If you find the seemingly endless parade of new EV SUVs bland and underwhelming, send Ford a little shoutout of thanks for jumping off the bandwagon. Last week, the company announced it was recalibrating its electrification strategy by cutting its spending on pure electric vehicles by nearly 40 percent and plowing that money into hybrids. As a result, it’s delaying the next-gen F-150 Lightning pickup and swapping a planned three-row electric SUV for a hybrid version instead.
That’s not to say it’s giving up on electric vehicles—though the next Lightning is now due in 2027, Ford says it will debut alongside a BEV midsize pickup. Interestingly, the new midsizer will be one of the first designed by a skunkworks crew that Ford CEO Jim Farley set up in California two years ago and tasked with developing cheap EVs that could undercut Tesla and go toe-to-toe with Chinese automakers.
And in the meantime, a new full-electric commercial van is now on track for a 2026 launch. No word on whether it will replace or supplement the existing E-Transit. Basically, as EV demand has slowed, Ford’s decided to place its bets on the two areas where it still sees opportunity—trucks and fleets.
Overall cost-savings are not part of the equation at all, as the cancellations and delays are estimated to cost FoMoCo $1.9 billion. Also, because the plant where the EV SUV was supposed to be built now has to be retooled to produce something else—in this case, the always-profitable ICE-based trucks—Ford could be on the hook for another $1.5 billion in manufacturing-related expenses.
In addition to that hybrid three-row SUV, expect more electrified versions of Ford’s current crop of products as well. Ford CEO Jim Farley is confident that a later timetable will better position the company in terms of both competitive pricing and profitability. He anticipates the new EV trucks will turn a profit within a year of their debut.
“This is a tremendous pivot for us, and we’re not going to make a tremendous pivot without doing a lot of homework to convince ourselves this is the exact right plan,” Farley stated. “I’m very confident.”
Ford will announce more updates to its EV strategy sometime during the first half of next year.