The Mackinac Center for Public Policy highlights an interesting financial conundrum.
The entirety of Ford’s normal vehicle profits was undone by its losses on electric vehicles.
Ford’s 2024 Q3 Earnings Presentation delivers the details: The year-to-date losses on Ford’s EV business (what the company calls “Ford Model e”) totaled $3.7 billion. Profits from Ford’s “Model Blue” division, which sells traditional internal combustion vehicles, also happened to be $3.7 billion.
This past quarter, Ford reported losses of $1.2 billion on its EV business. Energy reporter Robert Bryce calculated that Ford likely lost almost $60,000 for every electric vehicle it sold this past quarter. “Ford has been hemorrhaging cash on EVs for the past two years,” Bryce wrote. “It lost $4.7 billion on EVs in 2023 and $2.2 billion on EVs in 2022.”
General Motors and Stellantis are having their own problems with EV's, of course. Only massive government subsidies are enabling automakers to avoid the reality of the US market. As the Mackinac report points out:
A Gallup poll from March found that 48% of respondents would not consider buying an electric vehicle– a number up 7% from the year prior. while a McKinsey reported in June that 46% of Americans who owned electric vehicles were very likely to buy a gas-powered vehicle next time.
There's more at the link.
Without government tax incentives and subsidies, electric vehicles would be dead on arrival. They can't be produced at a low enough price to persuade people to buy them - let alone their problems with sufficient range, extraordinarily expensive battery replacements, and the like.
Give me an EV that has a practical range of 400-500 miles between recharges (further would be better), while carrying a full load of passengers and/or cargo, in high summer in Texas or deep winter in Montana, with the A/C or heater running full blast, while towing a trailer. Also, let there be an abundance of high-speed recharging stations to allow for long road trips. If EV's can handle that load and those conditions, I'll take a long, hard look at them. Anything less than that, and it's no dice.
Peter
3 comments:
I doubt if Ford will back off on the electric vehicles as the CEO drives a Chinese EV for a daily driver.
https://www.motor1.com/news/738491/ford-ceo-jim-farley-praises-xiaomi/
Last Friday night a couple came into our bridge game and had only 36 miles left of electricity left on their electric car. They lived 32 miles from our game. They said they coasted into their driveway. And no they will not buy another.
The vehicles you want exist today: HEVs or PHEVs. Of course, they are 'recharged' by filling a gas tank.. I'm on my 4th Ford hybrid vehicle beginning in '06 (two SUVs, a sedan, and now an F150 truck).
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