Ford Has Steered Its Former EV Truck and Plant Plans in to a Ditch

Electric pickup trucks are hard, mostly because they need to fill an imaginary, or aspirational use case. More than 99% of the pickup truck miles in the US could be filled by an electric truck with a 150 mile range that people charge at home. But no one will buy that truck because of the desire to take long trips, and potentially tow a long distance.

The driving and ownership experience of electric vehicles is MUCH better, but it is hard to convince buyers to try it out.

Still wonder when Ford can bring back at least one damn sedan in the lineup.

It’s embarassing that https://www.ford.com/cars/fusion/ has a link to “explore all sedan vehicles” that dumps you right into the exciting selection of SUVs.

>with the Lightning (and the overall EV market) in trouble

What? Global EV sales are up 21% in 2025. Maybe lightning sales are down, but not overall EV sales.

Not surprised.

They pulled back out of the EU and other markets like South America and BYD opened up an assembly plant in Brazil.

Turn back the clock and Ford ruled the EU with saloons like the Escort, Mondeo and later the Focus - they were caught unawares with shift to compact SUV's and had the popular Ecosport but never invested in the product line and it was left to wither and die.

They are teaming up with Renault to use their EV platform to maintain a token presence in the EU but consumers today are smarter and more informed and will not buy badge engineered Fords.

I mean, the reduction of industrial subsidizes for EVs globally [0] along with recent supply chain scares [1] have made the economics for EVs much more difficult recently [2].

This should not be construed as "EVs are dying" but as I keep saying, EVs are going thru the same cycle that Hybrid ICE went thru 15 years ago.

Assuming a 0 to 100% EV transition would happen globally in a handful of years is dumb. Heck, even Chinese automotive manufacturers primarily export ICE vehicles globally [3]. The transition will happen both slower than EV fundamentalists and faster than ICE fundamentalists assume.

[0] - https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/global...

[1] - https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-tightens-rare-eart...

[2] - https://www.spglobal.com/automotive-insights/en/blogs/2025/1...

[3] - https://www.reuters.com/investigations/china-floods-world-wi...

Why did they throw away the Soybean/Hemp car patent, in the 1940s?

Soybean car https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean_car

Were they corrupted by oil and war to sell it?

I mean, the reduction of industrial subsidizes for EVs globally [0] along with recent supply chain scares [1] have made the economics for EVs much more difficult recently [2].

This should not be construed as "EVs are dying" but as I keep saying, EVs are going thru the same cycle that Hybrid ICE went thru 15 years ago.

[0] - https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/global...

[1] - https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-tightens-rare-eart...

[2] - https://www.spglobal.com/automotive-insights/en/blogs/2025/1...

[3] - https://www.reuters.com/investigations/china-floods-world-wi...

Not surprised.

They pulled back out of the EU and other markets like South America and BYD opened up an assembly plant in Brazil.

They are teaming up with Renault to use their EV platform to maintain a token presence in the EU but consumers today are smarter and more informed and will not buy badge engineered Fords.

The formula is so simple, but complicated to achieve underneath: sell the best products.

That’s all you have to do. But so many companies resort to financial games and short term business gimmicks rather than believing that they can make the best products and putting focus and drive into that goal (not just money!)

Stellantis can make great products but for the most part they just won’t. They actively refuse to. Same deal with Ford.

GM is doing well with EVs because they actually make good products. The Silverado EV is the best EV truck on the market, Cadillac makes the best luxury EVs on the market[1], and the Honda Prologue (made by GM) is a sales star because it’s a good product that knows its market. Even the Chevy Trax is a great product because of the sheer impossibility of its value proposition: nobody can compete with the amount of things that vehicle gives you for the price.

Ford half-assed their sedans and bowed out of that market and now their supposed focus on SUVs is not good enough because none of their SUVs, gas or electric or hybrid, give you any reason to buy them. They are half-assing all their vehicles until they reach their inevitable demise.

Why is anyone buying an Expedition over a Telluride, Grand Highlander, or Chevy Suburban derivative?

Why is anyone buying an Explorer over a RAV4, CRV, etc.

