Car and Driver: Ford Working on 200-Mile EV to Fight Tesla Model 3, Chevy Bolt

With the recent unveiling of the Tesla Model 3 being greeted like the advent of a perpetual-motion machine that also cures cancer and can do your taxes, and General Motors fielding a counterpoint in the Chevrolet Bolt that will be in showrooms later this year, the question for Ford has been: Where’s your 200-mile-range EV? In a conference call with analysts today, Ford CEO Mark Fields had an answer: “We’re working on it.”What Fields actually said, as reported by Automotive News, is: “Clearly, that’s something we’re developing for.” From there, the Automotive News report speculates that Ford’s Tesla/Bolt fighter will be offered not only as an EV, but also as plug-in and a traditional hybrid variants (kind of like Hyundai’s recently unveiled Ioniq), and will be called the Model E—Ford has applied for a trademark on that name. It’s also expected that the vehicle will be built at a recently announced new plant in Mexico, and arrive in the 2019 time frame.

• -
• Ford Focus Electric Tests, Reviews, Specs, and More -
• Chevrolet Bolt EV Full Coverage: News, Photos, and More-
• 2018 Tesla Model 3 Debuts: The Small Electric Car That’s Making a Big Noise-

Ford’s current electric-car offering is the Focus Electric. That car offers a 76-mile range this year, although Ford claims the 2017 version will be good for 100 miles. Still, that’s well short of the Bolt, which promises a 200-mile range and will be on sale before the end of the year, as well as the Model 3, for which orders are now being taken although delivery is not promised until mid 2017. Model E to the rescue!

Read Full Article