle the present. And if Springsteen appearing in an ad is a surprise, it does make sense it would be a car commercial.
He has been mythologizing the automobile since “Thunder Road” opened 1975’s Born to Run, since before he was even much of a driver. As he explained during a 236-show run on Broadway in 2017 and 2018, he couldn’t drive a stick the first time he drove cross-country. His manager had to get the truck moving, and then they’d switch seats on the move. Not too many years later, he wrote “Racing in the Street.”
Over time, Springsteen himself became as American as T-shirts, blue jeans, Telecasters, and the automobile.”This is my 19th album and I’m still writing about cars,” Springsteen says in the Western Stars film. “Writing about the people in them, anyway. Why? I don’t know. I guess the car remains a powerful metaphor for me. We still live a lot of our lives here in America in cars. Just trying to get from one place to another, from one place to another.”
This year marks the 10th anniversary of Chrysler’s 2011 “Imported from Detroit” Super Bowl spot starring Eminem. François told Variety it was back then that record executive Jimmy Iovine connected him with Springsteen’s longtime manager, Jon Landau. “I thought [Springsteen] could be a good candidate, and that is when I met Jon, who very nicely, kindly explained to me that this will never happen,” François said. Springsteen played the 2009 Super Bowl halftime show in Tampa, and that seemed as close to the game as he’d get.

Bruce Springsteen (left) and Olivier François, Stellantis global chief marketing officer.
Rob DeMartin

But Doner, an advertising agency in Southfield, Michigan, sent François the script for “The Middle.” François sent it to Landau. Landau, François told Variety, reminded him not to get his hopes up, it wouldn’t happen.
It happened, and fast. The ad was shot over five days in late January. Rumors of its existence hit the internet after a private jet arrived in Nebraska from New Jersey. Reaction among Springsteen fans is mixed, as is to be expected. But if ever there was a year for Springsteen to make a leap, this one makes sense.
Many automotive brands that usually advertise during the Super Bowl are sitting this one out. Of the ads that will hit the airwaves during the game, most are aiming to inspire something other than just sales.
“We just have to remember the very soil we stand on is common ground,” Springsteen says, winding up to the film’s big finish. “So we can get there. We can make it to the mountaintop, through the desert, and we will cross this divide. Our light has always found its way through the darkness.
“And there’s hope on the road . . . up ahead.”
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Now that General Motors is getting closer to launching an onslaught of electric vehicles, one of its Super Bowl ads is prepping the American public to buy them. This year, GM trades in inflated torque numbers for Will Ferrell, using the Step Brothers actor in a 90-second ad to challenge Americans to step up and dethrone Norway from its position as the leader in EV adoption.

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Driving a Cadillac Lyriq, Ferrell recruits Saturday Night Live actor Kenan Thompson and comedian Awkwafina to go on what becomes an ill-executed journey to Norway. During the trip, viewers also get a look at the GMC Hummer EV (pictured above) and learn about GM’s battery platform. “GM’s Ultium battery is made for all types of vehicles, so soon everyone can drive an EV,” Ferrell says, a talking point that GM has been busy promoting.
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It’s no secret that the United States lags behind Norway—among many other countries—in per-capita EV purchases. Last year, 54 percent of new vehicles sold in Norway were all electric, compared to the estimated 3 percent in the U.S. Nonetheless, the cause of the disparity is deeper than Americans not feeling they need to beat Norway: GM itself is part of the reason why there aren’t more electric vehicles on the road today. Rather than lobby for increased incentives for EV purchases—Norway’s method—General Motors has spent decades lobbying for weaker emissions regulations.
Norway pushed EV adoption through increased incentives from the government, and the European Union has focused on regulations, which have become even stricter in recent years. “Electric-car sales are booming thanks to EU emissions standards,” Julia Poliscanova, senior director for clean vehicles at the European Federation for Transport and Environment, said in a report released last fall.

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Meanwhile, as recently as three months ago, GM was among a group of automakers suing the state of California for maintaining its stricter emissions regulations. That was after the Trump administration had eased the federal rules, a move that GM also supported. It wasn’t until three weeks after Joe Biden’s election that GM reversed its decision to back the Trump administration, siding with companies including Ford and Volkswagen that had stood with California from the beginning.
GM has revealed in financial filings that it depends on less stringent emission rules. “Any shift in consumer preferences toward smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles . . . could weaken the demand for our higher-margin vehicles,” the automaker wrote in its 10-K filing for 2018 (it’s worth noting that Ford expressed that same sentiment in its own filing).
And an investigation by energy and environment publication E&E found that GM has been lobbying in this direction for decades. The report says GM and Ford were told by their own scientists in the 1960s that vehicle emissions were impacting the climate. Yet, in addition to lobbying for weaker emissions rules, the automaker worked to undermine climate science and sow doubt about the causes of climate change, a tactic that the oil industry has become notorious for executing. It’s not hard to reach the conclusion that GM encouraged that doubt to help reduce the need, at least in the public’s eye, for stricter emissions regulations.

