A recent report from Reuters says that Ford’s chairman — Bill Ford — plans to increase its investment in electric vehicles to $11 billion by 2022 and have 40 hybrid and fully electric vehicles in its model line-up (its previous target was $4.5 billion by 2020).

A Ford spokesman said that 16 of the planned 40 electrified vehicles will be fully electric, while the rest will be plug-in hybrids, adding that “we’re taking our mainstream vehicles — our most iconic vehicles — and we’re electrifying them.

“If we want to be successful with electrification, we have to do it with vehicles that are already popular.”

Reuters said that, while automotive companies are reacting in part to pressure from regulators in China, Europe and California to cut carbon emissions from fossil fuels, they are also under pressure from the success of Tesla with its electric saloons and SUVs — as confirmed by GM saying last year that it would add 20 new battery-electric and fuel-cell vehicles to its global line-up by 2023, and Volkswagen saying in November that it would spend $40 billion on electric cars, autonomous driving and new mobility services by the end of 2022 (significantly more than previously announced).

Meanwhile, Toyota is planning to commercialise a breakthrough battery technology during the first half of the 2020s, with the aim of cutting the cost of making electric cars.