Ford will lower weekly manufacturing of F-150 Lightning in response to slowing demand

In accordance with a memo considered by the outlet, Ford informed its sellers to arrange for a median manufacturing quantity of 1,600 electrical vehicles from its Rouge Electrical Automobile Middle in Dearborn, Michigan, beginning subsequent yr. The corporate presently churns 3,200 vehicles out of that manufacturing unit every week.

Emma Bergg, a spokesperson for Ford, declined to touch upon the numbers printed within the report. “We’ll proceed to match Lightning manufacturing to buyer demand,” she mentioned in an e mail.

“We’ll proceed to match Lightning manufacturing to buyer demand.”

EV gross sales are persevering with to development upward, however not as shortly as some automakers had anticipated. Consequently, a number of corporations have pulled again on their formidable development plans, together with Ford, which just lately mentioned it will delay $12 billion in investments. That features pausing development of one in all its two deliberate battery crops in Kentucky and lowering manufacturing targets for an additional battery manufacturing unit in Michigan.

Ford continues to lose cash on its EVs, round $1.3 billion this previous quarter in adjusted earnings. To date this yr, Ford has misplaced $3.1 billion on its EV spending and has mentioned it’s going to lose a complete of $4 billion for the yr.

However regardless of this, EV gross sales proceed to develop. Ford offered 20,365 F-150 Lightning vehicles up to now in 2023, up from 13,258 in 2022 for a 53 p.c improve. EVs accounted for a bit of beneath 8 p.c of all US car gross sales within the third quarter of 2023, in response to Cox Automotive.

EV gross sales are hampered by excessive costs and a dearth of charging choices. Ford has tried to deal with this with new releases just like the F-150 Lightning Flash, a midpriced trim of its electrical truck, and partnering with Tesla to undertake the corporate’s EV plug.