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GM is starting to push a different message, as the Super Bowl advertising points out. GM has started actively responding to a changing climate, including announcing in January that it hopes to be carbon neutral by 2040. Also in that announcement, GM said that it aims to end the sale of its gasoline- and diesel-powered cars, SUVs, and light trucks by 2035, replacing them with electric-powered alternatives. The automaker plans to have 30 new electric vehicles on sale by 2025.
That movement starts with a couple of high-profile electric debuts. The first-edition GMC Hummer EV is set to be available late this year, and the Cadillac Lyriq is slated to go on sale in the middle of 2022. But when those EVs do reach dealers, Cadillac and GMC will face challenges on multiple fronts to sell them. Not only will they have to overcome public sentiment, they will also have to overcome their association with General Motors and its history.
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Toyota’s SmartPath is meant to let shoppers buy online and have their vehicle delivered from their local dealership without ever needing to go there in person. Or, they can start shopping online, then go in and haggle.
Only around 50 Toyota dealers use SmartPath today, but that number will double this spring.
Lexus is involved in this, too, with a similar program called Monogram. Only a few dealers use Monogram, but Lexus will “aggressively accelerate availability through 2021.”
Toyota customers like smart things. Lexus drivers prefer to have their things monogrammed. That’s one way to look at an upgraded online car-shopping service the two brands are offering to U.S. Lexus and Toyota shoppers. The online tool is functionally similar no matter if you’re looking for a new IS or a fresh Prius, but Lexus calls its service Monogram while Toyota’s is called SmartPath.

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The idea behind the year-and-a-half-old comprehensive retail program was to make buying a new Toyota or Lexus as easy as possible but, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the mostly contact-free aspect has been a selling point as well. Toyota says a Cox Automotive digital shopping study from last April showed that two-thirds of shoppers are more likely to want to purchase a vehicle 100 percent online. Toyota first introduced SmartPath in September 2019 as a way to connect a car buyer’s experience across a number of Toyota shopping sites, including Toyota.com, buyatoyota.com, and local dealership sites.
So far, out of the company’s 1200-plus dealerships in the U.S., only around 50 currently have their inventory synced in SmartPath. Another 50 dealerships will get added later this spring. Only a small number of Lexus dealers are currently using Monogram in a pilot test in select markets, but Lexus says it plans to “aggressively accelerate availability through 2021.”

Toyota

One of the big changes Toyota is making to SmartPath and Monogram this month is the ability to complete the entire purchase without ever visiting a dealership. The only non-digital part of the transaction is the handwritten signature that is required in some states, but even that can be done when the vehicle is dropped off at your home, according to Automotive News.
Toyota said it made changes to SmartPath and Monogram by working hand in hand with Toyota Financial Services as well as dealers across the United States, and there’s one obvious way the system prioritizes dealerships over customers. When browsing, shoppers can only check out one dealer’s inventory at a time, instead of seeing all of the vehicles available regionally or nationally, or even by comparing prices at two dealerships.
Once a shopper has started selecting a vehicle and options in SmartPath or Monogram, they can visit the dealer to see the car or to haggle over the price. Everything they’ve entered into the site gets added to what Toyota calls a “digital garage,” and this information then becomes available to the salesperson, which can save time during the visit. Dealers are not being forced to use SmartPath or Monogram and pay Toyota an undisclosed fee if they want to be included in the system, Automotive News reports.

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For decades the Super Bowl has come down to three things: the actual game, the halftime show, and the ads. Companies spend millions every year to produce and air a spot (or series of spots) hoping to make a big enough impression on viewers to make their ad enter into the zeitgeist (like Apple’s iconic 1984 commercial) and maybe sell some of their wares.

