Ford is investing billions of dollars in electric vehicles, but like many other automakers, it has found that building electric cars and not losing staggering amounts of money is not an easy task.
Ford’s financial report for the second quarter shows that the Ford Model E electric vehicle division suffered a loss of $1.1 billion. During this period, the division sold 23,957 electric vehicles in the United States. This means that the company loses approximately $47600 for every electric car sold.
However, these are not entirely accurate calculations, and the amount of losses per car does not provide complete information. Ford split the production of cars with internal combustion engines and electric motors in early 2022. Now, the newly created Ford Model E division is investing huge amounts of money in the development of new and innovative electric vehicle powertrains. These investments will not be repeated from year to year. Moreover, they will benefit future electric vehicles. Therefore, it would be logical to allocate losses to sales over longer periods of time. Such an analysis can only be done in a few years.
Given the poor first quarter, Ford Model E lost $2.5 billion in the first half of this year, and by the end of the year, the total loss could be between $5 billion and $5.5 billion.
During the second quarter, Ford sold 536,050 vehicles in its domestic market. The year-on-year increase was less than 1%. However, in the first half of the year, sales increased by 3.6% to more than 1 million units. Importantly, demand for Ford’s electric vehicles rose sharply in the second quarter, jumping 61%. Electric vehicles still account for only a small share of Ford’s total sales, about 4% in the first half of 2024.
At the same time, the situation on the electric vehicle market was not as good as planned. In May, it became known that slower-than-expected sales of Ford’s electric vehicles prompted the manufacturer to reduce the number of batteries it orders from suppliers.
At the same time, deliveries of Ford’s hybrid models increased significantly, reaching a record 53,822 units sold, an increase of 56%. This was primarily due to increased interest in the Maverick, with the Mustang Mach-E proving to be the brand’s best-selling electric vehicle.
Source: carscoops