And delays the opening of a new battery plant
Ford Motor Company’s third-quarter earnings showed widening losses from electric vehicles, driven primarily by slowing demand and the electric vehicle price war initiated by Tesla earlier in the year.
Ford managed to sell 20,962 electric vehicles in the third quarter, beating General Motors by a small margin, thanks in large part to increased production of the Mustang Mach-E: Mach-E sales rose 42.5% in the third quarter with 14,824 units sold, 5,872 of which implemented only in September.
The automaker’s electric vehicle deliveries increased 44%, driving Ford’s Model E EV division’s revenue up 26% year over year to $1.8 billion.
Ford loses $36,000 on every electric vehicle sold.
That’s where the good news for Ford’s electric vehicle business ends. Despite the higher volume, EV losses continued to widen in the third quarter, with the company reporting an operating loss of $1.3 billion, up from $1.1 billion in the prior quarter and more than double the 2022 third quarter.
That means Ford lost about $36,000 on every EV sold in the quarter, beating the estimated loss of $32,350 per EV in the second quarter. For the full year, the automaker expects its electric vehicle division to report an annual loss of $4.5 billion.
Ford said the third-quarter loss was “driven by continued investments in next-generation electric vehicles and challenging market dynamics.” Regarding the latter, the automaker noted that “many North American customers interested in purchasing electric vehicles are unwilling to pay more for them than for gasoline or hybrid vehicles.” According to Ford, this puts pressure on the prices and profitability of electric vehicles.
As a result, the company said it was cutting its planned investment in electric vehicles by about $12 billion. Ford is cutting production of the Mustang Mach-E and delaying the opening of one of its two battery plants.