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It’s no surprise that automakers are keen to get in on this cash-burning attempt to lure us into parting with our hard-earned dollars. Sure, there are the typical ads showing cars driving down a winding back road while a famous actor spouts off about freedom and horsepower, but there are also some amazing pieces of advertising that have come out of the car world over the years. So while you’re waiting for the kickoff, take a rubber-melting trip with us down memory lane and check out our favorite Super Bowl ads.
Ford’s The One – 2004
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Sometimes you just want to see a fast car go fast, and that’s exactly what Ford gave us with the 2004 commercial for the Ford GT. A car, a track, and a lot of squealing tire action. It’s pure bliss.
VW’s The Force – 2011
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Nothing grabs us like Star Wars nostalgia. Even as adults, we remember what it was like to pretend we had the powers of a Jedi. Volkswagen took that premise and made a commercial that lets a young boy live out his Darth Vader dreams. Sure, it requires believing this child is on the Dark Side, but cute is cute and it made the not-that-exacting 2012 Passat a little bit cooler.
Chrysler’s Imported from Detroit – 2011

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The Chrysler 200 is long gone, but the emotions stirred up by this ad for a sedan featuring the Motor City remains. Aired during the 2011 Super Bowl, it reminded the rest of the United States that Detroit is tough enough to tackle anything. Starring Detroit native Eminem, the ad is less about a car and more about portraying the city as ready to battle its way back into the consciousness of the country, and more than a shadow of its former self.
Nissan’s Dream – 1990
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Nissan hired director Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Legend) to make this commercial about a man dreaming he’s being chased by a motorcycle, a sports car, and eventually, a jet, but none could catch him because of his Nissan 300ZX Turbo. Does it make sense? No. But Scott directed some of the best science-fiction movies ever, so we’ll let him have this one.
Nissan’s Pigeons – 1997
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The Kenny Loggins song Danger Zone is more associated with the movie Top Gun than with this commercial. Still, we all know the frustration of washing our vehicle only to have a squadron of birds (in this case animatronic pigeons) ruin our efforts with a few well-placed “bombs.” The commercial is relatable, and while we only get fleeting shots of the Nissan Maxima, we know that it’s quick enough to outrun some rats with wings.
BMW’s Newfangled Idea – 2015
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Way back in 1994, Today Show hosts Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel famously tried to understand what the Internet was while on the air. It was a bit embarrassing for the hosts because they clearly had no idea what they were talking about. That interaction is the basis for a 2015 BMW i3 ad in which Couric and Gumbel try to parse what an electric vehicle is and how it’s built in a wind-powered factory. It’s meta and to be honest, we’re still having these EV conversations with friends.
Toyota’s The Longest Chase – 2016
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Toyota’s Prius isn’t known for its speed or agility, or really for being all that cool. Initially, the idea of using the hybrid as a bank-job getaway vehicle seems like a recipe for incarceration. But the vehicle’s ability to keep going while a fleet of cop cars have to stop for gas makes for an enjoyable series of ads that ran during the 2016 Super Bowl. Of course, the good guys win in the end by fighting fire with fire using a cop-car Prius.
Volkswagen’s Tree – 2001
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This commercial featuring the VW Golf GTI requires some patience, but it’s worth it. The single piece of dialogue—”Next time, let the clutch out easier”—is one of the best payoffs in automotive ad history.
Plymouth’s Road Runner – 1969
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Way back in 1969 during Super Bowl III, Plymouth aired this ad for the Plymouth Road Runner featuring Looney Tunes’cartoon characters Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. It might be a little too literal, using the animated critters to sell the car, but it was the ’60s, and any ad with a Plymouth Road Runner should be celebrated.
Jeep’s Snow – 1995
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You never see the Jeep, but you know what’s going on.
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A Connecticut dealer just sold a brand-new Lotus Evora S coupe after having it in stock for seven years.
We’re calling this the oldest new car sold in the U.S. Prove us wrong! The 2014 model now has an expired warranty, and it was sold for $20,000 under sticker.
Don’t worry, dealer Steve Plona’s got other Lotus cars for sale, including the next-oldest: a 2018 Evora 400.
Steve Plona just sold a new Lotus Evora—and it took him only seven years to do it.
Omitting the last Lexus LFA that’s presumably still out there, this 2014 Evora S 2+2 was unofficially the oldest new car for sale in America until a few days ago. How on earth could a $90,000 sports car sit unsold in Connecticut, a state brimming with wealthy sports-car owners, under three U.S. presidents? Forget a moment that it’s a new Lotus—an obscurity that doesn’t quite age like a good French champagne—and instead picture this white-on-black coupe as one man’s quiet dissent.
“It was a protest to some schemes of the pricing people had,” said Plona, general manager for Secor Lotus in New London. “I think it’s an undervalued brand.”

