Ford takes $19.5 billion hit
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Ford Abruptly Updates F-150 Lightning
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Ford scraps fully-electric F-150 Lightning as mounting losses and falling demand hits EV plans
Ford Motor Co. is pivoting away from its once-ambitious electric vehicle plans amid financial losses and waning consumer demand for the vehicles.
Ford Motor is keeping the F-150 Lightning, but changing its technology. It plans to add thousands of jobs and enter this new business.
The automaker is ending production of its electric pickup while planning a series-hybrid F-150 and a new low-cost EV platform. “The company is shifting to higher-return opportunities,” Ford says.
Like rival Ram, Ford is getting out of the electric truck market. The battery-powered Ford F-150 Lightning has officially been cancelled after a three-year production run. The nameplate will return on a hybrid model with a range-extender combustion engine.
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Ford Is Saying Goodbye to One of Its Most Ambitious F-150 Pickup Trucks
The discontinuation comes just three years after launch, though it does mean that something even better is on the way.
Ford announced a series of moves in its EV business, pivoting to a hybrid and extended range EV (EREV) strategy instead of full EVs, and will take a whopping $19.5 billion in charges related to the move.