The American boss was speaking last week as his company unveiled a $5 billion (£3.7 billion) annual loss, barely two months after it had booked a shock $19.5 billion write-down.
The cause? An aggressive bet on electric vehicles (EVs) that backfired spectacularly.
In 2025, sales of the Mustang Mach-E crossover and the F-150 Lightning pickup truck – once hailed by Farley as the “truck of the future” – went into reverse.
Worse, the electric Model-E division has booked losses of more than $13 billion since 2023.
Now it has consigned the F-150 to the dustbin and has scrapped much of its future EV plans, with the company set to put a greater emphasis on hybrids.
Ford isn’t the only automotive giant counting the costs of a failed bet on electric.
In the past year, the world’s biggest carmakers have written off more than $60 billion from their balance sheets as they retreat from an EV boom that never was.
The figure includes a €22 billion (£19 billion) charge reported by Vauxhall owner Stellantis, along with a $7.6 billion hit to General Motors, €5.1 billion at Volkswagen Group, $4.5 billion at Honda and $1.2 billion at Volvo, among others.
“Most of the Western carmakers are now facing big issues,” says Felipe Muñoz, of Car Industry Analysis.
Broadly speaking, EV sales are growing. But a rapid shift to electric that both carmakers and politicians had hoped for has failed to materialise. “Many drivers are still not comfortable making the shift,” says Muñoz.
At the same time, Net Zero regulations are beginning to bite in the UK and Europe – with companies facing fines if they cannot meet increasingly stretching targets – just as low-price competitors from China have arrived to undercut them...<<<Read More>>>...