The only thing Ford makes that’s any good is the F-150, Maverick, Bronco and Mustang (very niche). This means they have basically zero cars to sell outside the US.

[1] Yes, better than Tesla and Lucid: more luxurious and isolated with better interior materials, fewer reliability problems, better ergonomics and physical controls, stronger dealer and service network.

Still wonder when Ford can bring back at least one damn sedan in the lineup.

It’s embarassing that https://www.ford.com/cars/fusion/ has a link to “explore all sedan vehicles” that dumps you right into the exciting selection of SUVs.

Does anyone make an electric Sedan for sale in the US? I'm starting to look and all I can find are SUV - I own a truck already, I want back in a car. Preferably something without too much power (My kids will be driving age soon).

The driving and ownership experience of electric vehicles is MUCH better, but it is hard to convince buyers to try it out.

>with the Lightning (and the overall EV market) in trouble

What? Global EV sales are up 21% in 2025. Maybe lightning sales are down, but not overall EV sales.

> Global EV sales are up 21% in 2025

The issue is, that rate of growth globally is not enough to sustain the capex spent on building EV manufacturing capacity in 2019-24.

Much of that growth was itself due to China, where EV sales growth is starting to taper down making the financials difficult [0].

Growth alone is not enough - what matters is margins. If the rate of growth cannot sustain COGS, then production is right-sized.

Heck, even back in China a major reason BYD has been so successful is because it was able to subsidize it's initial foray into EV vehicles by becoming the primary smartphone battery vendor for Apple, Samsung, and other vendors in the 2000s.

Traditional automotive majors lacked similarly high margins businesses to help cushion the upfront cost of building out capacity.

This isn't to say EVs are "dead", but the transition will not happen overnight. It took Hybrid cars 10-15 years to go mainstream, and imo EVs today are in the same position where Hybrid cars were in the 2013-16 period.

A lot of shifts are happening in battery chemistry (eg. solid state battery manufacturing capex becoming mainstream) along with component manufacturing (eg. Capex for mass producing EESMs). I remain optimistic, but the histrionics some EV fanatics make is equally as grating/annoying as ICE fanatics.

[0] - https://www.eiu.com/n/blogs/auto-2026-outlook/

Why did they throw away the Soybean/Hemp car patent, in the 1940s?

Soybean car https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean_car

Were they corrupted by oil and war to sell it?

Consider that a car made of plastic is something that only works pre-Ralph Nader. Now the NTSB would veto it in milliseconds.

Solid state batteries solve for EV trucks.

The Chevy Silverado EV truck wins at towing but not being towed, FWIU.

They could have won with a bad EV platform to have just used the existing F-150 part streams.

Did GM intentionally or accidentally squander EVs with the EV1?

How could firms encourage EV conversions of trucks in order to get this solved?

I live in a two car household, and I need one vehicle that is comfortable on long trips, and one to handle truck jobs like hauling brush, firewood, oversized items and 3 bikes. My wife, daughter and myself vastly prefer our electric car (IONIQ 6) around town, but even as a big fan of the car I am still uncomfortable using it on long trips, so our truck (Honda Ridgeline) is still a gas vehicle.

I predict that EV trucks with a range extender will do very well in the US, and will be the catalyst behind the move to electric trucks. Once people get the experience of an electric truck they will love it, but the option to dump in gasoline and drive 400 miles without charging is an imaginary barrier that stops most customers from giving it a shot.

Personally, I would love to see an electric truck that can be charged while driving by an external generator, possible mounted to a trailer.

>The driving and ownership experience of electric vehicles is MUCH better

Until EVs solve the cost problem as well as the "tracking device" and the "I have 8 iPads built into the dash" problems I'm not very excited.

The Slate looks pretty exciting in this regard but I'm worried it will ever exist, or if it will fall badly short of cost estimates. It's already slipped to ~$27.5k due to the expiration of the EV tax credit. In practice, whenever a car says "starting at $xx it's usually impossible to find that model and you can only get the midrange models which are $5-$10k more than the base price.

[edit]

Interestingly as well, the Slate sidesteps the towing problem by refusing to attempt to tow. It's rated to tow 1,000 lbs, which is effectively nothing. It's still got a respectable payload, though, so it does work as a truck.

