The first quarter was a real winner for General Motors, but the story was mixed for Ford, which had higher revenue but a 24% drop in profits, largely due to its commercial vehicle unit. Total adjusted earnings before interest and taxes was $2.8 billion.
The EV unit, which is still in a capital-expenses, development-costs mode with just two vehicles on the market but at least one more in development, lost $1.3 billion, while the combustion/hybrid unit had earnings fall by 65% to $905 million. The company had to hold back many Ford Lightning electric pickups for quality reasons, then ended up holding 60,000 F-150s for 3-6 weeks to prevent around a dozen recalls. The commercial unit brought in $18 billion. Heavy duty pickups and Transit vans fall under the commercial-vehicles banner.
Like just about every other automaker, Ford is focused on cutting costs for a recession they are part predicting, part helping to create through cost cuts. Ford is trying to cut $2 billion in costs during 2024.
Stellantis will announce its numbers next week.
David Zatz started what was to become the world’s biggest, most comprehensive Mopar site in 1994 as he pursued a career in organizational research and change. After a chemo-induced break, during which he wrote car books covering Vipers, minivans, and Jeeps, he returned with Patrick Rall to create StellPower.com for daily news, and to set up MoTales for mo’ tales.
David Zatz has around 30 years of experience in covering Chrysler/Mopar news and history, and most recently wrote Century of Chrysler, a 100-year retrospective on the Chrysler marque.
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