News
Ford Model e unit announces massive expansion of EV initiative in Europe: 7 new EVs by 2024
Ford’s electric vehicle unit — known as Model e — announced today that it would take massive steps to expand its electric vehicle project in Europe. Ford, which recently split its electric vehicle and combustion engine businesses into two divisions, is aiming to roll out seven new electric vehicles in Europe by 2024 with an annual production capacity of 600,000 vehicles by 2026.
Ford announced the expansion plan today, recognizing the accelerating pace of electrification in the European market. “I am delighted to see the pace of change in Europe – challenging our entire industry to build better, cleaner, and more digital vehicles. Ford is all-in and moving fast to meet the demand in Europe and around the globe,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement. “This is why we have created Ford Model e – allowing us to move at the speed of a start-up to build electric vehicles that delight and offer connected services unique to Ford and that are built with Ford-grade engineering and safety.”
Ford’s Model e division aims to take advantage of a Tesla-like business model that completely separates the electric vehicle projects from the traditional combustion engine powertrains that Ford built its legacy on. As one of the most-committed legacy automakers in the transition to electrification, Ford recently announced it would commit to a production goal of 600,000 EVs by the end of 2023.
In Europe, electric vehicles have become extremely popular, becoming a more common choice of consumers than combustion engine vehicles in some regions. Ford is turning some focus toward this market as it is likely to be one of the biggest catalysts to EV sales company-wide. Ford said it expects annual sales in Europe to exceed 600,000 units in 2026, reaffirming its intention to deliver a 6 percent EBIT margin in Europe in 2023.
“Our march toward an all-electric future is an absolute necessity for Ford to meet the mobility needs of customers across a transforming Europe,” Ford of Europe Chairman Stuart Rowley said. “It’s also about the pressing need for greater care of our planet, making a positive contribution to society and reducing emissions in line with the Paris Climate Agreement.”
Seven New EVs by 2024
With the Mustang Mach-E already having a successful introduction into the European market, Ford will also welcome the E-Transit to the region in Q2 2022. By 2024, Ford plans to introduce seven additional models to its electric lineup in Europe. It will include three new passenger vehicles and four new commercial cars.
In 2023, Ford will begin production of an all-new passenger EV. The company says it will be a “medium-sized crossover, built in Cologne with a second electric vehicle added to the Cologne production line-up in 2024.” Ford will also introduce an electric version of the Ford Puma. It will be produced in Craiova, Romania, starting in 2024.
Ford, which recently split its electric vehicle and combustion engine businesses into two divisions, is aiming to roll out seven new electric vehicles in Europe by 2026 with an annual production capacity of 600,000 vehicles. (Credit: Ford)
Ford is Europe’s top-selling commercial vehicle brand, and the company plans to introduce several new electric models of its Transit van — “the all-new Transit Custom one-tonne van and Tourneo Custom multi-purpose vehicle in 2023, and the smaller, next-generation Transit Courier van and Tourneo Courier multi-purpose vehicle in 2024.”
“These new Ford electric vehicles signal what is nothing less than the total transformation of our brand in Europe – a new generation of zero-emission vehicles, optimized for a connected world, offering our customers truly outstanding user experiences,” Rowley added.
Ford’s Cologne, Germany EV Hotspot
Ford also said that the first all-electric passenger vehicle to come out of the new Electrification Centre in Cologne will be a five-seat, medium-sized crossover. Crossovers are a widely popular body style and accounted for 58 percent of all Ford passenger vehicles sold in Europe in 2021. Ford plans to unveil the name and design of the new crossover in 2022. Production will begin in 2023.
Ford’s Cologne Electrification Center (Credit: Ford)
Additionally, Ford said its total investment in Cologne is expected to be $2 billion with the investment including plans for a new battery assembly facility that will begin production in 2024. The automaker projects at least 1.2 million vehicles produced at the Cologne Electrification Centre by 2030.
New battery partnership with SK On Co., Ltd., and Koç Holding
Ford announced that it also signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding for a new, industry-leading joint venture in Turkey with battery manufacturers SK On Co., Ltd. and Koç Holding. The plant will be located near Ankara, the country’s capital, and will manufacture high-Nickel Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt (NMC) cells for assembly into battery array modules. Nickel cells have been a focus of many large automakers transitioning to electric cars, as it is widely available. However, surging prices of the metal have contributed to a potential delay in these plans, at least in the short term.