> potentially tow a long distance.

IF you do this even once a year you don't really have any other option. Finding a rental truck that allows you to tow is hard. The vast majority won't allow it. When you do find one it is generally in an inconvenient location and very expensive. I can justify keeping my truck (long paid for) just because just 2 trips a year need a truck and so it is cheaper overall to just own the truck (tax and insurance is low) than to rent.

When a new truck is $80k, it has to do everything becuase its an only vehichle. If they made $20k-$30k trucks, then its alot easier to justify it as a second vehichle that isnt required for long trips.

My dad has been telling the same story for ten years. He wants to take a trip around US national parks, sleeping in the back of the car, under the stars, which is why his car needs a 500-mile range and must be fueled by gasoline. This conversation always comes up at family gatherings when he asks how I like my electric car.

He's in his mid-80s with prostate problems. He has never taken the trip.

This made me realize that another set of batteries should be installed in the boat trailer (etc), rather than carrying them around every day when not needed.

The charger station situation will probably need to be figured out however.

Your perspective is kind of confusing to me.

I'm 35, don't own a vehicle, and have never owned a vehicle. I live in SF. I think I'm finally getting to the point in my life where, maybe, I want a vehicle. I'd use it to take myself to camping music festivals and Burning Man. That's about it. Oh, I'm sure I'd find other uses for it, helping friends haul stuff, etc... but, practically speaking, most of my needs are consistently addressed by public transit and/or Waymo.

I guess what I'm trying to say is - literally the only time I feel like I'm missing out on a vehicle is when I have a need to transport a large amount of stuff a large amount of miles into desolate environments.

Does that mean my desire for a truck is imaginary/aspirational because, if I were to own it, 99% of the time I'd be content with a low range battery? I can see why people would think that, but, to me, it seems more like the 1% is the rationale for owning the vehicle.

Would you drive an electric Kei?

I'd love to have an electric pickup truck. It'd primarily be for farm use, so no long distance concerns, and being able to bring electricity to the field would be a huge boon. It is really the perfect package.

But I wouldn't buy one for the same reason I won't buy an ICE truck right now: They are way too overpriced — costing around 300% more than the truck I currently have cost when it was new, even though inflation is only 40% over the same period.

> potentially tow a long distance.

He's in his mid-80s with prostate problems. He has never taken the trip.

This made me realize that another set of batteries should be installed in the boat trailer (etc), rather than carrying them around every day when not needed.

The charger station situation will probably need to be figured out however.

> Global EV sales are up 21% in 2025

The issue is, that rate of growth globally is not enough to sustain the capex spent on building EV manufacturing capacity in 2019-24.

Much of that growth was itself due to China, where EV sales growth is starting to taper down making the financials difficult [0].

Growth alone is not enough - what matters is margins. If the rate of growth cannot sustain COGS, then production is right-sized.

Traditional automotive majors lacked similarly high margins businesses to help cushion the upfront cost of building out capacity.

[0] - https://www.eiu.com/n/blogs/auto-2026-outlook/

Solid state batteries solve for EV trucks.

The Chevy Silverado EV truck wins at towing but not being towed, FWIU.

They could have won with a bad EV platform to have just used the existing F-150 part streams.

Did GM intentionally or accidentally squander EVs with the EV1?

How could firms encourage EV conversions of trucks in order to get this solved?

The formula is so simple, but complicated to achieve underneath: sell the best products.

Stellantis can make great products but for the most part they just won’t. They actively refuse to. Same deal with Ford.

Why is anyone buying an Expedition over a Telluride, Grand Highlander, or Chevy Suburban derivative?

Why is anyone buying an Explorer over a RAV4, CRV, etc.

The only thing Ford makes that’s any good is the F-150, Maverick, Bronco and Mustang (very niche). This means they have basically zero cars to sell outside the US.

IMO the hybrid Explorer is underrated, the pricing is good and it's got the same type of eCVT as the Rav4 hybrid.

Personally, I would love to see an electric truck that can be charged while driving by an external generator, possible mounted to a trailer.

I was going to make a similar point - the math changes quite a bit if you're a multi-car household - in that case it absolutely makes sense to have at least one vehicle that's a short-range EV.

