Ford Nixes All-Electric SUV plan, Saying Customers are Demanding Hybrids
Market forces are real…and they are spectacular.
I have been following the consumer issues related to electric vehicle operation and maintenance: Battery problems, charging times, and power outages during emergencies are all factors that are not noted in glossy green-energy dialog.
Range anxiety and charger hogs are now terms in the modern lexicon. In June, I reported that a new study found that 46% of EV owners in the U.S. said they were “very” likely to switch back to owning a gas-powered vehicle in their next purchase. Thieves are targeting charging stations for their copper.
This spring, I noted that automotive giant Ford took a massive loss on every electric vehicle (EV) it sold. The firm’s electric vehicle unit reported losses soared in the first quarter to $1.3 billion, or $132,000, for each of the 10,000 vehicles it sold in the first three months of the year.
Now it is being reported that it would delay the introduction of a new sizeable electric pickup truck by about 18 months to 2027 and scrap a three-row electric sport utility vehicle.
The company is also reducing the amount of money it plans to spend on electric vehicles in an effort to stem multibillion-dollar losses on the technology, while adding plans to introduce a new electric delivery van in 2026. A new medium-size electric pickup is expected in 2027 as well, the company said.
“The competitive nature of the market is changing globally,” Ford’s chief financial officer, John Lawler, said in a conference call. “That means these vehicles need to be profitable, and if not, we will pivot and adjust and make those tough decisions.”
Mr. Lawler said investments in electric vehicles would now account for about 30 percent of the company’s capital budget, down from 40 percent. The company will take a charge of $400 million to account for the cost of manufacturing equipment it purchased for the production of the canceled electric S.U.V., and it may have up to $1.5 billion in additional expenses related to the project.
The reason for the strategy shift is clear: Customers prefer other types of transportation. And the company wants to be…profitable.
If you’re a potential family car customer who’s holding off on buying an electric vehicle because of high prices and road trip anxiety, Ford is thinking about you. In fact, the automaker is hedging its electric vehicle plans, betting that most consumers would rather buy a hybrid than a full EV.
“When you look at the three-row SUV, hybrid technologies or multiple propulsion technologies, for those customers, is the best solution.,” John Lawler, Ford vice chair and chief financial officer, said on Wednesday in a conference call with journalists.
…The strategic shift reflects Ford’s new requirement for any vehicle to become profitable within 12 months after its launch date — a tall hurdle for an all-electric three-row SUV. Add that to an EV market that’s been cooling on the consumer side even as businesses ramp up their offerings and competitive pressures, and Ford’s leadership saw fit to change course.
In fact, Ford now seems to remember that profit is a good thing.
The automaker previously said it would not launch a vehicle if there wasn’t a clear path to profitability within the first year. It was a change from selling EVs at a loss to grow share and assist in meeting fuel and emissions standards.
Ford said it will continue to produce and update its current all-electric vehicles such as the Ford Mustang Mach-E crossover and F-150 Lightning pickup truck.
The company said it plans to provide investors with an “update on electrification, technology, profitability and capital requirements” in the first half of 2025.
In conclusion: Market forces are real…and they are spectacular.
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Comments
It’s called supply and demand.
Communists will never figure it out.
Ford needs to get with the Harris program. Profits are bad. Making any means your prices are too high and that you are not paying your union workers enough. You also have not been paying your “fair share” in taxes, which she plans to raise a lot, so that government, which knows better, has more money to spend.
Ford’s EV division lost almost as much money as all of its ICE divisions combined. The best business decision Ford could make is to scrap its EV division. As for hybrids, I think it would depend on the nature of the hybrid. I would think the better business decision would be a non-plug-in hybrid. Of course all of this a solution in search of a problem.
I worked security for a company and
some of their vehicles were Ford Escape hybrids.. nice care rode good and good gas milage the cost of replacement batteries has come down. it was a decent car.
I wud NEVER buy a full EV. ever.
