Can F-150 Save Ford?

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jul 29, 7:06AM EDT · Published Jul 28, 8:56AM EDT

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Can F-150 Save Ford? — © 2019 Ford F-150 Lariat (CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED) by Kevauto

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Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F | F Price Prediction) posted poor earnings due to staggering warranty payment costs.
However, its F-150 has been the best-selling vehicle in the United States for over four decades
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Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) stock dropped almost 20% during one day after it announced poor earnings, plagued by staggering warranty payment costs. Despite double-digit growth in electric vehicle (EV) sales, they are still a tiny percentage of Ford’s total, and it will take years, or longer, to recoup billions of dollars of investment into the sector. Ford relies heavily on a gas guzzler for a huge portion of its sales and revenue. The F-series-sized pick was 37% of Ford’s total vehicle sales in the United States during the first half of 2024.

Ford bragged about the F-series when it released its first-half numbers: “Ford remains America’s No. 1 truck seller, led by the best-selling F-Series and strong gains for Maverick, America’s most affordable pickup.” F-series pickup sales were 199,463. The electric version of the F-150, the Lightning, had sales of a tiny 7,902.

The F-series does more than contribute to Ford’s revenue and profit. According to a 2020 Boston Consulting report, “In addition, F-Series manufacturing is responsible for approximately 500,000 US jobs. Each direct F-Series job supports an additional 13 to 14 American jobs, such as those found in dealerships and local communities around Ford and supplier facilities.”

Ford’s EV unit will lose about $5 billion this year. At one point, Ford management said its EV investment would grow to $30 billion. Ford’s EV business may not make money for years. In the meantime, Ford needs something to carry the company on its back. This will be, for the next several years, a pickup that has been the best-selling vehicle in the United States for over four decades.

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.