My household is a newer hybrid Ford Maverick and an older ICE Impreza (that gets worse fuel economy than the Maverick) - if we were replacing the Impreza today we'd probably go for a 2026 Leaf or a used Chevy Bolt.

>The driving and ownership experience of electric vehicles is MUCH better

Until EVs solve the cost problem as well as the "tracking device" and the "I have 8 iPads built into the dash" problems I'm not very excited.

[edit]

Your perspective is kind of confusing to me.

Consider that a car made of plastic is something that only works pre-Ralph Nader. Now the NTSB would veto it in milliseconds.

Would you drive an electric Kei?

> Until EVs solve the cost problem as well as the "tracking device" and the "I have 8 iPads built into the dash" problems I'm not very excited.

Are these problems exclusive to EVs?

That's very true. I bought a quad-cab midsize truck and it feels like the ultimate compromise:

- Not amazing at hauling people

- Only OK payload

- Not the best gas mileage

- Too expensive (but still cheaper than other midsize trucks -- $36k)

With how much everything costs this truck really _had_ to be a compromise. It had to be able to do everything. I'd have much rather had an old crappy truck and then a normal family car, but those seem to have all been priced out.

/Owning/ the truck would be imaginary/aspirational as you imagine yourself using it often enough to justify the expenditure. If it's for trips that are 3~4 times a year it probably makes more sense to rent.

Best car for you is a used beater. It'll be fun for road trips, and then when it rots all year unused in a parking garage you shouldn't feel too upset about it because it was shitty to begin with.

I don't think people who can meet there needs with public transit are the target market of many car manufacturers. Most truck miles are driving to work and the store. Your use case sounds like it would be perfect for renting a vehicle, especially since it would save you from storing and insuring it an extra 300 days per year.

I agree with you and made a comment in another related thread. I think there’s just a subset of people online who don’t realize it’s a value judgement or just take issue with others judgement of value in owning a truck.

Most Americans live in built environments where they need a vehicle for all the things you do with public transit and/or Waymo.

Until you buy a vehicle, owning one is imaginary/aspirational.

In theory, you could rent a truck for the 1% of the time you need it.

Why would you buy a car to use it thrice a year? You'll end up paying a thousand dollars a trip, amortized, on the sticker cost alone. Multiples if you buy a new top-line pickup? Let alone the maintainence nightmare from leaving your poor clunker sitting around for months.

Also, you must understand that your use case here isn't even remotely the norm.

Why wouldn't you just rent a truck for those few times a year when you would like one?

Wasn't the entire Saturn brand built on plastic car panels?

The Slate Auto pickup will have plastic panels [0] - I assume they're not expecting to be shot down by the NTSB.

0. https://www.topgear.com/car-news/video/everything-you-need-k...

I don't know if I'm in the excited minority, but that may be the only kind of vehicle I would ditch my existing car (Corolla) for before it dies.

Cost is a concern, and there will be a cost penalty at purchase time for a while. That will impact some people, but there is still a big market for expensive trucks.

I was going to make a similar point - the math changes quite a bit if you're a multi-car household - in that case it absolutely makes sense to have at least one vehicle that's a short-range EV.

IMO the hybrid Explorer is underrated, the pricing is good and it's got the same type of eCVT as the Rav4 hybrid.

That's very true. I bought a quad-cab midsize truck and it feels like the ultimate compromise:

- Not amazing at hauling people

- Only OK payload

- Not the best gas mileage

- Too expensive (but still cheaper than other midsize trucks -- $36k)

Best car for you is a used beater. It'll be fun for road trips, and then when it rots all year unused in a parking garage you shouldn't feel too upset about it because it was shitty to begin with.

Most Americans live in built environments where they need a vehicle for all the things you do with public transit and/or Waymo.

Until you buy a vehicle, owning one is imaginary/aspirational.

Why wouldn't you just rent a truck for those few times a year when you would like one?

Also, you must understand that your use case here isn't even remotely the norm.

Wasn't the entire Saturn brand built on plastic car panels?

The Slate Auto pickup will have plastic panels [0] - I assume they're not expecting to be shot down by the NTSB.

