this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2024
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[Dormant] Electric Vehicles

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Ford writes off $1.9bn as it cancels plans for all-electric large SUV in US (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 3 months ago by AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today to c/evs@lemmy.world
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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.

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[–] sylver_dragon@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Unfortunately, you aren't the US car market. Oversized trucks and cross-over SUVs sell. The top 3 vehicles in 2023 were:

  1. Ford F-150
  2. Chevy Silverado
  3. Dodge Ram

The rest of the list is littered with trucks and cross-over SUVs. Though a couple Tesla vehicles make the list and do quite respectably (The Model Y is at #5). It's no surprise that US manufacturers are targeting large vehicles. That's what US consumers want. And sure, there are lots of arguments to be made against land-yachts. But, it made sense that Ford targeted large vehicles for EV sales. If they can get people to accept the F-150 Lightning, that could really move the needle on EV sales and help them scale up. Expecting customers to both buy-in to a newer technology and make radical changes in their buying habits, is a recipe for failure. Though, it also seems that Ford is managing to fail despite chasing consumer trends.