Ford delays EV launches, will offer full hybrid lineup by 2030

Ford Motor Co. on Thursday said it will delay the launch of new three-row electric vehicles in Ontario, adjust the timing of its next-generation electric truck and will offer hybrid powertrain across its entire internal combustion engine lineup in North America by the end of the decade.

Executives of the Dearborn, Michigan, automaker have admitted that they and the industry got the adoption growth timeline for EVs wrong after a leap in sales amid a global microchip shortage and limited inventories that skewed expectations on capacity for EVs and batteries. With greater availability of all vehicles, the majority of customers are showing they aren't ready for EVs because of how expensive they are, the lack of accessible and reliable charging infrastructure and how fast they take to charge up.

Although Ford reported U.S. first-quarter EV sales rose 86% and hybrids were up 42% year-over-year, it expects to lose at least $5 billion on its Model e EV division in 2024 even after cutting $12 billion in planned EV investments. Tesla Inc., the top seller of EVs in the United States, posted a global sales decrease of 8.5%. General Motors Co.'s U.S. EV sales also fell to almost 16,500, down from 20,000 in the first quarter of 2023.

“As the No. 2 EV brand in the U.S. for the past two years, we are committed to scaling a profitable EV business, using capital wisely and bringing to market the right gas, hybrid and fully electric vehicles at the right time,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement. “Our breakthrough, next-generation EVs will be new from the ground up and fully software enabled, with ever-improving digital experiences and a multitude of potential services.”

Ford says it wants to give the market for three-row EVs to develop further and take advantage of emerging battery technologies that could offer more range and better value. Leaders have discussed how the company is shifting its focus to cheaper, smaller EVs, including the development of a new platform with a small "skunkworks" team in California. As a result, launch of the vehicles at Oakville Assembly Plant in Ontario will begin in 2027 instead of the previously expected 2025.

Retooling of the plant from from the gas-powered Edge crossover still is expected to begin in the second quarter. Some skilled trades workers will maintain their position through the updates, but most of the 2,700 employees at the plant will be on layoff until production resume again. The company says it will work with Canadian labor union Unifor to mitigate the effect of the delay on workers.

Ford also is tweaking the timing of the next all-electric F-Series truck that will be built at the sprawling $5.6 billion Blue Oval City campus being constructed in Tennessee — a part of the $11.4 billion in investments Ford announced in 2021 in that state and Kentucky, the single largest manufacturing investment in its history. Deliveries of the trucks will begin in 2026. The automaker previously said their production would begin in 2025.

Construction continues on the BlueOval SK joint venture battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky, though one of the plants in Kentucky already has been delayed by a year. Progress at BlueOval Battery Park in south-central Michigan's Marshall also proceeds for Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd.-licensed lithium-iron-phosphate battery production. That technology is less expensive than traditional lithium-ion batteries. Ford also is expanding Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake for a Ford Pro commercial EV; installation of tooling is expected to begin in spring 2025.