Ford has written off $1.9bn as it cancelled plans for an all-electric large SUV in the US, opting to produce a hybrid version instead in the latest sign of western carmakers struggling to make profitable electric cars.
The US carmaker said on Wednesday that it would not be able to reach a profit on the electric SUV within a year, its measure of whether a new car is viable, citing the stiff competition from Chinese manufacturers. It will initially write off the cost of $400m (£300m) in tooling for the vehicle, plus another $1.5bn (£1.15bn) in extra costs in the future.
Ford also said it would delay the successor to its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck until 2027, after initially targeting a launch next year.
Hyundai now sells more EVs than Ford (both in the US).
GM, Rivian, BMW and Volkswagen are the next competitors.
I’ll assume Hyundai are producing EVs profitably. All the others most certainly aren’t. All the incumbents and most of the startups are facing huge challenges in that regard.
BMW seems to do pretty well and is now selling ~20% EVs:
Once considered a laggard, the German luxury carmaker is one of only a few established automakers that has been able to compete effectively against Tesla. - source: nytimes
