Ford's "Test For EV Adoption" Fails: Carmaker Slashes Production Plans For Electric F-150 In Half

Less than a week after Elon Musk unveiled his apocalypse-surviving, Porsche-out-accelerating, bulletproof CyberTruck, Ford's EV effort is crashing on the Biden-administration ignited fire of unaffordability and high costs.

Having signaled in October during its Q3 earnings call plans to “adjust” production of its all-electric vehicles and delay about $12 billion in investments due to softening demand for higher-priced premium electric vehicles; a memo to suppliers - which was viewed and reported first tonight by Automotive News - indicated plans beginning in January to produce an average of about 1,600 Lightning trucks a week at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan.

Ford had planned for an annual production capacity of 150,000 Lightnings a year, or about 3,200 a week.

That means its production target for 2024 has been halved.

“We’ll continue to match production with customer demand,” a Ford spokeswoman said Monday.

In May 2021, during a flashy introduction, Ford CEO Jim Farley told reporters that the electric F-150 could serve as a proxy for how mainstream buyers will accept battery power.

“I am looking at this vehicle as a test for adoption for electric vehicles,” Farley said.

“We should all watch very carefully how this does in the market.”

It would appear Ford failed that test.

Obviously, while this could be an idiosyncratic F-150 issue, it does not bode well for overall EV adoption... and along with it, the Biden administration's plans to save the world.

It appears Stephen Moore's grim prediction in early November is coming true.

The senior economist at FreedomWorks and former senior economic adviser to President Trump told Fox News in an interview.

"I'm here to tell you, if these trends continue, we're going to see the EV market become the next big flop because car buyers don't want them."

"The obvious lesson for the industry: you can’t bribe Americans to buy cars they don’t want. Given the all-in approach mentality for EVs at Ford and GM, it’s clear that Detroit never got this message," he wrote.

President Biden has set a goal of 50% of all new vehicles by 2030 being either EVs or plug-in hybrids.