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For the past two years, a small Ford Motor Company plant has been running on a cheap electric vehicle platform, according to Ford CEO Jim Farley. Farley revealed the features of the new platform in the automaker’s quarterly earnings with investors on Tuesday night. It is rethinking its electrification strategy, having now faced the fact that the current generation of electric cars is too expensive for mass market adoption to take off.
Ford hit the market early with its Mustang Mach-E crossover, itself the product of a Skunkworks-style progression process: an internal organization called Team Edison, designed to add a bit of excitement to what was originally going to be a more boring conformity. car. The team also made an ambitious decision to build an all-electric edition of the country’s best-selling vehicle, the F-150 pickup truck.
Demand for the electric F-150 Lightning appeared strong, but a series of price hikes has resulted in really expensive trucks languishing on dealer forecourts and Ford cutting production shifts to reduce output. The Mustang Mach-E is still selling, although with barely any growth year on year.
Ford has also split its electric vehicle business into a separate division, called Model e, showing how much it all costs, a loss of $4. 7 billion. That’s more than the $3 billion the idea of electronic styling would lose in 2023.
Farley said the company will develop smaller and cheaper EVs, although he did not announce any specific new models by name. “All of our EV teams are ruthlessly focused on cost and efficiency in our EV products because the ultimate competition is going to be the affordable Tesla and the Chinese OEMs,” he said.
“We made a quiet bet two years ago,” Farley said of Ford’s new skunks. “They have developed a flexible platform that will not only be deployed in different types of vehicles, but will also provide a broad base for the installation of software and services. “he told investors.
Ford may also scale back some of its battery-making ambitions. “One of the advantages we get from incurring some delays is optimizing the point and timing of our battery capacity to meet demands and re-evaluate the vertical integration that we depend on, and new chemistries and capabilities,” Farley said.
In 2023, Ford announced and then canceled a $3.5 billion plant to manufacture lithium iron phosphate battery packs in Michigan. But there are also three lithium-ion factories in the works in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Ford no longer expects the Model e to be successful until 2026, but Ford Chief Financial Officer John Lawler said the Model e avoids wasting money “sooner or later. “
“Electric cars are here to stay, their adoption by visitors is expanding, and their long-term outlook is at the heart of Ford,” Lawler said. “The visitor insights we gain from pioneering electric pickup trucks, SUVs and application cars are invaluable, especially as we expand next-generation electric cars that will wow consumers and succeed in the global economy. year after its release. “
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