Ford executives last week said they were focused on scaling up the E-Transit van and F-150 Lightning that launches this spring, as well as improving margins on the Mustang Mach-E.
“Our BEV margins are not where we intend them to be,” Ford CFO John Lawler said. “We’re going to look at scale. We’re going to want to have a strong lineup where we can lean into it with key vehicles in high-volume segments … and we’re going to reduce complexity.”
Farley said Ford has a team dedicated to reducing cost from the bill of materials for EVs and has been able to reduce Mustang Mach-E costs by $1,000. Teams are looking at ways to reengineer the crossover on the fly, including reducing the number of hoses or other parts, he said.
Ford plans to ratchet up production to about 100,000 Mach-Es this year, Farley said, and in 2023 will work toward building 150,000 electric F-150s.
For now, gains from Ford’s and GM’s century-old internal combustion vehicle businesses are propelling the companies toward their future promises. As the chip shortage has eased, Ford’s U.S. market share has grown, rising 1.3 percentage points year over year in January to 13.9 percent, according to the automaker.
“The profitability of ICE is very important because it gives us optionality not only of scaling BEV but vertically integrating BEV, which is increasingly becoming important for a profit lever,” Farley said. “We definitely want to push our ICE business as far as we can.”
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