Reading this, it occurred to me that I would never buy a used vehicle that relies on batteries for drive. The batteries are too expensive to replace. Cars with batteries, engines, and transmissions with a history of failure are to be avoided. Doesn’t this make them a bad choice to buy new? The lowered value as used would make them more expensive to own.
Ford, the Disney+ of car makers.
More like CNN+.
the lefty knows market forces win
but they also know how to shift the $$$ to themselves and weaken those who believe in the free market
‘Lectric cars are a scam.
How about hydrogen fuel cells?
Oh, the humanity.
Find a hydrogen well and I’m in.
I can hear the Democrats now: “Those stupid consumers! How DARE they get in the way of the glorious Green New Deal! They must be punished!”
They are our betters. They know what’s right for us.
EV’s are for suckers, or, deep-pocketed, virtue-signaling, coastal Dhimmi-crat elites who have money to burn and want a toy with which to show off their alleged (but, fallacious) “green”/environmental bona fides.
Narcissism and government bullying/distortion of the marketplace undergird the entire EV phenomenon, which, mercifully, is collapsing, due to market realities, consumer preference and the laws of physics.
The brilliant engineers who design these things know that they are totally impractical, but they must bow down to their corporate overlords, who in turn are in league with the vile politicians.
“This spring, I noted that automotive giant Ford took a massive loss on every electric vehicle (EV) it sold. The firm’s electric vehicle unit reported losses soared in the first quarter to $1.3 billion, or $132,000, for each of the 10,000 vehicles it sold in the first three months of the year.”
I bet the ghost of Ayn Rand was rolling on the boardroom conference table, laughing.
My sister bought an all-electric vehicle. Not the first time she didn’t listen to her brother. 🙂
Keeping it charged up has been one bit pain in the posterior, though several years of free charges was one motive for purchasing.
For the love of God, release the hybrid Super Duty already.
Since the government killed off the efficiency of diesels, a hybrid Super Duty, with 30 amp Pro Power, would be the choice for dry campers and many tradesmen.
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a46805579/hybrid-cars-worth-it/
Making the Decision: Is a Hybrid Car Right for You?
For instance, the cheapest 2024 RAV4, a $30,025 gas-powered LE stickers for $3050 less than the gas-electric RAV4 LE hybrid. The latter, however, comes standard with all-wheel drive, a $1400 option on the gas SUV, effectively narrowing the gap to $1650. Using the EPA combined rating of 30 mpg for the RAV4 LE (both front- and all-wheel-drive models) and the all-wheel-drive RAV4 LE hybrid’s 39 mpg, respectively, nets an annual fuel savings of $400 per year over 15,000 miles by going the gas-electric route.
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So it’ll take a little over 4 years to recover the cost difference.
Forget hybrids, give me a gas car without all the nanny crap.
How you know the green new deal is a bunch of hooey. Big Tech is sucking electricity supplies dry. An AI data search uses 10 times the power of a regular data search. Generating one AI pictures uses up as much energy as fully charging an iPhone. And Wall Street is bullish on both AI and data center development. Contrary to Kamala’s statement, the cloud is data centers. Data centers suck up land for the building, water for cooling, and electricity for computing and for redundancies so no system ever goes down. Ever. There’s no federal laws regulating data centers. Many Governors are whoring out their states for a piece of the data center pie, offering all kinds of incentives. Local governments are happy to change zoning laws to allow data center development in rural zones and conservation areas and local parks. This article is a good place to start to catch up on what we are facing: The Staggering Ecological Impacts of Computation and the Cloud. But don’t stop there. Find out who your regional governing authority is for electricity and what projects they’re considering. Because what they decide is going to impact if your EV really is economical for you or not. IMO, the apocalypse beckons. BGE, which provides electricity to much of Maryland, is “test-driving” an initiative with Ford Lightning truck owners to bank electricity in their trucks to power their homes in the event of electricity shortages. BEG installed bi-directional chargers in the test participants garages. If it comes to storing electricity in EVs, then thieves are going to be after EVs. But when can you drive your EV if all your power is now powering your house????