In 2023, Ford’s “Pro” business, which includes its sales to companies, made $7.2 billion of operating profit. Ford expects that number to rise to at least $8 billion in 2024.
"The supersize Super Duty, which is mainly a professional product, is a key reason. It is also easier to sell software to businesses than consumers, who can get a lot for free," the Wall Street Journal noted in a Feb. 7 report.
Electric vehicles (EVs) lost $4.7 billion in 2023. Ford sees the EV losses deepening to between $5 billion and $5.5 billion this year.
"To put this another way, if Ford weren’t selling its Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning models and investing in a new generation of products to replace them, its adjusted operating profit would be 50% higher," the Journal reported.
Last month, Ford sold 4,674 all-electric vehicles, 11 percent less than a year ago and the lowest level since April 2023. That's also just 3.2 percent of the brand's total volume (compared to 5-6 percent in late 2023).
Giving up on EVs is not an option for Ford. The Biden Administration has proposed emissions regulations designed to ensure that two-thirds of new passenger cars are all-electric by 2032.
On Ford’s earnings call on Feb. 6, Chief Executive Jim Farley stressed that he would only launch next-generation EVs that will be profitable within a year, meaning some products are being pushed back.
"But Ford is still planning to devote 40% of its capital expenditures to the technology in 2024—the same share as last year. And Farley still has his sights on the EV growth opportunity," the Journal reported.
Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said Republicans are intent on stopping the Biden Administration’s "radical EV agenda, preserve people’s vehicle choice, and ensure America — not China — is leading.
Rodgers cited three pieces of legislation:
• H.R. 1435, the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act, led by Pennsylvania Republican Rep. John Joyce, "protects America’s automotive future" by stopping California and Joe Biden "from dictating the vehicles Americans can drive." The bill passed the House in September 2023, by a bipartisan vote of 222-190.
• H.R. 4468, the Choice in Automobile Retail Sales (CARS) Act of 2023, led by Michigan Republican Rep. Tim Walberg and Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde, prevents the Biden Administration "from imposing a de facto EV mandate and ceding America’s auto future to China." The bill passed the House in December 2023, by a bipartisan vote of 221-197.
• H.R. 4469, the No Fuel Credits for Batteries Act of 2023, led by Indiana Republican Rep. Greg Pence, "ends the EPA’s radical agenda that is reducing people's access to reliable, affordable transportation fuels and forcing them to transition to EVs."
"Policy experts across the board are sounding the alarm on the national security consequences of Biden’s forced EV transition and how it will strengthen China’s foothold in the American auto industry for decades to come," Rodgers added.
More than a dozen former senior military officials recently warned the Biden team that its rush-to-green agenda “will undoubtedly open the U.S. up to economic manipulations by China, identical to what Russia is doing with Ukrainian grain exports, and [poses] a major threat to our national security.”
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