0. https://www.topgear.com/car-news/video/everything-you-need-k...

> Until EVs solve the cost problem as well as the "tracking device" and the "I have 8 iPads built into the dash" problems I'm not very excited.

Are these problems exclusive to EVs?

Yes. For ICE cars I can just buy older cars. _Some_ modern ICE cars avoid this. As recently as 2024 the Nissan Frontier base model has no cellular modem, and also only has one small screen but otherwise has physical buttons and physical gauges.

The Slate would be the only EV coming out that avoids this problem, which combined with the price is one of the reasons I'm interested.

The problem isn't exclusive to EVs, but thus far EVs are exclusively aforementioned rolling iPads.

With ICE cars, at least you still have the (dwindling) option of buying an older vehicle

No, but I believe that EVs tend to have way more bells and whistles to create some perceived value due to the inherently higher cost.

In theory, you could rent a truck for the 1% of the time you need it.

I don't know if I'm in the excited minority, but that may be the only kind of vehicle I would ditch my existing car (Corolla) for before it dies.

> Your use case sounds like it would be perfect for renting a vehicle, especially since it would save you from storing and insuring it an extra 300 days per year.

Have you ever looked at the real costs of renting. More rentals won't let you tow. They won't let you go off road (no burning man!), even if allowed they will charge you for the damages typical of going off road. Any just when you think you have navigated all that you get there to pick up the car you reserved and they are sold out.

I'm not saying renting cannot work, but it isn't nearly as clear cut as people keep saying.

It's all about convenience, like most things in life. How many times per year do you need to go through the hassle & headache of renting a vehicle before it makes more sense to just buy one?

1% of 365 is still nearly once a quarter. That would be enough for me.

Yeah but then you can't put a snorkel on it and extraction boards and expedition gas cans so you can advertise how adventurous you are in your spare time.

This admin seems to love Kei trucks, and Edison Motors makes retrofit kits. If US legacy auto is unwilling to build EV pickups domestically, we'll import the components and bolt them together.

https://edisonmotors.ca/trucks/pickup-kit/

Cost is a concern, and there will be a cost penalty at purchase time for a while. That will impact some people, but there is still a big market for expensive trucks.

For now. It won't last. Trouble is that these EV projects are all being abandoned now and won't be available to purchase when the market comes back to reality.

F-150 Lightning

Back in 2021, Ford unveiled the F-150 Lightning, an all-electric version of its venerable pickup. A single $100 payment would get your name on the truck’s waiting list, and production was expected to begin in 2022.

Despite being a twice-over Toyota Tacoma fanboy, I was excited about this announcement. The F-150 has been America’s best-selling truck for like 400 years, and making it electric seemed like a great way to get EVs into garages that would otherwise never see one. I even sent Ford $100.

Early Signs of Trouble

Once the trucks hit the street, it was clear that there were concerns. While the powerful truck could pull just about anything, towing (or even driving with heavy loads) drastically cut into the Lightning’s range. Being based on an F-150 made a lot of sense on paper, but it meant that less hardcore mid-sized truck owners who may never run into the range-while-towing challenges weren’t going to look at it due to its size.1

Then there were the cultural issues. Some Americans saw the rise of EVs as a liberal movement, and the Lightning was a bad fit in their eyes. This friction is not unique to Ford, but it was a factor that the company didn’t attempt to manage at all.

Over time, the Lightning became more expensive and less popular, to the point that production pauses were ordered. The trend was troubling, but I kept hoping it would do well for a partially selfless reason:

Ford was coming to town.

Blue Oval

…well within a short drive of town. In the fall of 2021, Ford announced Blue Oval, an enormous facility about 30 minutes from Memphis. Ian Round, Bill Dries, and Rob Moore broke the news for The Daily Memphian:

Partnering with a South Korean company, SK Innovation, Ford announced a $5.6 billion investment and 5,800 direct jobs at the Haywood County site, between Memphis and Jackson.

At a press conference Monday, Sept. 27, Gov. Bill Lee said it was “the largest single investment in this state’s history.” Lee, along with executives from Ford and SK Innovation, will be in Memphis Tuesday morning to make the announcement and share more details.

