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.
