Ford 3-Row Electric SUV Axed, Electric Truck Delayed

The Blue Oval is backtracking on its ambitious commitments as EV growth slows down.

The 3-row electric SUV from Ford has been shelved, while the electric pickup truck faces delay amidst an industry-wide EV slowdown. Note that the latter was supposed to go into production in 2025. It now encounters a delay of 18 months to 2027. With such huge announcements, it is clear that the EV industry is going through a bit of turmoil. I must mention here that a slowdown doesn’t mean EV sales are declining. They are just not growing as rapidly as anticipated.

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Updates on Ford 3-Row Electric SUV and Electric Truck

The American auto giant is reassessing the situation with regard to electric cars. It has already started hinting at shifting focus to hybrid cars earlier. That is exactly what the 3-row SUV will experience. Instead of being fully electric, it will now be a petrol-hybrid model. On the other hand, the large electric truck (codenamed T3) will now commence production at the Tennessee plant in 2027. Remember, this is the same year the mid-size electric pickup is slated for.

Further validating the situation, Ford mentions that the annual expenditure on EV development will shrink from 40% to 30%. Moreover, the entire reshuffling will cost the Blue Oval a whopping $1.5 billion. This includes losses at the manufacturing plants regarding the retooling and EV-specific components no longer needed. Just to put things into perspective, Ford had predicted that it would be selling 2 million EVs by 2026.

Even though Ford has posted some decent numbers this year, it is nowhere close to hitting that mark. Interestingly, this even puts the plans about the sub-$30,000 EV under question. The ‘Skunkworks’ department was working on a bespoke platform which would focus on affordability over everything else. That was the only way to achieve profitability. However, with all plans pertaining to electric cars being adversely affected, it remains to be seen whether or not we will get an affordable EV from Ford to address the mass market.

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Learn Electric Cars Says

You know that times are challenging when one of the biggest legacy auto giants in the world is having to modify its plans so frequently. It was clear from the beginning that going the electric route wouldn’t be easy at all. In fact, most of the challenges like range anxiety, high initial price and the lack of charging infrastructure, were already taken into consideration while announcing future plans. Here, I am talking about the industry as a whole including other car companies.

However, no one had expected a decline in growth after a massive initial surge in the last couple of years. That is what has caught everyone off-guard. Looking at the demand in the last few years, carmakers invested billions of dollars and deployed their resources toward creating an all-EV future. However, now that the demand is receding, they are having to rework their strategies. Let us see how things pan out in times to come.