From our friends at Ford Authority
Amid slowing demand, Ford recently announced that it was pushing back $12 billion in planned EV investments, though it certainly isn’t giving up on all-electric vehicles. Rather, the automaker is shifting its strategy and working on new, low-cost EVs as it works to drive prices down and overcome one of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of sales growth – and profitability. Now, it seems as if Ford may also push back some of its planned new EV launches in the coming months as part of this strategy reboot as well, according to Automotive News.
This news comes straight from Ford CEO Jim Farley, who noted that the company “may delay some upcoming EVs” and also look at securing batteries from additional suppliers as a way to cut costs. Farley noted that the automaker expects to lose around $5 billion in its all-electric Model e unit this year – 15 percent more than 2023 – and is also delaying its previous goal of reaching an eight percent margin on EVs by 2026.
Ford still expects EV sales to continue to grow moving forward, but Farley admitted that the company is rethinking its strategy on those types of vehicles as thus far, the demand curve has proven to be quite different from traditional ICE models. This became clear after early adopters strained the automaker’s ability to build enough EVs to meet demand at first – but once those buyers exited the market, both demand and sales cratered.
This change in philosophy is also clear from Lincoln’s recent moves, which include delaying its planned transition to all-electric vehicles and putting its EV dealer sales program on indefinite hold. As a result, Lincoln expects that its revamped ICE lineup will help the brand hit 100k sales in 2024 – a mark it hasn’t reached since 2020.
We’ll have more on Ford’s EV strategy soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for ongoing Ford news coverage.
