Ford halves production of flagship electric vehicle due to ‘market demand’

Ford has slashed its monthly production of the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck by 50% due to “changing market demand,” the carmaker announced Monday.

According to a memo from Ford obtained by Automotive News, the company has instructed suppliers to prepare for an average monthly volume of 1,600 Lightnings at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center assembly plant in Dearborn, Michigan. The company had previously set monthly production output at 3,200.

The decision comes after Ford announced in October it would slash one of three shifts at its Lightning plant due to falling demand, affecting approximately 700 jobs.

Although Lightning truck sales are increasing, they still fall short of Ford’s projections. The carmaker sold 20,365 Lightnings through November — a 54% increase from last year — partly due to the company’s decision to slash the price from $60,000 to $50,000.

The company has also suspended $12 billion in electric vehicle (EV) investments and postponed other production targets as slowing consumer demand affects the EV industry. Ford alone projects a $4.5 billion loss this year, partly due to losing $32,000 on every EV sold during Q2 2023, according to the Daily Wire.

Last year Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda revealed that a “silent majority” of carmakers do not agree with the globalist vision of an electric vehicle-only future but are too afraid to say so. 

"People involved in the auto industry are largely a silent majority," Toyoda told reporters during a recent trip to Thailand. "That silent majority is wondering whether EVs are really OK to have as a single option. But they think it’s the trend so they can’t speak out loudly." 

In January 2022 Kumar Galhotra, now Ford’s COO, asserted that “people are ready for an all-electric F-150.” But even Ford CEO Jim Farley admitted in August he faced a “reality check” when he took the F-150 Lightning on a road trip across several western states. 

“Charging has been pretty challenging,” Farley said, explaining that at one stop it took 40 minutes to charge the truck’s battery to just 40 percent. “It was a really good reality check — the challenges of what our customers go through.”

Despite the Lightning’s challenges, it still costs $10,000 more than the gas-powered F-150 SuperCrew, even after Ford lowered the Lightning’s price $10,000. But sale prices are not the only factor making EVs a costly endeavor.

According to a study published in January,  “[t]ypical mid-priced ICE (internal combustion engine} car drivers paid about $11.29 to fuel their vehicles for 100 miles of driving. . . . That cost was around $0.31 cheaper than the amount paid by mid-priced EV drivers charging mostly at home, and over $3 less than the cost borne by comparable EV drivers charging commercially.”

The cost difference becomes even starker when factoring in EV drivers who need to recharge frequently at charging stations at an estimated cost of $14.40 per 100 miles. EVs become more expensive still considering that many governments seek to charge EV owners additional fees to compensate for lost fuel taxes. 

Several US states that pushed for “sustainable” and “environmentally friendly” vehicle alternatives are now imposing additional registration fees on EV owners. Illinois Democrats, for instance, proposed charging EV owners a $1,000 annual registration fee to recoup the loss in gasoline taxes. After intense backlash, however, the Prairie State settled on charging EV owners a $251 annual registration fee, $100 more than their ICE counterparts.

At least 19 states have imposed an extra annual registration fee for EVs ranging from $50 to $235, with Blue states such as Michigan and Georgia at the higher end.

But globalist governments around the world have pressed on with the climate mandate despite findings that EVs have less range, are more costly, and only become “environmentally friendly” after about 77,000 miles.

Volkswagen revealed in July that its e-Golf needs to be driven 77,000 miles before it outperforms its fuel-powered counterparts in environmental impact. The number tops Volvo’s estimate in 2021 that EVs only become “climate-friendly” between 30,000 and 68,400 miles — or what typically amounts to between four to nine years overall.

According to Volvo’s figures, EVs are 70% more environmentally harmful than internal combustion engine (ICE) cars, largely due to their batteries. EV batteries require intensive cobalt and lithium mining, which is conducted in Africa and South America and causes significant greenhouse gas emissions.

EVs are also in danger of becoming uninsurable as analysts struggle to understand the risks inherent in EV batteries.

Reports of exploding EV batteries following collisions are growing, leading authorities to recommend extra safety measures for EVs. UK government guidelines, for example, require repair shops to “quarantine” EVs that sustain even minor battery damage by separating them from other cars by at least 15 meters. Government officials have proposed requiring wider car spaces for EVs in parking lots due to their risk of combustion, as well as installing thermal monitoring cameras to detect when an EV goes into “thermal runaway.”

Once ignited, EV fires are difficult to extinguish. Reports estimate that 13% of EVs reignite after the initial blaze.

While battery overcharging is said to be one of the causes of combustion, insurance analysts are trying to understand all the triggers that may cause EV batteries to explode. This lack of clarity, combined with high repair costs, leads to higher insurance premiums.

EV battery repair costs are approximately 25% higher than their gas-powered counterparts after rising 33% in the first quarter of 2023, reported The Telegraph. This, in turn, has led to a 72% jump in average EV insurance costs compared with 29% for gas vehicles. Some EV owners are receiving insurance quotes of over $120 per week, while others are receiving quotes double or even triple the year before.

Other car insurers have stopped insuring EVs altogether. John Lewis Financial Services stopped offering insurance for EVs in September, and Aviva only recently restored insurance products for the Tesla Model Y after canceling them earlier this year.

“The battery is an extremely expensive component of an electric vehicle and until we find efficient ways of dealing with it we have the challenge of high premiums for electric vehicles, which nobody wants,” said Thatcham Research CEO Jonathan Hewett.