Electric cars continue to tear billions of holes in the balance sheet ford. In the last quarter, the US car giant posted a loss of $1.14 billion in this division. Combustion models and commercial vehicles, on the other hand, provided positive figures.
The bottom line is that group profits fell by 9 percent year-on-year to $1.83 billion after the electrical deficit and higher provisions for warranty claims. Analysts had expected higher profitability. The share temporarily lost around 12 percent in after-hours trading. Quarterly sales increased by 6 percent to $47.8 billion (44 billion euros). For the full year, Ford expects an operating loss of $5 billion to $5.5 billion in the business.
Ford and other US car companies started an expensive race to catch up with electric car pioneers during the corona pandemic Tesla. New capacities have now been built up – but buyers’ interest in electric models has cooled significantly.
Ford recently postponed the market launch of its new electric crossover. In addition, the factory in Canada that was intended to build the vehicles will be used for larger, gasoline-powered versions of its F-Series pickups. Ford managers had stated that the next generation of electric cars should only come onto the market when there is money to be made with them.
Instead of purely electric cars, hybrid vehicles have become more popular in the USA. Ford alone sold 34 percent more cars with hybrid drives in the last quarter. And they now account for around 9 percent of the group’s global sales.