Business
Ford to record $19.5 billion in special charges related to EV pullback
DETROIT — Ford Motor expects to record about $19.5 billion in special items related to a restructuring of its business priorities and a pullback in its all-electric vehicle investments, the company announced Monday.
The Detroit automaker said most of those charges will occur during the fourth quarter. That will be followed by $5.5 billion in cash to be charged through 2027, and the majority of that chunk will be paid next year, Ford said.
The charges will impact the automaker’s net results but not its adjusted earnings. The automaker said Monday it was increasing its guidance of adjusted earnings before interest and taxes to about $7 billion in 2025. That’s in line with a target from earlier this year, before the company lowered expectations to between $6 billion and $6.5 billion in adjusted EBIT in October.
The charges announced Monday, including $8.5 billion in write-downs of EV assets, are connected to major changes to Ford’s business plans.
The new plans include refocusing investments on hybrid vehicles, including plug-in models rather than pure EVs; canceling a next generation of large all-electric trucks in exchange for smaller, more affordable EVs; and a rebalancing of its investments in core products such as trucks and SUVs.
The changes are the latest under Ford CEO Jim Farley and his “Ford+” restructuring plan that has taken on many different forms since he initially announced it as an EV growth plan in 2021.
“We evaluated the market, and we made the call,” Farley told CNBC’s “Closing Bell Overtime” on Monday. “We’re following customers to where the market is, not where people thought it was going to be, but where it is today.”
Ford, GM and Stellantis stocks.
The EV segment has experienced a sales slump domestically after the Trump administration put an early end in September to a $7,500 federal tax credit previously available for EV buyers in the U.S.
Farley said on CNBC that policy “wasn’t the only reason why we made this choice,” but he acknowledged it did play a role.
Ford also said Monday that its all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup will transition to an extended-range EV, or EREV, that includes an electric powertrain as well as a gas-powered generator, and it announced plans to use battery plants in Kentucky and Michigan for a new stationary energy storage business.
“The last couple of months have been really clear to us,” Farley told CNBC’s Phil LeBeau. “The very high-end EVs — the $50,000, $70,000, $80,000 vehicles — they just weren’t selling.”
Ford said the changes are expected to provide “a path to profitability” for its Model e electric vehicle business by 2029, targeting annual improvements beginning in 2026. The automaker also said it expects the changes to improve profits in its traditional Ford Blue unit and Ford Pro commercial and fleet business “over time with early signs of benefits in 2026.”
The automaker said it expects approximately 50% of its global volume by 2030 will be hybrids, EREVs and fully electric vehicles, up from 17% in 2025.
“These are big decisions that we believe will pay off for years to come for our customers, our employees, American jobs and manufacturing,” Andrew Frick, president of the Model e and Blue businesses, said Monday during a media call. “Ford is following the customer. We are looking at the market as it is today, not just as everyone predicted it to be five years ago.”
Ford said it will concentrate its North American electric vehicle development on its new, low-cost, flexible Universal EV Platform that’s expected to underpin a “high-volume family of smaller, highly efficient and affordable electric vehicles.”
The first vehicle from the new platform will be a “fully connected midsize pickup truck” assembled at the company’s Louisville Assembly Plant starting in 2027.
The company also expects its new storage business to be producing and shipping units by 2027 for things such as “data centers, the electric gird and much more,” Frick said.
“This is a compelling opportunity. It’s a market with huge potential and strong demand,” he said. “We will have 20 gigawatt hours of annual capacity for this market.”
Ford stock rose about 2% in after-hours trading Monday.
Shares of Ford closed Monday at $13.65, down less than 1%. Ford stock as of Monday’s close was up nearly 40% this year.
Heineken has announced a substantial investment exceeding £44 million into hundreds of its pubs across the UK, a move expected to create approximately 850 jobs.
The Dutch brewing giant’s Star Pubs operation, which manages 2,350 sites nationwide, is undertaking this significant financial commitment despite a challenging period for the pub sector.
The industry has faced considerable pressure over the past year, grappling with escalating labour costs and increases in national insurance contributions.
Concurrently, consumer spending has been constrained by concerns over inflation and rising unemployment, further impacting pub revenues. However, pubs did receive additional business rates support from the government last month, aimed at alleviating some of these financial burdens.
Lawson Mountstevens, managing director of Star Pubs, indicated that the investment strategy is partly designed to bolster revenues and help the group navigate the recent “sustained increases in running costs”.
This year, £44.5 million will be allocated to upgrades for 647 pubs. A notable 108 of these venues are earmarked for particularly significant cash injections, with each transformation costing at least £145,000.
Heineken clarified that while the majority of its pubs are group-owned, they are independently operated by local licensees. A key focus for this investment, particularly in the lead-up to the 2026 football World Cup, will be on sports-focused venues.
The pub firm and brewer has a history of significant investment in British pubs, having pumped £328 million into the sector since 2018. Work has already commenced at 52 locations, including eight projects dedicated to reopening boarded-up pubs that have endured lengthy closures.
Mr Mountstevens also urged the government to reduce the tax burden on pubs, arguing it would ease cost pressures and foster further job creation within the industry.
He stated: “We can only do so much; the root-and-branch reform of business rates that the industry has been calling for over many years is urgently required, as well as a lowering of the burden of taxation on pubs, including VAT and beer duty.”
He concluded with a direct appeal: “We are calling on the Government to support us in bringing out the best in the Great British pub.”
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