Ford says he will lose billions with electric cars in 2025

In general, electric vehicles are not yet profitable in most of the world due to the high costs of manufacturing their batteries, which remain the most expensive component of an EV. Tesla’s first lucrative year was only in 2020. Last month, General Motors said it finally began to make a profit from its electric cars. The Model and Ford division, responsible for the brand’s zero emission vehicles, faced a difficult year in 2024 and prepares for more challenges in 2025.

In detailing its financial results to 2024, the American brand admitted that it had a loss of US $ 5.1 billion in EBIT (profit before interest and taxes) of the whole year. Things can be even worse this year, as the Dearborn automaker predicts that its green models will have a loss of $ 5 billion to $ 5.5 billion (about $ 29 to 32 billion). No matter how worse, Ford remains optimistic, as part of the money goes to investments in electrical. In addition, she reported $ 1.4 billion ($ 8.1 billion) in “cost improvements” last year.

Although its electric is not going well, Ford sold 34.8% more EVs last year in the United States, with orders increasing to 97,865 units. Hybrids also increased by 40.1%, reaching 187,426 vehicles. However, gasoline -powered vehicles did all the heavy work, reaching 1,793,541 units, or +0.2% compared to 2023.

Last year it marked the 47th consecutive year in which F-Series was the best-selling pickup truck in the United States, but the head of Ford admits that large electric electric problems have insoluble problems. During this week’s 2024 financial conference, CEO Jim Farley said electric vehicles are not a “good technology” for towing, as their batteries are “very large”.

But that’s not all. Farley said the large EVs suffer from worse aerodynamics and are heavier than their gasoline equivalents, so a large, face battery is needed to provide decent range. Ford is taking its time with the next wave of electric vehicles, postponing the new medium -sized pickup truck to the end of 2027, or about 18 months later than initially expected.

In February 2024, Farley mentioned a “informal work team” in charge of developing a new low -cost platform to support cheaper EVs that would rival “affordable Teslas and Chinese OEMs.” In addition, engineers are working on extended electric vehicles (EREVS) with a gasoline engine serving as a generator to feed the battery. As seen in the Mazda MX-30 R-EV, which has a rotary engine that behaves like a generator, combustion will not be mechanically connected to the axes. Instead, the electric motors drive the wheels. Posting to 2026, the 1500 Ramchager RAM will be an electric pickup with a range extensor gasoline engine.

Elsewhere, Ford canceled a three -row electric SUV in 2024 after realizing that mathematics was not working in its favor. This measure cost the company $ 1.9 billion. The utility with an estimated range of 563 km should have been released this year before being postponed until 2027 and later discarded. John Lawler, Ford’s chief financial officer, explained last August why the project was closed:

“We analyzed where the segment was involving the amount of competition that the customer needs and then the size of the battery that needs to be placed in a pure electric vehicle, the cost structure, the price, and we could not assemble a vehicle that would meet our requirement to be profitable in the first 12 months of launch, and we are maintaining it.”

Ford sells a large electric SUV in Europe with the name Explorer, but it is different from the eponymous gasoline model available in the United States. Essentially, it is a reformulated Volkswagen ID.4. Similarly, the new Capri is basically a VW ID.5 underneath.

Ford Explorer Electric

Looking to the future, Farley says new models will use Unibody and Body-O-Frame platforms that support both combustion engines and purely electric force trains, facilitating cost distribution to the company. Multienergetic architectures will allow Ford to quickly respond to changes in market trends.

However, the portal Bloomberg Informs that cheaper EVs and EREVs will not hit the market until 2027, so it will be difficult to stay competitive in the coming years.

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