Ford's advanced EV-and-tech chief (Doug Field) to leave the company

[Shawnson]

https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/15/ford-ev-and-tech-chief-leaving-automaker/

So how much does Farley believe in new platform?

He’s treading water at this point. Knowing all the decisions he’s made to this point have done nothing to position him for what’s next.

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[Scorpio3d]

I don’t think they’re canceling current EV plans. They will be using the UEV platform for the near future. I would assume(I know that’s not the best thing to do)that means no full-size pick up for the foreseeable future. The future is EV. There are no ifs ands or buts about it! The current and near future European EV‘s are so much better than their last gen! The Chinese vehicles are are already or soon to be in the UK, Canada, Europe Australia, New Zealand, Africa, South America, etc. We may not let them in, but we better learn how to compete and build better vehicles. Ford announced another recall for F series trucks yesterday or today. they have to do something!!!

 

[electricpig]

I agree with those that think Farley is doing this to pump short term profits, which pumps the stock, which is then ripe to cash out and retire.with a golden parachute. Anything after that is not going to be his problem.

 

[02Reaper]

Is it really Farley we should be blaming? I’m not sure he gets to make the final call on things. Usually guys like Farley are basically the fall guy. They don’t make the final call, but they take the heat.

 

[NW Ontario Ford Lightning]

I wanted an EV truck, to use excess summer solar energy, and allow extra back up to my home battery from the EV, while avoiding expensive operational costs. Things that I needed to eventually pull the trigger:
1. Hwy fast charging and locations to allow nation wide use of an EV truck.
2. Prices to be near the ICE truck sale costs.
3. Enough history from other early adopters to convince me the EV was reliable.
4. Local Service in case I was wrong about item 3, or problems developed later.
These all came together for me in January 2025, Love the truck no regrets at all.

For Ford and the Market to widely adopt the EV truck platform, they need to profitably sell an EV truck at about the same cost as an ICE truck of similar capabilities.

We know Ford lost money on every Lightning sold (good for me, bad for Ford)
This was not sustainable at all long term for them.
For people that just drive (like me) the range is not a big deal, as long as there are DCFC - but for people who tow long distances, they need more range and pull-through chargers that are faster than todays infrastructure can do generally.

I believe there are two things needed: First a break through in battery tech, lighter/cheaper/faster charging/ high energy density/temperature tolerant. Without this, the EV truck is mostly a non-tow option truck, for long distances. Second a build out of not just faster DC charging but pull through charging infrastructure. Yes few people tow often, but this is a current capability of a "truck" and eventually for wide-scale adoption, the EV trucks will need to have caparible capacity.

Both of these requirements are coming but will be years to achieve.

I thank Ford for the truck I bought, that cost them more to produce than I paid - love the truck.
But I can't fault Ford Motor Co for making decsions to remain solvent.

 

[IdaHome]

I wanted an EV truck, to use excess summer solar energy, and allow extra back up to my home battery from the EV, while avoiding expensive operational costs. Things that I needed to eventually pull the trigger:
1. Hwy fast charging and locations to allow nation wide use of an EV truck.
2. Prices to be near the ICE truck sale costs.
3. Enough history from other early adopters to convince me the EV was reliable.
4. Local Service in case I was wrong about item 3, or problems developed later.
These all came together for me in January 2025, Love the truck no regrets at all.

For Ford and the Market to widely adopt the EV truck platform, they need to profitably sell an EV truck at about the same cost as an ICE truck of similar capabilities.

We know Ford lost money on every Lightning sold (good for me, bad for Ford)
This was not sustainable at all long term for them.
For people that just drive (like me) the range is not a big deal, as long as there are DCFC - but for people who tow long distances, they need more range and pull-through chargers that are faster than todays infrastructure can do generally.

I believe there are two things needed: First a break through in battery tech, lighter/cheaper/faster charging/ high energy density/temperature tolerant. Without this, the EV truck is mostly a non-tow option truck, for long distances. Second a build out of not just faster DC charging but pull through charging infrastructure. Yes few people tow often, but this is a current capability of a "truck" and eventually for wide-scale adoption, the EV trucks will need to have caparible capacity.

Both of these requirements are coming but will be years to achieve.

I thank Ford for the truck I bought, that cost them more to produce than I paid - love the truck.
But I can't fault Ford Motor Co for making decsions to remain solvent.

I like your list and they are very close to why I finally bought a ‘23 Ford Lightning Lariat last month! I love it! I also understand and agree that auto companies can’t continue to lose money on products. There’s a lot of validity in what your argue.

Where I diverge is that there are times when companies need to lose money in short term in order to make money in the long run. This is the model that allowed companies like Tesla and Amazon to loose billions for years before making many more billions. Building new technologies and industrial capacity is expensive and it takes years of investments/loses to make that happen.

The Lightning (and to a lesser extent the MME) were revolutionary products like Tesla and Amazon. We agree -while not a perfect product the Lightning is an amazing truck, particularly for a 1st gen. Again, I love my truck and bought it for many of the same reasons as you.

However, Ford wasn’t about to go insolvent, if it was I would understand the decision. In fact, quite a bit of its 2025 loses were caused by foolishly writing off its EV investments. The answer to making money on the truck was to iterate - to improve, enhance, fix what they had developed. Exactly what Tesla, Amazon and others have done.

