- Ford CEO admits small electric cars are key to widespread adoption and profitability
- Ford does not currently make small electric cars in the United States.
- Ford, a champion of pickup trucks and SUVs, has killed off its small cars and SUVs.
Ford is shifting away from large EVs like the F-150 Lightning pickup truck to focus on smaller models to cope with high battery costs, according to a report. Business insider.
After declaring that Americans needed to move out of “monster vehicles” like pickup trucks and SUVs Now Ford’s main source of revenue, CEO Jim Farley told investors on an earnings call Wednesday that smaller EVs will The key to widespread adoption and profitability.
Jim Farley
“We believe smaller, more affordable cars are the way to go. EV Mass“That’s largely due to battery costs,” Farley said. While the mantra for internal combustion vehicles is “the bigger the car, the higher the profit margin,” it’s a different story for electric vehicles, the CEO said.
“The bigger the car, the bigger the battery, the more pressure there is on margins because customers aren’t going to pay more for bigger batteries,” Farley said. That seemed to play out in Ford’s first-quarter earnings, where the automaker promises more affordable electric cars while reporting significant losses on the electric vehicles it has produced.
2025 Ford 3-Row SUV –
Ford initially tried to replicate its success with large internal combustion vehicles, launching the Lightning and planning to follow that full-size pickup truck with a Next-Generation Electric Trucks and Three-Row SUVs has now been delayed. But the change in thinking from Farley and other executives has been clear for months. Farley said during the automaker’s fourth-quarter 2023 earnings presentation that Ford looks for smaller, cheaper electric cars to solve a “new market realities.”
Affordable electric vehicles may be taking a backseat to larger, more expensive models in Ford’s product plans, but all electric vehicles still have to compete for resources with the automaker’s highly profitable internal combustion trucks and SUVs. Last week, Ford announced that a plant in Canada that was previously planned for electric vehicles will now produce Super Duty Heavy Duty Pickup instead of.
