Ford Motor Co.'s (NYSE:F) CEO Jim Farley underscored that the company will focus on smaller, affordable electric vehicles even if former President Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential elections in November.
Future For Ford EVs: During Ford's second-quarter earnings call, Farley underscored that while combustion engine vehicles where vehicle size is proportional to profit margin, bigger EVs exert more pressure on margins.
"The larger the vehicle, the bigger the battery, the more pressure on margins because customers will not pay a premium for those larger batteries," Farley said.
Ford's EV segment recorded an EBIT loss of $1.14 billion in the second quarter owing to industry-wide pricing pressure and lower wholesales despite significant cost reductions in the segment.
The company is aiming to develop EVs priced under $40,000 or even $30,000, the CEO added, placing it in the same price range as China-made low-cost EVs and mass-market offerings from Tesla.
A team, which Farley previously referred to as "skunkworks," is developing an affordable vehicle platform for the purpose, he added.
"...they have really designed breakthrough EV components with our own design that we think are better and cheaper," the CEO said about the team's efforts.
Potential Impact Of A Trump Presidency: Talking about the potential impact of a Trump presidency on the company's EV strategy in the future, Farley said the company will continue to focus on EVs even if Trump were to remove policies favoring EV adoption.
"We believe that the fitness of the Chinese in EVs will eventually wash over our entire industry in all regions. And so we believe as a company, even if there were short-term adjustments we can make to a compliance-led lower requirement lineup, we're not going to approach it that way. We really believe what I said, which is that many Americans would find an electric vehicle lowering their cost. Not everyone, but a high percent," Farley said.
"Even from a compliance standpoint, we can't really count on administrations changing this way or that way," the CEO said while adding that Ford will continue to prioritize choice for customers and will attempt to be fully competitive with BYD, Geely, and Changan on EVs.
Why It Matters: In the second quarter, Ford sold 23,957 EVs, making it the second best-selling EV brand in the U.S. after Tesla. Tesla, however, sold 164,264 EVs in the period in the U.S., according to Kelley Blue Book estimates.
Ford said that it reduced costs by about $400 million year-over-year during the second quarter but pricing pressure weighed heavily on the segment's losses.
For the whole year, Ford expects to incur a loss of $5 billion to $5.5 billion within the EV segment, called Model E.
福特汽車公司(紐約證券交易所代碼:F)首席執行官吉姆·法利強調,即使前總統唐納德·特朗普在11月的2024年總統大選中獲勝,該公司仍將專注於更小、價格合理的電動汽車。
福特電動汽車的未來:在福特第二季度業績電話會議上,法利強調說,儘管汽車大小與利潤率成正比的內燃機汽車,但大型電動汽車對利潤率的壓力更大。
法利說:“車輛越大,電池越大,利潤壓力越大,因爲客戶不會爲更大的電池支付溢價。”
福特電動汽車板塊在第二季度錄得11.4億美元的息稅前利潤虧損,這要歸因於全行業的定價壓力以及儘管該細分市場大幅降低了批發量。
首席執行官補充說,該公司的目標是開發價格低於40,000美元甚至30,000美元的電動汽車,使其與中國製造的低成本電動汽車和特斯拉的大衆市場產品處於相同的價格區間。
他補充說,一個以前被法利稱爲 “skunkworks” 的團隊正在爲此目的開發一種經濟實惠的汽車平台。
首席執行官在談到團隊的努力時說:“... 他們確實用我們自己的設計設計了突破性的電動汽車組件,我們認爲這些組件更好、更便宜。”
特朗普總統任期的潛在影響:在談到特朗普總統任期對公司未來電動汽車戰略的潛在影響時,法利表示,即使特朗普取消了有利於採用電動汽車的政策,該公司仍將繼續專注於電動汽車。
“我們相信,中國人在電動汽車中的適應性最終將席捲我們所有地區的整個行業。因此,我們認爲,作爲一家公司,即使我們可以對以合規爲主導的較低要求陣容進行短期調整,我們也不會這樣做。我們真的相信我所說的話,那就是許多美國人會發現電動汽車可以降低成本。不是所有人,但百分比很高。” 法利說。
首席執行官表示:“即使從合規的角度來看,我們也不能指望政府以這種或那種方式改變。” 同時補充說,福特將繼續優先考慮客戶的選擇,並將努力在電動汽車上與比亞迪、吉利和長安保持充分的競爭力。
爲何重要:在第二季度,福特售出了23,957輛電動汽車,使其成爲僅次於特斯拉的美國第二暢銷的電動汽車品牌。但是,根據凱利藍皮書的估計,特斯拉在此期間在美國售出了164,264輛電動汽車。
福特表示,第二季度成本同比降低了約4億美元,但定價壓力嚴重打壓了該細分市場的虧損。
福特預計,在名爲Model E的電動汽車領域,全年將蒙受50億至55億美元的虧損。