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The buyer was an Elise owner from Long Island, New York, who claimed the car for about $70,000, he said. The factory warranty is expired. The tires, engine oil, and battery are original. But that sounds worse than it is. Plona said he plugged in a trickle charger, overfilled the tires to avoid rot, and changed all fluids except for the synthetic oil, which he kept for the new owner to change out at the 1000-mile engine break-in. Every so often, Plona would take the Evora out from climate-controlled storage to let it run. The odometer clocked less than 100 miles.

Secor Lotus

“There were a lot of dealers that were deeply discounting those cars,” he said. “I thought that was hurting the brand.”

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Plona’s discount, seven years on, is roughly what many Lotus dealers were doling out in 2014. Steep depreciation and a near-invisible presence have made modern life hard for Lotus dealers. Yet the U.S. is the company’s number-two market behind Germany, and North America is the number-one region. Lotus sales were great in 2020—a couple hundred, according to Plona—and so were his dealership sales: seven, both new and used.

Secor Lotus

It’s not like Lotus the company has been in a hurry. The Evora’s door card shows a December 2013 build date, noting the airbag exemption that would expire shortly after. Lotus didn’t install a passenger airbag with a child sensor in time, so it stopped importing cars into the U.S. for an entire year. In 2014, we asked then CEO Jean-Marc Gales about this little problem, who “insisted there is enough inventory of ’14-spec Evoras to meet demand until the new model arrives.” Lord, was Gales right.
When the Evora debuted in 2010, Lotus was on top of the world supplying Tesla with Elise bodies. The British automaker soon promised a five-car lineup and made music producer Swizz Beatz a vice-president. Then the world fell. The company’s board fired the CEO and went without one for nearly two years. Its two prime cars, the Elise and Exige, failed to meet U.S. emissions and safety rules. They left the U.S. in 2011 and only returned five years later as track-only specials. Chinese automaker Geely bought Lotus from a Malaysian investment group in 2017 and now promises a 2000-hp electric hypercar.
“People in the know, they know what the brand is and its storied past,” Plona said. But there aren’t many, which means Plona will happily valet cars for service—one customer lives more than 100 miles away in Massachusetts—and keep those people from buying a Porsche.
Plona’s devotion to customers and refusal to underprice might make him this country’s staunchest Lotus advocate, or maybe he’s just the rare car salesman who exercises patience. He loves the Evora. He’s got seven new GT models in stock, and already he’s on to the next long game: a 2018 Evora 400 in custom Red Velvet paint. Perhaps it might be yours in another few years.

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As of the exact moment we’re writing this, COVID-19 hasn’t forced any Tampa Bay or Kansas City players out of Sunday’s Super Bowl. That could change in an instant. Just ask Kansas City’s barber.
The unpredictability and unknowns of pandemic life have, however, impacted the Super Bowl’s most reliable players: its advertisers. “In a normal year, Super Bowl advertising resembles a multiple-car pileup,” AdAge wrote this week.
Fiat Chrysler alone aired five Super Bowl ads in 2018. In the past five years, Audi has aired four spots, Kia five, Hyundai six—not including two from Genesis. Fiat Chrysler aired nine to tout four of its nameplates, and Toyota aired eight, plus two more from Lexus.

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This year is going to look different. Audi, Kia, Hyundai, Genesis, and Porsche are all going to be on the sidelines. No Volkswagen (so no adorable Darth Vader). No BMW or Mercedes-Benz or Lexus. By Ad Age’s count, in 2018, 11 automotive brands advertised during the Super Bowl. This year that number is three or four, depending on how you want to count GM and Cadillac. They’ll be joined Sunday by Jeep and Toyota. Volvo won’t have an ad, but it will give away $2 million worth of cars if there’s a safety in the game.
It isn’t just auto manufacturers wrestling with how to manage TV’s biggest ad stage in the midst of a pandemic (and ad budgets when spots cost in the neighborhood of $5.5 million for 30 seconds of time). Even Budweiser, the king of Super Bowl advertising with 37 straight years in the game, is sitting 2021 out. Budweiser’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, is running its first ad, but that one is focused on togetherness.
Ford’s 60-second spot, “Finish Strong,” is a call to stay focused—and together— as we continue to work to move past the coronavirus. Coming after a year when Ford launched three of the most important new models in its lineup, the ad eschews Ford vehicles or even a Ford logo, and the link at the end leads viewers to the philanthropic Ford Motor Company Fund.
Toyota’s 60-second spot, “Upstream,” goes with the same flow, celebrating Toyota-sponsored athlete and Paralympian Jessica Long and hyping the “hope and strength in all of us.”

