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Ford Admits Its EV Division Will Keep Burning Billions For Years


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On 2/23/2026 at 11:45 AM, Sherminator98 said:

 

The next CE1 product is supposed to be a CUV in 2028(?). IIRC Ford hasn't said that all the products being built off the CE1 will ONLY come from Louisville either. 

I don’t think there will be enough EV demand to keep Louisville at capacity, much less adding another CE1 plant. 

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14 minutes ago, Trader 10 said:

I don’t think there will be enough EV demand to keep Louisville at capacity, much less adding another CE1 plant. 

 

Mach E's plant is the big question mark......they'll have to do something with it.  Since it's already set up for EV production, it makes some sense to keep it as an EV plant.  However, with Ford shifting to a completely different construction method for CE1, you'd be gutting the factory anyway to change to that, leaving the door open for a switch back to ICE (another C2 plant?)

 

Ford's back and forth product decisions just seems like massive wastes and shuffling deck chairs around on the Titanic (not implying Ford is going under, just that the plant usage is nuts).

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45 minutes ago, rmc523 said:

 

Mach E's plant is the big question mark......they'll have to do something with it.  Since it's already set up for EV production, it makes some sense to keep it as an EV plant.  However, with Ford shifting to a completely different construction method for CE1, you'd be gutting the factory anyway to change to that, leaving the door open for a switch back to ICE (another C2 plant?)

 

Cuautitlán Assembly is an interesting conundrum for Ford - they have owned it for decades and it has built all kinds of Fords big and small. A prediction would be a version of CE1 that can be made in both ICE, Hybrid and EV configurations for export to South America as well as brought into the North American market as market conditions dictate.

 

I don't see them going through an overhaul of that factory to build out C2 when there is still plenty of production space at other Ford plants that currently manufacture C2 related product. Hermosillo, Valencia, Chongqing and Nanjiig to name a few comes to mind. 

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1 hour ago, Trader 10 said:

I don’t think there will be enough EV demand to keep Louisville at capacity, much less adding another CE1 plant. 

 

I think the biggest hinderance (outside of charging) is the pricing. If Ford can sell the CE1 Pickup in some form for between $35-40K, they will be successful with it. Price party is what is hurting EV sales in the US. Its like the Rivian R2-its an Escape sized product that costs $50K plus-that is way too much for a mainstream product (not sure what Rivian is supposed to be slotting it as- luxury vehicle or what)

 

If Ford can crack the C sized CUV EV product for less then $40K, they'll have a winner IMO

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16 minutes ago, Sherminator98 said:

Price party is what is hurting EV sales in the US. 

 

If Ford can crack the C sized CUV EV product for less then $40K, they'll have a winner IMO

 

Yea, the skunkworks & CE1 efforts should make Ford a leader in bringing affordable EV to the masses in the next few years, when price parity should be achieved in the U.S. market

 

Graph of the Day: EVs are nearing price parity with petrol and diesel cars

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1 minute ago, morgan20 said:

 

Yea, the skunkworks & CE1 efforts should make Ford a leader in bringing affordable EV to the masses in the next few years, when price parity should be achieved in the U.S. market

 

Graph of the Day: EVs are nearing price parity with petrol and diesel cars

 

here is my question-how is the downturn in demand and the impact of that on battery building going to affect that?

 

I know in the past that I saw that projections about 4-5 years ago it was expected that the KwH for a battery in 2030 would be significantly cheaper then it was back in 2021 or so.

 

But with the recent contraction and repurposing of battery cell production, how much impact is that going to have the KwH costs? I have this feeling the build out won't be as much as it was expected to be. 

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1 hour ago, Sherminator98 said:

 

I think the biggest hinderance (outside of charging) is the pricing. If Ford can sell the CE1 Pickup in some form for between $35-40K, they will be successful with it. Price party is what is hurting EV sales in the US. Its like the Rivian R2-its an Escape sized product that costs $50K plus-that is way too much for a mainstream product (not sure what Rivian is supposed to be slotting it as- luxury vehicle or what)

 

If Ford can crack the C sized CUV EV product for less then $40K, they'll have a winner IMO

To answer your question, I kinda see Rivian as like Mazda almost, or Buick. A halfway brand that makes pretty nice cars that aren't super affordable, but are nice for what they offer and aren't insanely expensive either. 

