Ford Steps Back From EVs—and Says Hybrids Are the Future

19 comments

1. Spooked by weakening demand for its [EV sales](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-04/ford-delays-big-electric-suv-until-2027-as-ev-demand-remain-weak), and the number and ingenuity of [Chinese automakers](https://www.wired.com/story/how-chinas-ev-boom-caught-western-car-companies-asleep-at-the-wheel/), Ford is scaling back its all-electric ambitions, despite other manufacturers experiencing [significant growth](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-28/the-slowdown-in-us-electric-vehicle-sales-looks-more-like-a-blip) for electric car sales in the first quarter.

   “What we’ve learned is that customers want choice, and so we’re providing that choice, with a full lineup of EVs, hybrid, electric, gas and diesel products,” said CFO John Lawler.

   These SUVs will be built as [hybrids](https://www.wired.com/story/everything-you-need-to-know-about-hybrid-cars/) instead, leading to the company taking a non-cash charge of about $400 million for the sunk costs. Ford also warned the cancellation could lead to an additional future hit of $1.5 billion.

   Full story here: [https://www.wired.com/story/ford-steps-back-from-evs-and-says-hybrids-are-the-future/](https://www.wired.com/story/ford-steps-back-from-evs-and-says-hybrids-are-the-future/)

2. Plug in hybrids were always the way.

3. They’ve been operating like $80k+ trucks are the future.

4. Ford failed at EV’s. The Cybertruck is outselling the Ford Lightning.

5. Anyone who could see past hype and looks at consumer needs knows we’re nowhere close to EVs being viable for anyone but suburbanites that rarely travel long stretches by car.

   Hybrids and plug-in hybrids are the best of all worlds. Toyota knew, for what is worth.

6. Hybrids have been proven to move more units. Look at Toyota….

   The totally EV market is still a long way from viable with our lack of infrastructure.

7. It doesn’t help that there aren’t many non-luxury EV’s out there. My wife got a sweet deal on a Bolt a few years back, lots of discounts and specials and what-not, but they really need to bring the prices down.

   I don’t care about BMW or Porsche or Rivian EV’s. We need the Kias and Hondas and (more) Chevys.

8. Tells us more about Ford than EVs

9. Their CEO Jim Farley literally just said 50% of the customers Ford has would be better off buying an BEV and they just don’t know it yet.

   The big problem for Ford GM and Stellantis is that their EVs are garbage and they can’t even make a profit off the ones they do sell. Scaling is not even an option for them

10. This doesn’t seem very smart to me. EVs are getting less and less expensive with battery prices plummeting. As evidenced by $10,000 EVs from China, the cost of EVs can be driven down below that of ICE or hybrid cars. Additionally, hybrid cars have both an internal combustion engine and a battery system that can require maintenance. EVs have the potential to require far less maintenance as there are only 20 parts that fail routinely whereas in an ICE there are 2k parts that fail routinely.

    The government needs to give out subsidy to rapidly deploy fast charging infrastructure everywhere. Most likely oil and some auto lobbies (like Toyota) are slowing this spending and legislation down as charging infrastructure en masse would hurt their business.

    Norway has a centralized population density, which makes it easier, but they have been selling almost entirely EV cars for years simply because they installed chargers everywhere and offered incentives for people to buy EVs over ICE cars. Even Norway’s ferry fleet is electric.

11. I don’t get how all these cities and jurisdictions are having bans on combustion engines by 2030/2035 and car companies are moving so slowly on EVs. Are car companies just betting that they will lobby the governments to get the bans removed? Are they just planning on not selling any cars in these countries?

12. Too bad, I’ve been waiting on buying a new truck until the EVs come down in price.  If I’m getting away from gas, I don’t want half measures, I just want to be done with it.  I guess I’ll have to keep waiting

13. Whiplash much? The hey just spent billions to set up their manufacturing process and now switching back? How much is that going to cost them?

14. Be real, EV is the future, but we’re not there yet. Hybrids are economical for our current society, but 100% EV with sub-10 min recharge times are the future.

15. Why can’t I get a vehicle that just looks new, have radio and ac and gets me to point A to point B. I don’t need all these gadgets and bells and whistles.

16. Because the free market has failed and can not respond to the need charging stations. I have an EV, if I could not charge it at work it would be useless. Hybrids are the future because we have built a gas station economy.

17. PHEV are the future (for now). I swear these companies could have saved billions by just literally talking to customers.

18. Trying to abide by EV mandates from Biden and Harris cost us tens of billions as well as thousands of jobs. Automotive industry in america paid the price and it’s time to move back. Moving to hybrids and PHEV was always the more sensible option.

19. I want a two seater micro EV for less than 15k with a top speed of 50 mph and I’m not kidding.

    This car centric society has me beat man, I just want a car that goes 150 miles on one charge, why do I need a fucking 4 door 1500km+ range car bro?

    The fucking standard truck gets MAYBE 22 miles to the gallon, why do I need a fucking 150000099999 mile range EV for 80 gazillion dollars?