Ford CEO Jim Farley takes subtle shot at Tesla Cybertruck

On Monday, Dec. 15, Ford officially waved the white flag.The Blue Oval announced that it is taking a $19.5 billion pre-tax write-down on its electric vehicle division over the next two years as it shifts production away from EVs and toward hybrid and extended-range vehicles.Ford shares were up 2% in early market trading Tuesday, Dec. 16, on the news.Ford Model e losses by year2025: $3.6 billion (through the third quarter)2024: $5.1 billion2023: $4.7 billion2022: $2.2 billionAt a time when most traditional original equipment manufacturers still withhold the numbers, Ford broke out its Model e EV division in March 2022, laying its finances bare in the process. While investors commend the transparency, the results have not been pretty. Model e lost $1.4 billion in the third quarter alone, and through the first three quarters, it has lost $3.6 billion so far this year. Ford attributed about $3 billion of those losses to its first-generation EV products, including the Mach-E, F-150 Lightning, Puma, Explorer, and Capri. The rest is from investments in its next-generation EVs. "The really high-end EVs, the $50k, $60k, $70k EVs just weren't selling," CEO Jim Farley said in an interview Dec. 15.The $19.5 billion (only $5.5 billion of which is cash charges, the rest is non-cash) announcement is once again a win for transparency, but the company has been signaling that Model e hasn't been working for years. Two years ago, Ford announced plans to reduce its EV production capacity by 35%. Ford admits it has lost $19.5 billion on its electric vehicles.Photo by jetcityimage on Getty Images Ford pivots to vehicles that Americans "want to buy"Building electric vehicles is relatively easy. The technology has been around for over 100 years. Selling them to Americans who want to buy them has been the issue.Ford’s total U.S. sales by year:2024: 2.08 million vehicles sold, +4.2%2023: 1.99 million vehicles sold, +7.1%2022: 1.77 million vehicles sold, -2.2%2021: 1.9 million vehicles sold, -6.8% Source: Best-Selling Cars Even a top-of-the-line EV company like Tesla took years to become profitable. Tesla first turned a profit in 2020, and although it has maintained this profit since, it saw a 52% decline in earnings in 2024 and could experience another decline this year as its market share decreases.Ford CEO Jim Farley estimates that EVs have shrunk to just about 5% of the U.S. market, so the plan is to pivot to hybrids and extended-range vehicles for which U.S. buyers have shown more of an appetite.Ford expects to have half of its output be hybrids or EREVs by 2030, up from 17% currently.Related: Ford CEO Jim Farley has a stark warning for EuropeFarley explained that while the company ranks third in the country in hybrid sales, it leads in truck hybrids, representing approximately 80% of the market share. Ford's overall Q3 sales were flat, but hybrid sales jumped 20% during the period.Despite the pivot, Ford doesn't sound like it's completely abandoning its EV division. The company will instead focus on smaller EVs that will be priced at $30,000 and under.Farley says pivoting for spending billions on EVs to spending billions on HEVs and EREVs will provide a "pathway to profitability" for Model e. Ford CEO takes subtle shot at Cybertruck while announcing end of F-150 LightningJapanese automaker Toyota is already where Ford wants to be with hybrid electric sales. For the third quarter, Toyota North America reported sales of over 629,137, a 16% year-over-year increase. Sales of electrified vehicles jumped 10.5% in the quarter to 282,794. Electrified vehicles (mostly hybrids) accounted for 45% of Toyota's North American sales volume. Related: EV leaders in Europe return fire against Ford, Stellantis pressure campaignTo arrive where Toyota already is, Ford is discontinuing the F-150 Lightning EV, instead shifting to an extended-range hybrid version. Lightning was clearly one of Farley's favorite projects, as it married Ford's most popular product, the F-150, with what it expects to be the future of automotive travel."The U.S. is really different. Here, people travel over longer distances. They use their trucks for towing. And these really expensive $70,000 electric trucks, as much as I love the product, they don't make sense," Farley said. Lightnings start for under $60,000; meanwhile, Cybertruck starts at about $72,000, according to Car and Driver.Lightning and Cybertruck had become a point of contention for Jim Farley and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The F-150 is by far Ford's most popular vehicle, and when Musk introduced the Cybertruck, part of the marketing campaign was that it was superior to the F-150 in every way. The Lightning was Ford's response (though the Lightning came out before the Cybertruck), but neither vehicle has sold well. Tesla’s Cybertruck outsold the Lightning in 2024 by a margin of 39,442 units to 33,510. But EV.com reports that the Lightning has reclaimed the top spot in 2025, amid a massive Cybertruck recall and falling sales for both vehicles.Reports emerged earlier this year that the F-150 experiment was coming to an end. Ford paused production of the F-150 Lightning in October due to an aluminum shortage.Ford has the capacity to build 150,000 Lightnings a year.“Being number two to Tesla in EVs, we’ve learned a lot the last three years. Andhaving a full range of truck hybrids, we’ve learned a lot…. And there’s no doubt about it that we’ve had to change our EV spending and capital allocation pretty massively,” Farley said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call.Related: Tesla has more bad news for Cybertruck lovers