We’re going to come back to SK Innovation, but let’s get back to that 2021 article for now:

“West Tennessee will lead the future of the automotive industry,” Lee said. “We are excited about what this means for the people of Tennessee.”

The state is providing $500 million in incentives, which state Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe said was an appropriate investment.

Rolfe said the incentives will take the form of grants rather than tax breaks. The state expects the project to contribute $3.5 billion each year to the gross state product, creating 27,000 jobs directly and indirectly, not including construction. Those jobs are expected to bring in more than $1 billion in annual earnings.

“I don’t think in our wildest dreams we could have identified a greater global brand,” Rolfe said.

Construction of the 3,600-acre campus, which Lee said will begin before the end of the year, is expected to create 32,000 jobs.

Blue Oval is huge. Once the land was cleared, my Dad and I drove up there to check it out and joked that you could see the curvature of the Earth across the site. Today, that land is populated with a series of enormous buildings. The scale of the thing is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in West Tennessee.

Ford was clear from the start that the Lightning would not be built in Tennessee, but that production would remain at Michigan’s River Rouge complex. As the Lightning shared a bunch of parts and body panels with the internal combustion version, that made perfect sense to me.

Besides, the purpose of Blue Oval promised to be more exciting than a truck the world already knew about. Instead, the new plant was going to build a new electric truck and be home to facilities for building new and recycling old EV batteries.

All of that is in the background of this week’s news.

Changes at Blue Oval

Let’s circle back to SK Innovation’s partnership with Ford at Blue Oval. On December 11, it was announced that the joint venture was coming to an end. Kirsten Korosec at TechCrunch wrote about the news:

Four years ago, Ford and South Korean battery maker SK On struck a deal to form a joint venture and spend $11.4 billion to build factories in Tennessee and Kentucky that would produce batteries for the next generation of electric F-Series trucks.

The factories live on; the joint venture will not.

SK On, a subsidiary of SK Innovation, said Thursday it reached an agreement with Ford to end the joint venture. The two companies will divide the assets: Ford will take ownership and operation of the twin battery plants in Kentucky, while SK On will operate the factory at the massive BlueOval SK campus in Tennessee.

SK On said it will maintain a strategic partnership with Ford centered on the Tennessee plant, according to Bloomberg.

When reached for comment, a Ford spokesperson told TechCrunch the company was aware of SK’s disclosure and had nothing further to share at this time.

This news made waves locally as well. Sophia Surrett at The Daily Memphian wrote:

The separation, subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2026.

“This strategic decision enables both companies to each focus on their core strengths, enhance operational flexibility and respond more effectively to market dynamics,” according to a statement released by SK On.

Ford would not comment.

The BlueOval City facility, under construction, will become SK On’s second wholly owned U.S. plant with SK Battery America in Commerce, Georgia.

Ford’s lack of comment had many folks in my neck of the woods nervous. Blue Oval is already behind schedule, and with the Lightning (and the overall EV market) in trouble, some wondered if a new electric truck was even feasible.

That brings us to yesterday’s news. Let’s start with the plant. Those battery facilities will be repurposed to build “Energy Storage Systems,” and more than 1,600 people will lose their jobs in the transition, even though Ford is promising that some 2,100 jobs will be added back to the plant once its overhaul is complete.

(These changes mean that the U.S. government will be modifying the $9.63 billion loan it awarded Ford and SK to support the joint venture.)

The bigger news for Blue Oval is that the not-yet-opened plant will be retooled to build gas-powered trucks. Sophia Surrett:

Ford Motor Co. on Monday, Dec. 15, announced it is scrapping plans to build electric trucks at BlueOval City and instead will build gas-powered trucks there, beginning in 2029.

Ford’s $5.6 billion BlueOval City in Stanton, Tennessee, was initially to be the site of its Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center, where its Model T3 electric truck would be built.

Now, the facility is being renamed the Tennessee Truck Plant, where “affordable” gas-powered models will be produced.

This pivot is expected to cost Ford $19.5 billion and push Blue Oval’s opening date to sometime in 2029, a full four years later than originally planned.

