So Ford began to review its electric vehicle program. The company has announced that it will halve production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck from next year. If in 2023 the planned output was 3,200 units per week, then in 2024 it will be reduced to 1,600 trucks over the same period.
Not only has the production plan for the electric version of America’s most popular car been revised. The Ford plant in Mexico City slows down the pace of the conveyor belt, where Mustang Mach-E electric crossovers are made. According to the company’s representatives, this is done so that “production volumes meet the needs of customers.” Moreover, the auto giant intends to reduce costs for its electric vehicle division. This has already led to a revision of plans for the traction battery plant in Michigan, which is still under construction — of course, in the direction of reducing the scale of the enterprise.
According to Bloomberg, Ford CEO Jim Farley also believes that the electric car market is not showing the growth dynamics that the company expected. He blames too high prices and a modest charging infrastructure that does not meet the needs of customers.
However, the segment of electric vehicles is still growing, even if not at the pace that automakers expected. Last November, the same Ford F-150 Lightning showed a record sales result: 4,393 pickups were delivered to customers. Overall, low supplies are associated with internal problems at Ford caused by pipeline shutdowns to expand it and strengthen quality control. But in the future, the sale of “Lightning” may go down, because a formidable competitor, Tesla Cybertruck, is entering the market.