Photo: Ford
So Ford has begun to reconsider its electric vehicle program. The company announced it will cut production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck in half starting next year. If in 2023 the planned production volume was 3,200 units per week, then in 2024 it will be reduced to 1,600 trucks over the same period.
It’s not just the production plan for the electric version of America’s most popular car that has been revised. Ford’s Mexico City plant is slowing down the assembly line where it makes the Mustang Mach-E electric crossover. According to company representatives, this was done so that “production volumes meet customer demands.” Moreover, the auto giant intends to reduce costs for its electric vehicle division. This has already led to a revision of plans for a traction battery plant still under construction in Michigan – of course, towards reducing the scale of the enterprise.
As he writes Bloomberg, Ford CEO Jim Farley also believes that the electric vehicle market is not showing the growth dynamics that the company expected. He blames too high prices and a modest charging infrastructure that does not meet the needs of customers.
However, the electric vehicle segment is still growing, albeit not at the pace that automakers expected. Last November, the same Ford F-150 Lightning showed record sales results: 4,393 pickup trucks were delivered to customers. Generally low deliveries are associated with internal problems at Ford caused by shutdowns of the assembly line to expand it and strengthen quality control. But in the future, sales of the Lightning may go down, because a formidable competitor, the Tesla Cybertruck, is entering the market.
2023-12-13 17:44:29
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