Ford remained profitable in the first quarter of 2024, but its electric vehicle (EV) division incurred heavy losses.
The Blue Oval reported a net income of US$1.3 billion (~A$1.99 billion) in the first quarter of 2024 which is largely thanks to the success of its Ford Pro fleet division, which recorded earnings before interest and tax of US$3 billion (~A$4.58bn).
Its Model e EV division, in contrast, lost a hefty US$1.32 billion (~A$2.02bn), which is around twice the amount it lost during the same period in 2023.
Ford claims it sold approximately 10,000 EVs in the first quarter of 2024, meaning the Model e division lost approximately A$200,000 on each example sold. This is before interest and taxes are considered.
The carmaker notes Model e’s losses are due to “significant industrywide pricing pressure”, though it expects EV costs to improve going forward.
Earlier this year Ford paused deliveries of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup due to an unspecified quality issue.
Ford CEO Jim Farley also said in February he regretted not getting on top of the brand’s notorious quality issues sooner after taking the top job in 2020.
The pause followed what has been a tumultuous three years for the F-150 Lightning since it was first unveiled in early 2021, with initially strong demand tapering off and the electric pickup hit by a production pause in 2023 and the aforementioned delivery pause this year.
At this stage the F-150 Lightning isn’t offered in Australia by Ford directly, though the company has remained coy on its plans to bring the electric pickup to local showrooms.
The Mustang Mach-E electric crossover, which is offered in Australia, continues to fly under the radar on the sales chart.
In the first quarter of 2024 only 168 examples of the Mustang Mach-E were sold in Australia, which is far away from the sales volume the Tesla Model Y (6835 sales) got over the same period.
Even the Kia EV6 (589 sales), Hyundai Kona Electric (502 sales), BMW iX1 (476 sales), Volvo XC40 Recharge (444 sales), Toyota bZ4X (311 sales), BMW iX3 (290 sales), Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV (290 sales), Mercedes-Benz EQA (258 sales), Hyundai Ioniq 5 (244 sales), and Kia Niro EV (222 sales) outsold the Mustang Mach-E locally.
The Mustang Mach-E launched in Australia last year and received a price cut before customer deliveries started. The electric crossover also recently received an update which is expected to arrive locally in 2025.
Ford also sold a total of 15 E-Transit vans in the first quarter of 2024 locally. This is still one of the few electric vans offered in Australia and goes up against the LDV eDeliver 7 and eDeliver 9, as well as the Peugeot e-Partner and Renault Kangoo E-Tech.
Looking to the future, Ford has confirmed it’s introducing the new Puma Gen-E small electric crossover and E-Transit Custom electric van to Australia later in 2024.