So, to recap, in the last few days:

Ford and SK have ended their joint venture to produce and recycle EV batteries.
Ford did not comment on the change.
Ford announced a massive change for Blue Oval’s already-announced production and timeline

This news has been disappointing to my friends and family, some of whom live within miles of Blue Oval. They don’t all think EVs should be the future, but they can agree that having thousands of new jobs in West Tennessee is a good thing.

Ford’s pivot away from EVs should not be surprising, nor should the incredible hoops the company jumped through to make the news seem positive:

Ford Motor Company today announced a series of actions to sharpen its Ford+ plan,2 executing a decisive redeployment of capital to meet customer demand and drive profitable growth.

The company is shifting to higher-return opportunities, including leveraging its U.S. manufacturing footprint to add trucks and vans to its lineup and launch a new, high-growth battery energy storage business. As part of these actions, Ford no longer plans to produce select larger electric vehicles where the business case has eroded due to lower-than-expected demand, high costs and regulatory changes.

This approach prioritizes affordability, choice and profits. Ford will expand powertrain choice — including a range of hybrids and extended-range electric propulsion — while focusing its pure electric vehicle development on its flexible Universal EV Platform for smaller, affordable models.

“This is a customer-driven shift to create a stronger, more resilient and more profitable Ford,” said Ford president and CEO Jim Farley. “The operating reality has changed, and we are redeploying capital into higher-return growth opportunities: Ford Pro, our market-leading trucks and vans, hybrids and high-margin opportunities like our new battery energy storage business.”

Under this new direction, Ford expects “approximately 50% of its global volume will be hybrids, extended-range EVs and fully electric vehicles, up from 17% in 2025.”

In 2021, when the Lightning and Blue Oval were announced, Ford said “40% of its sales globally to be electric vehicles by the end of this decade under a new plan to increase investment in EVs to $30 billion through 2025,” according to Michael Wayland at CNBC.

Grounding the Lightning

Beyond the changes at Blue Oval, Ford also announced changes for the F-150 Lightning:

Ford Motor Company today announced the next generation of the F-150 Lightning, a truck engineered to redefine what an electric pickup can do.

Leveraging advanced Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV) technology, the next-generation F-150 Lightning will offer the best of both worlds: the seamless, instant power of an electric powertrain and the freedom of a generator-backed estimated range of more than 700 miles.

Unlike a traditional hybrid, the F-150 Lightning EREV is propelled 100 percent by electric motors. This ensures owners get the pure EV driving experience they love – including rapid acceleration and quiet operation – while eliminating the need to stop and charge during long-distance towing. Like the current F-150 Lightning, the next-gen version will also offer exportable electricity that can power everything from work sites to camp sites to homes during a power outage.

“The F-150 Lightning is a groundbreaking product that demonstrated an EV pickup can still be a great F-Series,” said Doug Field, Ford’s chief EV, digital and design officer. “Our next-generation F-150 Lightning EREV will be every bit as revolutionary. It delivers everything Lightning customers love – near instantaneous torque and pure electric driving. But with a high-power generator enabling an estimated range of 700+ miles, it tows like a locomotive. Heavy-duty towing and cross-country travel will be as effortless as the daily commute.”

In short:

The battery-only F-150 Lightning is gone.
The next Lightning — which has neither an announced price or launch date — will be an EREV.
Like its predecessor, this truck will not be built at Blue Oval.

That is a lot of news,3 and it’s all part of Ford “following customers to drive profitable growth.”

The Lightning is ending production, and while Ford will not commit to any details about production or availability, the EREV news is interesting.

If you are not familiar, EREVs are electric vehicles with a small gas engine onboard to keep the battery charged. Their range can be incredible, as you can keep the wheels turning as long as you have gas in the tank.

Ironically, this news comes three months after RAM did the same thing. Ford is far from the first company to talk about these drivetrains, never mind actually shipping them.

Ford’s press release goes on to directly address concerns people have had about the Lightning, including its range with and without a trailer behind it. Whether or not customers will ever benefit from such a truck remains to be proven.

It’s Personal

When Ford announced the Lightning in 2021, I wrote:

I really like this approach: taking a regular, super-popular vehicle and turning it into an EV is a reasonable approach. I fully anticipate that my Toyota Tacoma will be the last internal combustion vehicle I own.

