Over the past year, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) stock has risen by 8%, shares of Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) by 73%, and the S&P 500 by 29%.

Most analysts believe that Ford’s performance is about the past. It failed to capitalize on the launch of potentially highly successful electric vehicles (EVs): the Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning. And it invested billions of dollars into EV manufacturing.

Toyota, on the other hand, pushed its hybrid business. The demand for hybrids has been strong. Ford has made that a more significant part of its sales effort. As it announced sales for the year’s first quarter, management said, “Overall hybrid sales in Q1 were up 42 percent on sales of 38,421 vehicles.”

The Hybrid Race Is About the Future

Today, the hybrid race is about the future.

The hybrid market will become crowded as major manufacturers rush to get their share. Investors Business Daily says, “Ford and GM will fight to ramp up their hybrid design and production as Toyota and Honda look to extend their leads.” Ford is fighting to come from behind, just as it did in the EV business as it tried to take on Tesla. (The most high-tech and low-tech car brands ranked.)

Car company races are sometimes won from behind. This happened when Japanese cars entered the U.S. market. However, their advantage was the cost of manufacturing and better gas mileage than most vehicles made in America in the 1980s when their run of high market share began.

Companies that dominate hybrid sales in the United States do not have an advantage in terms of technology. They have more models and a perception that they have diversified beyond gasoline-powered cars. Ford’s chance to do better in the hybrid market will be based mainly on whether it can reposition its brand from that of an EV company to a hybrid model manufacturer.

 

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