A few years ago, Ford Motor jumped out ahead of other established automakers by quickly rolling out three electric vehicles that it hoped would help it sell more cars and increase profits.
Instead, the company is paying a high price for its early start.
On Tuesday, Ford said its electric vehicle division lost $4.8 billion in 2025 and was expected to lose $4 billion to $4.5 billion in 2026. The company also said that the division would continue losing money for at least two more years.
“We are now targeting break-even around 2029,” Ford’s chief financial officer, Sherry House, said on Tuesday during a conference call to discuss the company’s financial results.
Including the loss in 2025, Ford has lost more than $16 billion on its electric vehicle business since 2022.
In December, Ford announced it was scaling back its electric vehicle plans. It stopped making one model, the F-150 Lightning pickup truck, scrapped plans to produce an electric truck at a plant it was building in Tennessee, and canceled plans for an electric commercial van.
Instead, Ford plans to make a gas-electric hybrid version of the Lightning. The company will use the Tennessee factory to make a gasoline-powered truck, and will make hybrid and gas-powered delivery vans at a location in Ohio.
Ford says it still planned to make a medium-size pickup that is supposed to sell for around $30,000. That truck, expected in 2027, will use new components and production methods that Ford has said will cost a lot less.
It also ended a partnership with a Korean partner, SK On, that was supposed to jointly produce batteries. Ford has taken full ownership of a factory in Kentucky, and SK On now solely owns a plant in Tennessee.
Ford took charges of $19.5 billion against its fourth quarter earnings to cover the cost of the changing its strategy.
Overall, Ford lost $11.1 billion in the fourth quarter and $8.2 billion for all of 2025. The electric vehicle losses were offset by substantial profits in divisions that make internal-combustion vehicles and sell vehicles and services to commercial customers.
Ford said it expected its financial performance to improve significantly in 2026. The company said this year’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and other items were expected to be $8 billion to $10 billion. In 2025, Ford said its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and other items were $6.8 billion.
Neal E. Boudette, a Michigan-based reporter for The Times, has been covering the auto industry for more than two decades.
The post Ford Says Electric Vehicle Losses Will Continue for Three More Years appeared first on New York Times.
