Ford to offer incentives to scrap older cars

US carmaker, Chinese partner look at possible electric car venture

LONDON, Aug 22, (AP): Ford is offering car buyers in Britain a 2,000pound ($2,570) incentive to trade in older vehicles for newer, less polluting models.

The offer announced Tuesday is available to new car buyers who trade in vehicles registered before Dec 31, 2009. The cars will then be taken off the road and scrapped.

The move comes amid pressure from governments to reduce air pollution and end the sale of the most polluting types of diesel engines. Automakers are also rushing to adapt to new technology, such as electric cars, in part to address air quality concerns.

Andy Barratt, managing director of Ford in Britain, said that removing the most polluting vehicles would have an immediate and positive effect on air quality.

“We will ensure that all trade-in vehicles are scrapped,” Barratt said. “Acting together we can take hundreds of thousands of the dirtiest cars off our roads and out of our cities.”

Replacing old gasoline and diesel cars alone could save 15 million tons of CO2 annually, the company said.

Meanwhile, ford Motor Co and a Chinese automaker said Tuesday they are looking into setting up a joint venture to develop and manufacture electric cars in China.

Ford’s potential venture with Anhui Zotye Automobile Co adds to the global auto industry’s rising activity in electric vehicles for China, which passed the United States last year as the biggest market for them.

Chinese planners who see electrics as a promising industry and a way to clean up smog-choked cities are pushing automakers to speed up development.

Ford previously said it plans to offer electric versions of 70 percent of its models in China by 2025.

Privately owned Zotye Auto, headquartered in the eastern city of Huangshan, produces its own electric vehicles and said sales in the first seven months of this year rose 56 percent over the same period of 2016 to 16,000.

“This presents us with an exciting opportunity to leverage each other’s strengths,” Zotye chairman Jin Zheyong said in a joint statement.

Sales of pure-electric and gasoline-electric hybrids in China rose 50 percent last year over 2015 to 336,000 vehicles, or 40 percent of global demand. US sales totaled 159,620.

Beijing has supported sales with subsidies and a planned quota system that would require automakers to produce electric cars or buy credits from companies that do.

Ford said it expects China’s market for all-electrics and hybrids to grow to annual sales of 6 million by 2025.