In recent years, major carmakers have spent billions chasing Tesla. But weaker demand for electric cars is now forcing Ford to do an about-face.
Ford's electric-vehicle priorities now lie with a delivery van that is scheduled to go into production in 2026, and a mid-sized pickup planned for 2027.
Ford Motor Company
Ford is bowing to market weakness in electric cars and will not build a battery-powered SUV with three rows of seats. The U-turn will cost the US car giant up to $1.9 billion (€1.7 billion). The SUV had already been postponed from 2025 to 2027.
Ford is currently incurring heavy losses in its electric car division, quarter after quarter, while its combustion engine models and commercial vehicles are making money. Demand for vehicles with hybrid drives has been particularly strong recently.
Ford is now drawing fundamental conclusions: capital expenditure on electric models will be capped at 30 % of the annual budget, down from 40 %. The successor to the F-150 Lightning, the large electric pickup, is now not expected to come onto the market until the end of 2027, instead of 2025. In the meantime, Ford wants to make batteries cheaper, among other things.
Electric Delivery Vans Have the Right of Way
Every new model should be profitable in the first twelve months in the future, emphasized CFO John Lawler at the announcement. The priority for the electric models is now a delivery van, which is to go into production in 2026, as well as a mid-sized pickup planned for 2027.
The surge in sales during the coronavirus pandemic, particularly for market leader Tesla, had encouraged the major carmakers to invest billions in expanding their electric car business. However, demand has recently weakened significantly, something that Tesla is also feeling. Ford's competitor General Motors also recently put the brakes on its electric car plans.
Ford CEO Jim Farley told Bloomberg that he was very satisfied with the planned large electric SUV, "but there was simply no way that it could ever meet our profitability criteria".
Competitor Lucid: Hybrids are a Dead End
Meanwhile, Tesla competitor Lucid is sticking to its plans for just such a vehicle. The first buyers are to get the Lucid Gravity SUV by the end of this year, CEO Peter Rawlinson told the technology blog "The Verge". He expressed his conviction that the weakness in the electric market is “only a temporary blip” and criticized the focus on hybrid drives as a "dead end". Lucid is currently incurring heavy losses with its first model and is being financed by billions in investments from Saudi Arabia.
This is a partly automated translation of this German article by dpa.
