Ford Outlines Plans For Electric, Self-driving Vehicles

Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday outlined plans to deliver profitable growth for the next several years, including investing in electric and autonomous vehicles, while detailing its outlook for its core business. In a presentation prepared for an investor day, the car company said it will work to bolster its core business by building out its trucks, vans, commercial and performance vehicles and growing global utility vehicles. "We've been making important decisions and have agreed on three key principles to guide future capital allocation: where to play, where not to play and how to win," Chief Executive Mark Fields said in a statement. The company is planning to invest $4.5 billion in electric cars and will introduce 13 new electric vehicles, or 40% of its lineup, by 2020. The company expects to have a fully autonomous vehicle in commercial operation in 2021 in a ride-hailing or ride-sharing service. The company is expecting autonomous vehicles to account for up to 20% of sales by the end of the next decade. Ford said it expects pretax profit of about $10.2 billion for 2016, below last' year's record but its second-best result since 2000. The company is expecting results to decline in 2017 but pick up again in 2018. Shares were not yet active in premarket trade, but are down 12% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has gained about 4%.