Instead, they set aside all of those invested costs into really important (and good) products for today at the expense of tomorrow’s market share and real profits. They balked at the costs of really innovating into a market leader for the next 10 years. Now they are retrenching even more (admittedly what seems to be happening from my limited outside perspective).

An example of this is Farley’s 8% profit margin announcement. That’s wildly short term thinking. They way he’ll do that is doubling down on today’s F-150 (and other high profit, old-tech ICE vehicles) and cutting R&D and investing in things like Lightning iterations (T3, etc.). Given the wave of development happening with Chinese auto makers, it’s the opposite of what should be happening.

Today’s foolish political environment around EVs, charging grids, etc. is very temporary. I want Ford to succeed - I want to drive this Lightning for years and then buy another, better one in the future. But to do that, now is the time to invest in making future versions of the Lightning and related vehicles better and more profitable. I now fear that Ford won’t even have a full-size truck EV option 5 years from now. If they were to have one, it would be in early development now.

 

[djwildstar]

In fact, quite a bit of its 2025 loses were caused by foolishly writing off its EV investments. [...] An example of this is Farley’s 8% profit margin announcement. That’s wildly short term thinking. They way he’ll do that is doubling down on today’s F-150 (and other high profit, old-tech ICE vehicles) and cutting R&D[.]

The write-off at the end of 2025 wasn't foolish -- it's part of the same profit-taking strategy. Changes in the 2025 budget law allow companies to write off big investments (rather than spread them over multiple years). For Ford, this saves on the 2025 tax bill, and (since the money has already been accounted for), means that these investments won't be a drag on future profitability.

The press has mostly presented the wrong message on these big write-offs: it isn't "Car companies lose billions on EVs", it is "Car companies use tax loophole to pay less taxes, increase future profits."

 

[TaxmanHog]

For Ford, this saves on the 2025 tax bill, and (since the money has already been accounted for), means that these investments won't be a drag on future profitability.

And the taxation on said future profits!!

 

[IdaHome]

The write-off at the end of 2025 wasn't foolish -- it's part of the same profit-taking strategy. Changes in the 2025 budget law allow companies to write off big investments (rather than spread them over multiple years). For Ford, this saves on the 2025 tax bill, and (since the money has already been accounted for), means that these investments won't be a drag on future profitability.

The press has mostly presented the wrong message on these big write-offs: it isn't "Car companies lose billions on EVs", it is "Car companies use tax loophole to pay less taxes, increase future profits."

Fair point and useful information, but could it be “pay less taxes today, increase current profits at expense of future profits when having that ability to manufacture EVs the market demands is gone.”

 

[Shawnson]

The write-off at the end of 2025 wasn't foolish -- it's part of the same profit-taking strategy. Changes in the 2025 budget law allow companies to write off big investments (rather than spread them over multiple years). For Ford, this saves on the 2025 tax bill, and (since the money has already been accounted for), means that these investments won't be a drag on future profitability.

The press has mostly presented the wrong message on these big write-offs: it isn't "Car companies lose billions on EVs", it is "Car companies use tax loophole to pay less taxes, increase future profits."

yes, but they still had to dives

Fair point and useful information, but could it be “pay less taxes today, increase current profits at expense of future profits when having that ability to manufacture EVs the market demands is gone.”

but….
let’s just not pretend that the tax savings come anywhere close to the payout if those original investments played out as envisioned.

 

[djwildstar]

but….let’s just not pretend that the tax savings come anywhere close to the payout if those original investments played out as envisioned.

Here's the other thing that the press (and in fact most people) miss:

It isn't an either/or situation.

You can take the write-down in 2025 and still use the results of the investment in the future.

People read about the write-down and imagine Ford as wadding up and throwing out $19 billion in technical data reports, plans, and factories -- "Well, there's $19 billion down the drain". But that's not how it works. The write-down is a sign that Ford's management doesn't expect a return on these investments in the foreseeable future. But it doesn't exclude future use of them. Ford can (and undoubtedly does) keep everything that the investment bought, and could potentially use it all tomorrow -- without penalty -- to make products.

 

[Shawnson]

Here's the other thing that the press (and in fact most people) miss:

It isn't an either/or situation.

You can take the write-down in 2025 and still use the results of the investment in the future.

People read about the write-down and imagine Ford as wadding up and throwing out $19 billion in technical data reports, plans, and factories -- "Well, there's $19 billion down the drain". But that's not how it works. The write-down is a sign that Ford's management doesn't expect a return on these investments in the foreseeable future. But it doesn't exclude future use of them. Ford can (and undoubtedly does) keep everything that the investment bought, and could potentially use it all tomorrow -- without penalty -- to make products.

1 part of it is cancelling the joint venture with sk on, there’s nothing to hold on to there.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Ford can (and undoubtedly does) keep everything that the investment bought, and could potentially use it all tomorrow -- without penalty -- to make products.

AND pay the taxes on those profits, glass half full or empty, come on guys..............

 

[WillGrey1907]

I can confirm that these type of actions have driven at least one well-heeled EV buyer away from Ford. I rave about my Lightning, had spent months speaking with someone about it and they were ready to buy a Platinum. They decided the cancellation of the model was too much and just purchased a Rivian R1S.

 

[RickLightning]

I can confirm that these type of actions have driven at least one well-heeled EV buyer away from Ford. I rave about my Lightning, had spent months speaking with someone about it and they were ready to buy a Platinum. They decided the cancellation of the model was too much and just purchased a Rivian R1S.

I can't imagine a new buyer buying a Lightning when it has been discontinued.

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