Ford Sells Barely Any EVs

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jan 9, 6:25AM EST

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Ford Sells Barely Any EVs — © jetcityimage / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F | F Price Prediction) posted strong sales in the United States in 2023. It sold 1,995,912 vehicles, up 7% from 2022. Once again, for the 42nd year, its F-series pickups were the top-selling vehicles in America. Ford sold 750,789 of these, up 14.8% from the 2022. Its electric vehicle (EV) sales were stunningly low at 72,608, up 17.9%. So, the increased sales for what Ford calls its future rose at a rate barely better than its gasoline-powered flagship. Put another way, Ford’s EV sales total was 3.6% of all the vehicles it sold. (See the 15 worst-selling electric vehicles last year.)

Ford says EV demand has been slower than expected. CEO Jim Farley cut back plans for a battery cell plant in November. It throttled back its $12 billion planned EV expansion a month earlier. “All told, we have pushed about $12 billion of EV spend, which includes capex, direct investment and expense,” Chief Financial Officer John Lawler said at the time.

However, Ford’s primary rival in the U.S. EV market continues to post surging sales. Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) has about 50% of the American EV market. Its global deliveries rose 38% to 1,808,581 last year. Tesla’s market cap has grown to the point where, at $764 billion, it is 16 times greater than Ford’s.

Ford’s Mistakes

Ford has made several mistakes while trying to move into the EV market. It changed the price of its EV flagship F-150 Lightning four times. It has since dropped the price on some models, but not enough to drive demand. Its entire EV effort is against Tesla’s recent strategy of sharply cutting most of its model’s prices. Presumably, this will make it harder for any Tesla competitor to take market share.

Ford recently made the point that its new United Auto Workers (UAW) union contract would be costly and affect its product development plans. Between signing the deal and 2028, Ford said the contract would cost it $8.8 billion, about $900 a vehicle in 2028. Tesla, which does not have a unionized workforce, also has an advantage in labor costs.

Ford had a hard year for its EV plans in 2023. There is no reason to think that will be better this year.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.