In accordance with a memo considered by the outlet, Ford advised its sellers to arrange for a median manufacturing quantity of 1,600 electrical vans from its Rouge Electrical Automobile Heart in Dearborn, Michigan, beginning subsequent yr. The corporate presently churns 3,200 vans out of that manufacturing unit every week.
Emma Bergg, a spokesperson for Ford, declined to touch upon the numbers revealed within the report. “We will continue to match Lightning production to customer demand,” she stated in an e mail.
“We will continue to match Lightning production to customer demand.”
EV gross sales are persevering with to development upward, however not as rapidly as some automakers had anticipated. Consequently, a number of corporations have pulled again on their formidable development plans, together with Ford, which lately stated it will delay $12 billion in investments. That features pausing development of considered one of its two deliberate battery crops in Kentucky and reducing production goals for an additional battery manufacturing unit in Michigan.
Ford continues to lose money on its EVs, round $1.3 billion this previous quarter in adjusted earnings. Thus far this yr, Ford has misplaced $3.1 billion on its EV spending and has stated it’s going to lose a complete of $4 billion for the yr.
However regardless of this, EV gross sales proceed to develop. Ford sold 20,365 F-150 Lightning trucks to this point in 2023, up from 13,258 in 2022 for a 53 % enhance. EVs accounted for a little bit underneath 8 % of all US automobile gross sales within the third quarter of 2023, based on Cox Automotive.
EV gross sales are hampered by excessive costs and a dearth of charging choices. Ford has tried to handle this with new releases like the F-150 Lightning Flash, a midpriced trim of its electrical truck, and partnering with Tesla to undertake the corporate’s EV plug.
