Ford Hits Pause On Electric Pickup Plans, To Focus On Hybrids Instead

Ford becomes yet another legacy carmaker to reassess its ambitious EV plans and the decision to skip hybrids.

The next-generation Ford electric pickup truck was slated for launch by next year (2025). However, with the current slowdown in the EV demand, the pickup truck will now arrive in 2026. That’s not all. Its three-row electric SUV has been delayed to come in 2027. It was originally supposed to arrive in 2025 too. This marks a vivid reconsideration of Ford’s original plans of skipping the hybrid cars.

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Ford Electric Pickup Delayed

Ford CEO Jim Farley announced that the American giant will emphasize deploying capital wisely to plan the future. As a consequence, it has delayed the launches of the two all-electric vehicles. Instead, in fact, the American auto major will focus on hybridizing the existing internal combustion cars in its entire portfolio.

He said, “As the No. 2 EV brand in the U.S. for the past two years, we are committed to scaling a profitable EV business, using capital wisely and bringing to market the right gas, hybrid and fully electric vehicles at the right time. Our breakthrough, next-generation EVs will be new from the ground up and fully software enabled, with ever-improving digital experiences and a multitude of potential services.”

Even though the existing Ford F-150 Lightning is doing decently on the sales charts, Ford is not confident if the next-gen EVs will experience high demand as the entire EV industry braces for slow growth this year. We also know that Ford will drop the “Lightning” nomenclature for the next-gen electric pickup truck. As for the delays, Ford feels that this will provide the EV segment enough time to mature. Furthermore, it will lead to Ford being able to capitalize on emerging battery technology which will offer the consumers enhanced “durability and better value.”

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Learn Electric Cars Says

Prominent carmakers are resorting to re-think their strategy of going all-electric too soon. Many thought that when electrification is the end goal, why invest in a transitioning technology like hybrid cars? But slowly, they are realizing that the growth and demand for EVs might not be as exponential as the industry experts initially predicted. In such a scenario, hybrid cars could provide a perfect stepping stone to reach mass EV adoption in the coming years. Therefore, going hybrid makes a lot of sense. Let us see which other car marques adopt this route going forward.