Ford postpones rollout of some new EVs as demand wanes
Ford Motor Co. is pumping the brakes on the production of two forthcoming electric vehicle models as demand for EVs continues to wane.
In a manufacturing update Thursday, Ford announced that it is pushing back the production launch of its planned three-row electric SUV at its assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario, from 2025 to 2027.
The automaker said the two-year delay of its new SUV rollout "will allow for the consumer market for three-row EVs to further develop and enable Ford to take advantage of emerging battery technology."
Ford also said it now expects customer deliveries of the all-new electric pickup truck it will manufacture at its Tennessee plant to begin in 2026 and "gradually ramp up production to assure quality," after saying last year that production of the truck would begin in late 2025.
Ford lost about $4.7 billion on EVs last year and projects losses in the range of $5 billion to $5.5 billion this year.
FORD'S PROFITS GETTING EATEN UP BY EVS
CEO Jim Farley said during the automaker's last earnings call in February that Ford's targets for its next generation of EVs will be for them to be profitable within 12 months of their launch and that it will spend less on making larger EVs by focusing those models on "geographies and product segments where we have a dominant advantage, like trucks and vans."
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"As the No. 2 EV brand in the U.S. for the past two years, we are committed to scaling a profitable EV business, using capital wisely and bringing to market the right gas, hybrid and fully electric vehicles at the right time," Farley said Thursday in a statement.
FOX Business' Eric Revell and Reuters contributed to this report.