Detroit Ford Motor executives praised their upcoming three-row electric SUV, which they said will start rolling off assembly lines in 2025, at a packed investor day in Dearborn, Michigan, last year.
We refer to it as a private bullet train. At the May 2023 announcement, Doug Field, Ford’s head of EVs and a former executive at Apple and Tesla, remarked, “It’s beautiful and it’s unlike anything in the segment so far.”
The personal bullet train was officially derailed on Wednesday, fifteen months after it was first proposed by a U.S. manufacturer. This was a reflection of the industry’s growing retreat from electric vehicles (EVs), as consumers have been slower than expected to adopt battery-powered technology.
Ford’s Chief Operating Officer for its EV division, Marin Gjaja, told Reuters on Thursday that “the reality is that the market changed.” “As we saw the growth and adoption rate fade, we were furiously trying to catch up.”
Instead, one of the most significant EV product pivots to date—and one that may cost the business up to $1.9 billion—Ford executives announced that the company would concentrate on hybrid three-row SUVs.
After praising the three-row SUV, Ford CEO Jim Farley addressed investors during the May 2023 event, “You’ve been in that box with all of us and it’s now time to break out,” alluding to the company’s stock valuation. Ford’s stock is down roughly 5% from the 2023 investor day and has dropped 25% from its July peak this year.
The key concern here is, how do we develop enough scale with the appropriate goods, with the right features and offerings that can get us to a scale level where we can be successful on both the car side and on the software services,” Gjaja added.
