Ford to record $19.5 billion in special charges related to EV pullback

DETROIT — Ford Motor expects to record about $19.5 billion in special items related to a restructuring of its business priorities and a pullback in its all-electric vehicle investments, the company announced Monday.

The Detroit automaker said most of those charges will occur during the fourth quarter. That will be followed by $5.5 billion in cash to be charged through 2027, and the the majority of that chunk will be paid next year, Ford said.

The charges will impact the automaker’s net results but not its adjusted earnings. The automaker said Monday it was increasing its guidance of adjusted earnings before interest and taxes to about $7 billion in 2025. That’s in line with a target from earlier this year, before the company lowered expectations to between $6 billion and $6.5 billion in adjusted EBIT in October.

The charges announced Monday, including $8.5 billion in writedowns of EV assets, are connected to major changes to Ford’s business plans.

The new plans include refocusing investments on hybrid vehicles, including plug-in models rather than pure EVs; canceling a next-generation of large all-electric trucks in exchange for smaller, more affordable EVs; and a rebalancing of its investments in core products such as trucks and SUVs.

The changes are the latest under Ford CEO Jim Farley and his “Ford+” restructuring plan that has taken on many different forms since he initially announced it as an EV growth plan in 2021.

The EV segment has experienced a sales slump domestically after the Trump administration put an early end in September to a $7,500 federal tax credit previously available for EV buyers in the U.S.

“This is a customer-driven shift to create a stronger, more resilient and more profitable Ford,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement on Monday.

Ford also said Monday that its all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup will transition to an extended-range EV, or EREV, that includes an electric powertrain as well as a gas-powered generator, and it announced plans to use battery plants in Kentucky and Michigan for a new stationary energy storage business.

Ford said the changes are expected to provide “a path to profitability” for its Model e electric vehicle business by 2029, targeting annual improvements beginning in 2026. The automaker also said it expects the changes to improve profits in its traditional Ford Blue unit and Ford Pro commercial and fleet business “over time with early signs of benefits in 2026.”

The automaker said it expects approximately 50% of its global volume by 2030 will be hybrids, EREVs and fully electric vehicles, up from 17% in 2025.

“These are big decisions that we believe will pay off for years to come for our customers, our employees, American jobs and manufacturing,” Andrew Frick, president of the Model e and Blue businesses, said Monday during a media call. “Ford is following the customer. We are looking at the market as it is today, not just as everyone predicted it to be five years ago.”

Ford said it will concentrate its North American electric vehicle development on its new, low-cost, flexible “Universal EV Platform” that’s expected to underpin a “high-volume family of smaller, highly efficient and affordable electric vehicles.”

The first vehicle from the new platform will be a “fully connected midsize pickup truck” assembled at the company’s Louisville Assembly Plant starting in 2027.

The company also expects its new storage business to be producing and shipping units by 2027 for things such as “data centers, the electric gird and much more,” Frick said.

“This is a compelling opportunity. It’s a market with huge potential and strong demand,” he said. “We will have 20 gigawatt hours of annual capacity for this market.”

Shares of Ford closed Monday at $13.65, down less than 1%. Ford stock as of Monday’s close was up nearly 40% this year.