Ford Absorbs Massive Loss On EVs, Confirms the F-150 Lighting BEV Is Dead, Cancels Planned EV Models Calling Move “Customer-Driven Shift” As U.S. Electric Vehicle Market Implodes

After the close of the stock market today, Ford dropped a bomb on the hopes of American battery-electric vehicle advocates. The quick summary of what Ford is doing is this - Stopping all big, pricey EV activities in its tracks, and shifting focus to models that consumers want and that make a profit.

Torque News reported over a year ago that battery-electric pickup trucks were shaping up to be an abject failure in America. This is not to say that we don't find the trucks fantastic to drive. Frankly, most of the $100K-ish vehicles we drive are fantastic, electric or not. We found the F-150 Lightning to be a great vehicle, just dramatically higher in price than originally promised. However, truck buyers in America didn’t want the Lighting. Ford’s first big announcement is that it had actually ended the Lightning some months ago. The WSJ report has now been proven factual, not conjecture.

The biggest announcement is that Ford plans to take losses totaling $19,500,000,000 (nineteen billion five hundred million). That is roughly twice the value of the taxpayer-funded GM bailout if you’re counting. Ford said:

Ford expects to record about $19.5 billion in special items with the majority in the fourth quarter. The company expects about $5.5 billion in cash effects with the majority paid in 2026 and the remainder in 2027.

Ford is also canceling a planned EV model it was going to launch in the European market. On top of that cancellation, Ford will also cancel an American-market commercial EV van it had planned and replace it with gas and hybrid versions.

Ford says that its new changes “...prioritize affordability, choice and profits.” Ford also pins the blame for the changes on its customers, saying, “This is a customer-driven shift…”

You may be asking, “What will Ford do with all that battery capacity it created and had planned to use in EVs?” Ford answered this question, saying it will start a battery storage enterprise. An all-new entity for storing energy in homes and the commercial space. How has that been going for Tesla?

Ford is not quitting on EVs entirely. The plan to build a low-cost EV platform that will be a sort of truck is still on. We wish Ford much success with this, while also pointing out that this author does not believe the cost will be as low as has been promised. I hope I’m dead wrong.

We will update this story as it develops and add details related to the topic over the coming week.

Does this shift by one of America’s top EV manufacturers surprise you? Tell us in the comments below.

Nineteen point five billion U.S. dollars.  We had to type that out one more time. 

Image of Ford F-150 Lightning vehicles charging by John Goreham

John Goreham is the Vice President of the New England Motor Press Association and an expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his fourteen years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on LinkedIn and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. John employs grammar and punctuation software when proofreading, and he sometimes uses image generation tools.