Production is expected to start as early as mid-decade, Ford said, with annual capacity likely to be between 30 and 45 Gigawatt hours.
Ford said the investment will also be supported by the Turkish Government and will benefit large and small commercial vehicle operators across Europe, all while decreasing CO2 emissions.
EV Production Boost in Romania
Ford will also introduce an electric version of its best-selling European vehicle, the Puma. European customers will be able to purchase an all-electric version of the vehicle in 2024. Additionally, the Transit Courier and Tourneo Courio will be produced a the plant in 2023, with all-electric versions being offered the following year.
Ford’s joint venture with Koç Holding, known as Ford Otosan, will assume ownership of the Craiova, Romania plant. “We welcome this opportunity to grow our joint venture with Koc Holding and leverage this strategic partnership to better utilize our resources and know-how in Romania,” Rowley said. “Ford Craiova is today a strong success story, and we believe that through Ford Otosan’s experience and expertise in electrification and commercial vehicles it can reach even higher levels of achievement.”
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Lifestyle
Tesla FSD changed its mind mid-intersection, and it may have saved a life
Tesla shares dashcam footage of FSD Supervised stopping mid intersection to avoid a T-bone crash.
Tesla is putting another Full Self-Driving save in front of its 24.8 million followers on X.
On Tuesday morning, Tesla’s main account shared a dashcam clip with the caption “FSD Supervised preventing T-bone crash.” The footage came from an owner posting as TheNewGrid, who described what happened at a stop sign: “I looked at the car coming to the stop sign figured they would stop, my car went, then came to a stop mid intersection as they flew by. Had I been manually driving this would have resulted in a crash.”
The sequence is the notable part. FSD had already started crossing when the other driver ran the stop sign. Instead of pressing on, the car braked hard in the middle of the intersection and let the crossing vehicle pass in front of it. By the owner’s own account, they had made the same assumption the software initially made, that the other car would stop, and would not have corrected in time.
FSD Supervised preventing T-bone crash
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 6, 2026
The clip is the latest in a run of safety posts Tesla has amplified over the past several days. On Saturday, the company shared a video from Selling Sunset star Jason Oppenheim, who sold his Bentley for a Model Y and said he was buying Teslas with FSD for 10 of his employees. Ashok Elluswamy, who leads Tesla AI, followed up by writing that Tesla self-driving “reacts to other people cutting into your path with super-human response times.” On Monday, a Cybertruck owner posted footage of FSD moving across three lanes from a red light to clear a path for an ambulance approaching from behind.
This recent clip also lands a few weeks after Tesla began shipping Automatic Collision Evasion with FSD v14.3.9, a feature that can activate FSD on the driver’s behalf when a frontal collision is imminent or the driver appears distracted. Elluswamy said in September that “even earlier prediction of hazards, even faster reaction time and overall significantly better safety and collision avoidance” are coming with v15, the release Tesla has tied to round the clock Robotaxi operation.
The safety messaging matters beyond social media. Tesla has said FSD Supervised was 4.1 times less likely to crash than manual driving across 100 million kilometers on European roads, and it has been putting those figures in front of regulators. Eight EU countries have now approved FSD Supervised, with Croatia the most recent, but the EU’s bloc-wide vote originally set for October 6 has been pushed to December at the earliest.
FSD Supervised is still a Level 2 system, and the driver remains responsible at all times. Even heavy users find reasons to step in. Teslarati’s Joey Klender, who uses FSD for about 76 percent of his driving, laid out five recurring issues on Tuesday that still prompt him to intervene. Clips like this one show the other column of that ledger: moments where the software caught a mistake a human was about to make.
Energy
Tesla Model 3 and Model Y can now do what only Cybertruck could
Tesla Model 3 and Model Y can power your home with Powerwall 3 during outages.
Tesla has turned its two top sellers into backup batteries for the house.
Tesla Energy announced on Tuesday that Powershare Home Backup is now available for new Model 3 and Model Y vehicles paired with a Powerwall 3, saying the car can “extend your home backup by over 2 days.” Minutes later, Tesla’s main account quoted the post with a broader pitch: “With Powerwall 3, every Tesla can now serve as your home’s backup battery.”
Until this week, the Cybertruck was the only Tesla that could send power back into a home, and that capability only began working alongside Powerwall 3 last month, after years of ambitious targets.
