Ford announced a $19.5 billion charge on its electric vehicle business, the largest EV impairment in U.S. auto industry history.
Why it matters: The Detroit automaker is abandoning its all-electric pickup strategy and pivoting to hybrids, signaling the post-subsidy EV collapse has forced a fundamental retreat.
The Details
- Ford will stop making the all-electric F-150 Lightning and replace it with an extended-range version that includes a gasoline engine.
- The $19.5 billion charge includes $6 billion from ending its battery joint venture with SK Group in Kentucky.
- Ford is scrapping plans for an additional electric truck and electric commercial vans.
- The company’s Kentucky EV-battery factory will pivot to battery-storage for utilities, solar developers, and AI data centers.
- Ford plans to hire thousands of new U.S. employees and still promises a $30,000 EV pickup by 2027.
By The Numbers
- Total Charges: $19.5 billion
- EV Losses Since 2023: $13 billion
- SK Group JV Breakup: $6 billion
- 2024 Net Income: $5.9 billion
- 2024 Revenue: $185 billion
- Raised Earnings Forecast: $7 billion (up from $6 to $6.5 billion)
- 2030 Electrified Target: 50% of global volume (hybrids, EREVs, and EVs)
EVXL’s Take
This is the reckoning EVXL has been tracking for months. When we reported in November that Ford executives were discussing the Lightning’s cancellation, the writing was on the wall. CEO Jim Farley’s admission that large EVs will never make money validates what the post-tax credit collapse revealed: Ford’s EV strategy was built on subsidies, not sustainable demand.
The pivot to extended-range EVs and battery storage for AI data centers shows Ford chasing profitability wherever it exists. But the $13 billion in EV losses since 2023 represents a catastrophic misallocation of capital during a period when Chinese competitors like BYD were building genuinely profitable electric vehicles. Ford bet on government subsidies. China bet on technology. The results speak for themselves.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Ford completely abandoning EVs? No. Ford still plans a $30,000 EV pickup by 2027 and says half its 2030 volume will be electrified, but it is shifting focus to hybrids and extended-range vehicles.
- What happens to the F-150 Lightning? Production will end. Ford will replace it with an extended-range version that includes a gasoline engine to recharge the battery.
- Why is Ford taking this writedown now? Sinking EV demand after the federal tax credit expired and regulatory changes under the Trump administration freed Ford to abandon loss-making EV assets.
