By Andrew J. Hawkins , transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeare

Ford looks to future EV breakthroughs — and smaller cars — to stanch the bleeding

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2024-04-27 22:00:05

By Andrew J. Hawkins , transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.

Ford is the No. 2 seller of electric vehicles in the US. It’s very proud of that fact, but the amount of cash it had to burn to get there is enough to make you wonder whether it can keep that title.

The company reported its first quarter earnings last night, and woo boy, it’s rough. Ford said it lost $1.3 billion on the sale of 10,000 electric vehicles in the first three months of the year — a staggering figure that amounts to $130,000 lost for every EV sold.

Ford’s Model e division, which oversees some of the company’s EV sales as well as software, reported $100 million in revenue, an 84 percent drop from the same period last year. The number of vehicles sold (10,000) was also down from the first quarter of 2023 by 20 percent. Ford blamed “pricing pressure” — mostly driven by Tesla’s rampant price cuts — and “slower growth” as customers have cooled on electric vehicles.

To be sure, Ford Model e doesn’t handle all the company’s EV business. Ford Pro, its commercial division, also sells electric F-150 Lightning trucks and E-Transit vans. Earlier this month, Ford said it sold a cumulative 20,232 EVs during the first quarter, which was an 86 percent increase over Q1 2023 but a 22 percent drop compared to the previous quarter.