Ford Motor Company announced it will take approximately $19.5 billion in charges, largely tied to its electric-vehicle business, marking one of the largest corporate impairments in U.S. auto industry history.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the write-down represents the industry’s most significant acknowledgment to date that automakers are unlikely to achieve their electric-vehicle production targets in the near term pasted.
“Instead of plowing billions into the future knowing these large EVs will never make money, we are pivoting,” Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley said in an interview.
The company said the charges are connected to a broader retrenchment from its electric-vehicle strategy amid slowing consumer demand and high production costs. Ford plans to shift capital away from large battery-electric vehicles and toward gasoline-powered vehicles, hybrids, and extended-range electric vehicles that incorporate onboard gasoline engines. Farley told the Journal that Ford is “pulling back from loss-making assets” and reallocating resources toward vehicle platforms with higher profitability pasted.
According to the Journal, Ford has lost roughly $13 billion on its electric-vehicle operations since 2023. The company said part of the $19.5 billion charge includes approximately $6 billion tied to the dissolution of a joint venture with South Korea’s SK Group to manufacture EV batteries in the United States. Most of the charges will be recorded in the fourth quarter, with some extending into future reporting periods pasted.
Energy analyst Robert Bryce reported that Ford’s EV losses through the first three quarters of 2025 totaled $3.6 billion, bringing cumulative EV losses since 2022 to $15.6 billion. Including the $19.5 billion write-down, Bryce estimates Ford’s total financial exposure from its EV program at $35.1 billion, compared to $11.1 billion in profit over the same time.
“Put another way, since 2022, Ford’s losses on its EVs are more than three times the amount it made in profit,” wrote Bryce. “The losses aren’t just financial. The company also announced that all 1,600 employees at its new battery plant in Glendale, Kentucky, will be laid off.”
The Kentucky facility will be converted to produce stationary battery storage for customers such as utilities, renewable energy developers, and data centers. The Journal reported that Ford and other automakers are increasingly repurposing EV battery facilities to serve non-automotive markets as electric-vehicle demand falls short of earlier projections pasted.
Ford has also canceled plans for additional electric trucks and electric commercial vans and will discontinue the all-electric version of the F-150 pickup in favor of an extended-range model. The company said it remains on track to introduce a lower-cost electric pickup priced around $30,000 by 2027, which Farley described as the core of Ford’s revised EV strategy in the U.S. market pasted.
The Journal reported that regulatory pressure, high battery costs, charging infrastructure limitations, and consumer hesitancy contributed to Ford’s decision to scale back its electric ambitions. While the company continues to invest in reduced-emissions technologies, Ford said future production will emphasize a mix of gasoline vehicles, hybrids, extended-range vehicles, and electric vehicles rather than an all-electric lineup.
Ford executives said the revised strategy reflects a reassessment of market demand and cost structures rather than a full withdrawal from electric vehicles, positioning hybrids and extended-range vehicles as a larger share of Ford’s near-term growth.
