Ford has hit reverse on its plans to sell only electric cars in Europe from the end of the decade, the chief operating officer of its EV division has said.
In an interview with Autocar, Marin Gjaja, the boss at Ford Model E, said 'uncertainty' around EV demand and legislation has forced it to shelve the target of 2030 for ditching petrol and diesel models.
He said 2030 was 'too ambitious' as he confirmed the company would continue offering new hybrid cars in Europe beyond that date.
In February 2021, the US car giant said that sales in Europe would be electric or plug-in hybrid by mid-2026, then only EVs from the end of the decade.
However, a recent downturn in battery car demand has seen it and a number of other major manufacturers make adjustments to their own deadlines for pulling internal combustion engine models from showrooms across the continent.
Gjaja told Autocar: 'I don't think we can go all in on anything until our customers decide they're all in, and that's progressing at different rates around the world.'
He added that 'customers have voted' via recent purchases that they are not ready for battery cars and that ambitions to sell only EVs in Europe from 2030 was 'too ambitious'.
Gjaja's comments come just days after Ford unveiled its third purpose-developed EV model, controversially reintroducing the Capri name for its new sporty electric SUV.
He went on to say that others in the industry, like Ford, had 'found out the hard way' that drivers are not switching to EVs as quickly as manufacturers had expected.
'We don't see that going all-electric by 2030 is a good choice for our business or, especially, for our customers,' he told the automotive title.
In the UK, EV sales have grown by around 9 per cent year-on-year. However, the vast majority of demand is hanging on the fleet sector while private purchases are weakening.
Sales of EVs to paying members of the public - rather than via leasing and fleet and business purchases - are down 10.8 per cent in 2024, with fewer than one in five new electric cars going to private buyers.