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GM is the lone product-focused holdout. Cadillac is returning to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2012, pushing its upcoming Lyriq EV. The ad—teased earlier this week—suggests inspiration from the 1990 Tim Burton film Edward Scissorhands. Consistent with a strategy that’s promised a whole bunch of EVs in the coming years, GM’s other ad takes aim at: Norway.
The Scandinavian country is the world leader in EV purchases per capita, and Will Ferrell—GM’s trial-by-combat champion—won’t stand for it. Ferrell lures Kenan Thompson and Awkwafina into battle riding a Cadillac Lyriq and the coming GMC Hummer EV, the trio avoiding bloodshed thanks to being severely geographically challenged. Which is strange considering these EVs will come with the latest navigation systems splayed out on gigundous screens.

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Because we live in a connected world and there’s no reason miss a marketing opportunity, Audi Norway snagged Norwegian Game of Thrones actor Kristofer Hivju for a series of digital spots responding to GM. (Ford also had something to say.) After turning to another Game of Thrones actor last year, Audi isn’t planning an ad during this year’s Super Bowl.
The automotive presence expands slightly if we broaden our definition a touch. Online car shopping service Vroom and floor mat maker WeatherTech are each doing 30-second spots.
Vroom goes to the dark side in imagining what some shoppers feel like when buying a car at a dealer. The scenario might be far-fetched, but we’re sure that for many people, the anxiety isn’t. Still, it’s another wild sign of our times when Vroom felt the need to include “Fictionalization. Do Not Attempt” in small print over a man tied to a chair.
WeatherTech is the only auto industry player to keep its Super Bowl run going, having aired at least one spot for the past five years. Its seventh commercial sticks to the template, selling the floor mats by way of selling the merits of the company and our country.
Finally, there’s Jeep, its parent company now known as Stellantis, and the possibility they have secured an American icon for a spot scheduled for the second half. What to make of the rumors that Bruce Springsteen might finally be up for a little marketing of something other than a record or a show?
An Automotive News report pieced together digital clues that Bruce Springsteen was in Nebraska for a shoot. The rumor is it’s for Jeep—perhaps the new Grand Cherokee? Stellantis ad chief Oliver François loves making big plays. Last year it was actor Bill Murray in a reprise of his Groundhog Day role. In 2011, it was rapper Eminem in an ad titled, “Imported from Detroit.”
Has François secured an artist who’s declined to use his music and his person in ads for more than 40 years? If so, that could be the play of the game, having turned a Hail Mary into a Hail Bruce.
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Ford announced a $29 billion investment in EVs and autonomous vehicles through 2025.
In the future, the majority of Ford vehicles will be electric, while traditional gasoline powertrains will be augmented with hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains.
Ford is joining GM and others in heavily investing in electric and autonomous vehicles to compete with Tesla.
Ford announced during its fourth-quarter earnings report that it will invest $22 billion in electric vehicles and $7 billion in autonomous vehicles through 2025. The electric-vehicle stake is an increase over the $10 billion already pledged to help Ford compete in the race to bring electric vehicles into the mainstream.

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In part, Ford may be throwing the money down to compete with GM’s bigelectrification goals, but it stopped short of announcing exactly when, or if, it will transition to an all-electric passenger-vehicle fleet as General Motors has pledged to do. What it has announced is that a majority of its vehicles will be EVs, with some of its offerings having hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains.

GM Sets Goal to Stop Making Gas Vehicles by 2035

GM announced last week that it will aspire to eliminate all gas and diesel light-duty vehicles by 2035. GM said it plans to invest $27 billion in electric and autonomous vehicles by 2025. GM, Ford, and others that have made similar investments and pledges to electrify their fleets are competing with Tesla which has a huge head start in the EV world. The EV-only automaker boasts the top-selling electric vehicles with ranges that still dwarf offerings from any traditional OEM.
While Ford is working on its own vehicles, it has also invested $500 million in EV startup Rivian. In 2019, the two companies announced a plan to build a Ford vehicle using the startup’s platform. However, in 2020, a planned electric Lincoln built with Rivian technology was canceled, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During its announcement, Ford also reminded us that the electric version of its cash cow, the F-150, is slated to go into production in mid-2022.
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