Ford’s electric vehicle (EV) division lost $1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2024, which adds up to a $132,000 loss for each of the 10,000 EVs sold.
Sales of Ford EVs also plunged by 20 percent compared to last year, and “its revenue plunged 84% to about $100 million, which Ford attributed mostly to price cuts for EVs across the industry.”
Ford expects losses on its Model e to hit $5 billion by the end of the year.
More:
The losses go far beyond the cost of building and selling those 10,000 cars, according to Ford. Instead the losses include hundreds of millions being spent on research and development of the next generation of EVs for Ford. Those investments are years away from paying off.
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The company said it is its “intention” to be have EV pricing cover the actual costs of building each EV, rather than covering all the research and development costs, within the next 12 months. But a price war among EVs for about a year and a half has made even that measure of profitability very difficult said Ford CFO John Lawler. He said while Ford has removed about $5,000 in cost on each Mustang Mach-E, “revenue is dropping faster than we can take out the cost.”
Last year the Model e division lost $4.7 billion on “sales of 116,000 EVs, or an average of $40,525 per vehicle, just more than a third of the first quarter loss.”
It seems to me that it’s about time to call EVs what they are, and that’s the Betamax of cars right around the world.
Electric Vehicle Sales Plunge Across Europe as Demand Stalls https://t.co/TPjHgK0yTT
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 18, 2024
Sony’s Betamax was a superior product to the VHS video recorder. Nevertheless, America wanted the VHS—not only because the VHS recorder was cheaper, but also because it was cheaper and more convenient to operate. The videotapes were cheaper and held six hours instead of the Betamax’s single hour. Sure, the Betamax offered a superior playback picture, but not superior enough to justify the cost. Does any of this sound familiar?
Sure, EVs are more expensive to purchase, more expensive to maintain (repairs), and inconvenient (charge infrastructure, charge time). Still, they are a status symbol of your environmental virtue or something—which I don’t get when the electricity to power the EV mostly comes from fossil fuels.
What’s the difference between driving around looking for Betamax tapes and driving around looking for an EV charger? Oh, I know, you won’t get stranded in the middle of nowhere looking for a Betamax tape.
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So Ford is willing to lose $10 billion over two years on the Betamax of cars? Those are some gullible stockholders.
Until EV chargers are as plentiful and convenient as gas stations… Until you can recharge your car in a few minutes instead of an hour or so, Normal People will not touch these super-expensive vehicles. And before that can happen, a lot of Democrat-run cities will need to do the opposite of what they are doing today: boost electric infrastructure to handle the load. That means more power plants.
And no amount of lies about the environment will ever change that, especially when fossil fuels are still needed to power your Betamax, er, super-expensive EV.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover on Kindle and Audiobook.
