Ford tops revenue targets, but EV losses drag down profits

Ford exceeded Wall Street expectations in the third quarter for revenue projections but fell short on earnings-per-share forecasts.

Key details: 

• For the July-through-September quarter, Ford’s net income was $892 million, which represented a 25% year-over-year decrease. 

• The automaker’s Q3 revenue was $46 billion, which was up 5.5%, and more than $4 billion more than the $41.88 billion projection by analysts.

• Ford posted 22 cents per diluted share, while analysts had predicted 47 cents for earnings per share. 

Going deeper: Amid its mixed results for Q3, Ford’s adjusted operating earnings and net income were both up for the quarter. 

• The automaker posted adjusted operating earnings of $2.6 billion, an increase of 18% year-over-year.

• Ford’s net income margin was 5.5%, up from 5% a year ago.

Ford – which saw its sales increase by less than 1% in Q3 – projects that its annual adjusted operating earnings will be about $10 billion, closer to the lower end of its previously estimated range of $10 billion to $15 billion. 

EV woes: Probably no big surprise here: the biggest cut into Ford’s profits came in electric vehicles, specifically its business unit devoted to EVs – Ford Model e, though the loss is lower than the automaker’s initial estimates.  

• Ford’s electric vehicle unit posted a loss of $1.22 billion in Q3 2024, compared to $1.33 billion in the third quarter of 2023.

• The company projects that it will post a $5 billion loss with its Model e business unit in 2024, which falls at the lower end of the $5 billion to $5.5 billion projections.  

Ford’s $1.22 billion loss in Q3 with its electric vehicle business unit comes on the heels of the automaker announcing that it was canceling plans for a three-row, fully electric SUV, prompting a write-off of as much as $1.9 billion. 

Ultimately, these mixed results show that Ford is still in transition mode—making incremental progress but also facing hard decisions about where to allocate resources and how to manage profitability in the short term. The next few quarters will be crucial in determining whether Ford can refine its EV strategy while keeping its traditional business on solid ground.

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