Tesla’s updated Powershare page says every Model 3 and Model Y ordered in the U.S. or Puerto Rico on or after October 1, 2026 can use the feature. Some, but not all, earlier cars also qualify. Owners can check on the touchscreen under Software, then Additional Vehicle Information, where a capable car shows “Powershare Support: Enabled.” As Electrek reported, bidirectional power on the two cars runs through an inverter Tesla calls PCS2 Lite, and the company has not said when that part entered production on each trim.
The home side is simpler. A house that already has a Powerwall 3 and either a Wall Connector 3 or Universal Wall Connector needs no additional equipment, and Tesla says compatibility is enabled through a software update. When the grid drops, the Powerwall and the car work together, with up to 11.52 kW of continuous power available. Tesla’s “over two days” estimate assumes a home using 30 kWh per day and a car starting at a 90 percent charge. Standard trims are rated for up to two days, while the Cybertruck adds more than three.
There are limits. Powerwall 2 and Powerwall+ support is listed as “coming soon.” Model S and Model X are not included, and Grid Support, the program that lets Cybertruck owners in Texas send power back to the grid during demand spikes for bill credits, is not available for Model 3 or Model Y.
The rollout also lines up with something Elon Musk said more than three years ago. At Tesla’s March 2023 Investor Day, Musk said, “I don’t think very many people are going to want to use bidirectional charging, unless you have a Powerwall.” Tesla has now shipped the feature for its volume cars with exactly that requirement attached.
The Powerwall pairing was the hard part on Cybertruck. Tesla told owners in December 2025 that Powershare with Powerwall had been pushed to mid 2026, and lead engineer Wes Morrill explained that two devices capable of forming a home’s grid have to negotiate which one leads during an outage, across multiple generations of hardware. With that work done for the truck, Tesla was able to extend it to the Model 3 and Model Y within a month.
Ford and GM have offered home backup from their EVs for several years, but both require a separate inverter and backup hardware. Tesla’s version leans on equipment many Powerwall 3 owners already have on the wall. Powershare for the two cars also ships as part of software update 2026.38.3, the same release that began delivering Halloween Mode on Tuesday.
Tesla is now starting to ship a “Halloween Mode” that is filled with some creepy and fun features; the company says, “This spooky update turns your Tesla into a haunted house on wheels.”
The update is just the latest in a series of updates that Tesla typically ships out in a seasonal fashion. The Spring and Summer Updates provided some fun novelty items while also packing some cool features that are actually useful for the ownership experience.
This one seems to be more fun-forward, and there are not any updates to the Full Self-Driving suite or overall operation of the vehicle. Instead, these novelty features are geared toward getting you in the mood for the Fall and Halloween.
Halloween Mode now rolling out 🎃
This spooky update turns your Tesla into a haunted house on wheels
– Ghost costume on your car’s avatar
– Enable Trick or Treat to play spooky sounds & flicker the lights when visitors approach
– New haunting light show, wraps & lock sound
– A rather chilling Photobooth
– Frighten people remotely by speaking through the app…your car will say it in a voice of its own
Side effects may include neighborhood notoriety
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 6, 2026
New Ghost Costume on Car Avatar
Driver Visualization will now show your vehicle as a ghost, as an all-white sheet is draped over the vehicle. Pedestrians are turned into mummies or skeletons, and other vehicles are all a spooky green:
Credit: Tesla
Additionally, the Park Scene with your Tesla now displays that ghost costume draped over your vehicle in the foreground of a scary backdrop with Jack-o-Lanterns and a haunted house:
Credit: Tesla
Trick or Treat Mode
Trick or Treat Mode will enable the vehicle to play spooky sounds and flicker the lights as visitors approach. This might be a nice touch for when you’re handing out candy to kids on Halloween Night.
Other Features
Tesla is also adding a new Light Show, new Wrap Options, and a new Lock Sound with this update.
Credit: Tesla
Additionally, Photobooth has a new Halloween option:
Credit: Tesla
You will also be able to speak remotely through the app and transmit your voice to people outside, which is not a new feature, but the car will say it in a voice of its own, which is a new feature with that bullhorn-like feature.
Tesla FSD changed its mind mid-intersection, and it may have saved a life
Tesla Model 3 and Model Y can now do what only Cybertruck could