I want to live in a world where I could go buy an affordable, mid-sized electric truck if an asteroid hit my garage and totaled my pickup. I love everything about the Rivian R1T, but it’s too expensive. Toyota has announced an electric Hilux for some markets, but it’s not coming to the U.S. While the Lightning was too big for me, Ford was likely the first major brand to offer a mid-sized electric truck. Having it built in my backyard would be a bonus.

There are a bunch of startups looking at this market, but uhhhh, I don’t want to sign up for something that turns out to be a Fisker Ocean with a pickup bed.

If I didn’t want to buy another pickup, my options are much better. Siblings Kia and Hyundai are both shipping impressive EVs. The Chevy Bolt is coming back, and some electric Volkswagens can be bought below MSRP every day of the week.

I am not the only bearded dude who may look for a truck with a battery in it over the coming few years. Ford should have its new EREV Lightning on lots as soon as it can, and then work to deliver a full EV version that can meet the needs of more people when the time comes.

But…

The EREV’s Timing

…the automotive industry takes years to change. The time it took the Lightning to go from announced to on sale doomed it. The rest of the world includes silly things like the economy and energy costs and environmental concerns and a political system that drastically changes between administrations.

When the Lightning finally made it into the world, the world had changed around them. What was a promising look at the future could never survive the present.4

Will the same thing happen to EREVs? By the time they really arrive, will the market be ready to move past them?

EREVs will provide a bridge until companies are ready to return to the business of fully electric cars and trucks.

After all, many customers have legitimate reasons to pick an EREV over an EV. That said, many customers would be delighted with an EV if they tried one and if they were less expensive. It may not matter to me or you, but a lot of people need something with a huge and reliable range.

This is not all bad news. It’s easy to see the upsides of EREVs. They take gasoline to run, but far less gas than vehicles with an ICE under the hood. They contribute to pollution, but are far more efficient than the V6 or V8 they probably replaced. From one point of view, EREVs are an improved version of hybrid powertrains, which are readily available at every dealership in America today.

Ford and others turning to EREVs would be a bigger loss if more Americans were already in an EV, but that’s not true yet. Given the card we’re being handed, EREVs may be our future for a while. It is disappointing, but at least it’s not a full retreat to purely gas-powered vehicles.

I remain hopeful that when Ford returns to a place willing to build full EVs, my state will be a proud part of that work. I just hope it’s sooner rather than later.

And yes, I hear you. Trucks like the F-150 won’t fit on roads in many countries, and their high front ends can be dangerous for pedestrians. I get it, but that’s not the point of this particular blog post. ↩
Its name may sound like a doomed streaming service, but Ford+ dates back to 2021, when the company announced plans to modernize itself. The plan included splitting Ford’s EV efforts into a new company division, Ford Model E, and focusing on “new customer-centered business segments are redefining customer value, while at the same time reducing cyclicality, improving capital efficiency, and generating profitable growth and strong free cash flow.”

Whatever that means. ↩
The press release also included a statement about Ford’s plans for its battery energy storage system business. It read:

“Ford is launching a new business, including sales and service, to capture the large demand for battery energy storage from data centers and infrastructure to support the electric grid. Ford plans to repurpose existing U.S. battery manufacturing capacity in Glendale, Kentucky, to serve the rapidly growing battery energy storage systems market. This strategic initiative will leverage currently underutilized electric vehicle battery capacity to create a new, diversified, and profitable revenue stream for Ford. The company also plans to invest roughly $2 billion in the next two years to scale the business.”

It also included a note about Blue Oval that said, “Last week, Ford, SK On, SK Battery America and BlueOval SK entered into a joint venture disposition agreement. Under this mutual agreement, a Ford subsidiary will independently own and operate the Kentucky battery plants. SK On will fully own and operate the Tennessee battery plant.” ↩
The headwinds EV maker are facing right now aren’t all organic. The Department of Energy has backed out of a huge list of clean energy efforts, and Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act ended the $7,500 tax credit tied to buying or leasing an EV. Ideally, the EV market could stand on its own without government help, but big changes often need time, and time takes money. ↩