Ford rejigs EV plans after suffering billions in losses
In 2021, the company introduced a stylish electric sport utility vehicle, the Mustang Mach-E, and quickly followed it a year later with a battery-powered version of its bestselling pickup, the F-150, and an electric van. The three new models gave Ford a jump on other established automakers like General Motors.
But then the growth of electric car sales slowed and Tesla started slashing car prices. At the same time, higher material costs made it harder for established carmakers to make money on electric vehicles.
Over the last 2 1/2 years, Ford's electric vehicle division has lost $12 billion, including $2.2 billion in the first half of this year. This year, sales of its electric models have stalled, falling 12% in the first six months.
Now, Ford has come up with a new plan. On Monday, the automaker said that it has developed new, lower-cost electric vehicle components that will allow it to sell more affordable cars. The first will be a medium-sized, four-door pickup truck that can seat five, have a front trunk in addition to its bed and have a starting price of $30,000, Ford said. That truck is expected to arrive in showrooms in 2027, while a new large electric pickup will be delayed by a year to 2028.
The company also said it has developed a new manufacturing process that should also lower costs while improving quality.
"We tore up the moving assembly line that you see here today and we came up with a brand-new concept," Ford's chief executive, Jim Farley, said Monday at a company factory in Louisville, Kentucky. "This is the most radical redesign of how we manufacture cars since the Model T."
Ford, GM and other automakers are facing a serious competitive threat from Chinese companies like BYD that now sell far more electric vehicles than Western manufacturers, often producing them at a fraction of European and American costs.
Profits from Ford's main business of selling internal-combustion trucks and SUVs have slumped in recent quarters. In the first half of this year, Ford's division that makes gasoline cars and trucks for individual buyers made $757 million, down from $2.1 billion in the same period in 2024.
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