Dive Brief:
- Ford Motor Co.’s business unit Ford Pro has entered into a 10-year agreement with the city of Dallas to grow and manage electric vehicle charging infrastructure for the city’s fleet vehicles, the automaker announced in a press release last week.
- As part of the deal, the city of Dallas will install Ford Pro chargers at fleet worksites. The city will also use Ford Pro’s smart charging software to manage the charging needs of its fleet vehicles.
- Ford’s agreement with Dallas follows other investments in charging infrastructure over the past several years to support Ford Pro customers as the automaker looks to grow its commercial EV business.
Dive Insight:
As part of the city’s climate goals, Dallas aims to electrify all of its fleet vehicles by 2040. In 2020, the city approved a Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan aimed at reducing carbon emissions. The initiative includes installing EV chargers throughout Dallas as well as adding EVs to the city’s fleet of 5,400 vehicles. The city also purchased a number of F-150 Lightning pickups and E-Transit electric vans from Ford to add to its municipal fleet as part of the deal.
“This agreement with Ford Pro marks a significant milestone and will help our city avoid energy waste and save money on energy costs, said Dallas Mayor Eric L. Johnson, in a press release. “We look forward to building upon our work with Ford Pro to further scale EV charging infrastructure and electrify our fleet operations to continue to serve our great city now and in the future.”
The number of state and local governments adding EVs to their fleets is increasing, partly driven by rising fuel costs and the potential maintenance cost savings of switching to EVs, Ford said.
Although EV sales have slowed in 2024, the lack of convenient charging infrastructure is viewed as one of the barriers to more widespread adoption in the U.S. However, a report released by Cox Automotive this month forecasts that EV adoption will significantly ramp up in the second half of the decade as EV battery costs fall and more charging infrastructure is built out.
“The impact software can have on EV charging can be substantial, helping public agencies like the City of Dallas not only manage charging infrastructure today, but help determine where chargers may be needed in the future,” said Ford Pro CEO Ted Cannis, in the press release.
As Ford looks to grow its Ford Pro and EV business and sell more battery-powered vehicles to commercial customers, the company has entered into several other partnerships to install chargers and build a comprehensive software-based ecosystem to help customers manage their fleets of EVs.
In 2021, Ford acquired Electriphi, a developer of charging management and fleet monitoring software, to integrate into Ford Pro products.
In November 2023, Ford acquired EV charging technology developer Auto Motive Power. The automaker plans to vertically integrate AMP’s EV charging technology for its new Model e consumer EV division.
In December 2023, Ford Pro announced a partnership with utility provider Xcel Energy to install 30,000 EV charging stations in the U.S. by 2030. The first of these chargers will be installed in Colorado and Wisconsin this year. However, Ford and Xcel Energy plan to expand to Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota and Texas over the next six years.