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3 hours ago, Sherminator98 said:

 

I think the biggest hinderance (outside of charging) is the pricing. If Ford can sell the CE1 Pickup in some form for between $35-40K, they will be successful with it. Price party is what is hurting EV sales in the US. Its like the Rivian R2-its an Escape sized product that costs $50K plus-that is way too much for a mainstream product (not sure what Rivian is supposed to be slotting it as- luxury vehicle or what)

 

If Ford can crack the C sized CUV EV product for less then $40K, they'll have a winner IMO

 

I view Rivian as a more "elevated" brand - maybe not full on luxury, but not "average" brand either......whoever said Mazda/Buick probably has good comparison.

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On 3/20/2026 at 3:49 AM, rmc523 said:

 

I view Rivian as a more "elevated" brand - maybe not full on luxury, but not "average" brand either......whoever said Mazda/Buick probably has good comparison.

To me, Rivian looks like a premium brand, maybe not true luxury but it could reach many buyers..

 

I think it ironic that Ford sold its investment in Rivian because its own engineering

called the electronics incompatible with Ford’s own systems…..

Especially since CE1 would seem to be embracing many of those CPU styled electrical systems..

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On 3/21/2026 at 8:29 PM, jpd80 said:

To me, Rivian looks like a premium brand, maybe not true luxury but it could reach many buyers..

 

I think it ironic that Ford sold its investment in Rivian because its own engineering

Electric & Plug-In Vehicles

 

called the electronics incompatible with Ford’s own systems…..

Especially since CE1 would seem to be embracing many of those CPU styled electrical systems..

 

That's a good word for it - premium.  lol

 

 

I wonder if the initial tie up opened Ford's eyes to a different way of doing it, that also led to the CE1 approach.

 

And that maybe the Rivian tie up was too "early" in that sense.

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Yep, premium sounds about right for the R2, however that also includes the off-road ability too. Starting at 45k, I think it’s a decent price for what you are getting. A bronco sport badlands starts at 40k, and the R2 is much nicer, larger, and is probably just as good if not better off road.

 

I think the ce1 suv needs to come in closer to low to mid 30s though. If you look at most of its competitors, that’s where they fall. It would seem odd for ford to invent a completely new way of manufacturing vehicles to save on cost, then price it more than the competition.

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16 hours ago, twintornados said:

I was wondering if anyone knows just how far along Ford is with the re-do of Louisville Assembly for CE1 production? 

 

Well, production ended in December.  Theoretically they could be 3-4 months in, and don't the changeovers of this scale (that aren't F-series) usually take like a year?

 

So maybe 1/4 way through?

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On 3/19/2026 at 12:31 PM, akirby said:

The biggest hurdle to EV demand has been cost. 

 

Price parity is comin' slowly in the new car market but is practically here in the used car market.

 

image.png.c5ae6166ca51fba304608803b4576436.png

 

Ford has the opportunity to be the company that changes the game for the new car market in a couple years with CE1 EV priced at or below comparable ICE vehicles. If Ford Model e will continue to lose money through at least 2027 and 2028 or even longer in order to get those CE1 products launched on time, in high volume, with high quality, so be it. 

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, morgan20 said:

 

Price parity is comin' slowly in the new car market but is practically here in the used car market.

 

image.png.c5ae6166ca51fba304608803b4576436.png

 

Ford has the opportunity to be the company that changes the game for the new car market in a couple years with CE1 EV priced at or below comparable ICE vehicles. If Ford Model e will continue to lose money through at least 2027 and 2028 or even longer in order to get those CE1 products launched on time, in high volume, with high quality, so be it. 

 

 

 

 

 

The pricing might be at parity, but the biggest issue is that most current EVs have issues that didn't make them appealing as a new cars won't translate to making them appealing used cars either. 

 

Its like buying a flip phone at the same price as say a smart phone. 

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21 hours ago, Sherminator98 said:

The pricing might be at parity, but the biggest issue is that most current EVs have issues that didn't make them appealing as a new cars won't translate to making them appealing used cars either. 

 

EV ain't for everyone, but akirby is right that the biggest hurdle to EV demand has been cost.

 

This is why used EV, which are almost at price parity, sell as fast or faster (lower days supply) than used ICE vehicles, while new EV, which still have a decent price premium, sell at a slower rate (higher days supply) than new ICE vehicles.

 

image.thumb.png.fade9e557a5b67231b0c874214b2678f.png

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