After the launch of its highly anticipated F-150 Lightning electric pickup on Tuesday, Ford’s (F) big week continues with a Q1 revenue and earnings beat. The company reported:
Revenue: $34.5 billion vs $31.05 billion expected
EPS Adjusted: $0.38 vs. $0.36 expected
However, the company reported a net loss of $3.1 billion due to a mark-to-market loss on its Rivian (RIVN) investment of $5.4 billion. Backing that loss out and other expenses gives the company an adjusted profit beat.
With regards to electric vehicles, Ford maintained its forecast to produce 600,000 battery electric vehicles by 2023, and deliver more than 2 million electric vehicles annually by 2026, which is about one-third of Ford’s global volume. Eventually Ford is targeting 50% EV sales by 2030.
Commenting on the ongoing chip shortage, Ford said in the earnings statement, "the continuing global shortage of semiconductors held down Ford’s January and February production and shipments, though manufacturing rates were significantly improved during March."
However, the company went on to say as part of its assumptions for 2022, that it expects "improved semiconductor availability during the second half of the year."
As for the F-150 Lightning, possibly Ford’s most important vehicle launch ever, the company said it has 200,000 reservations for the pickup and is expanding the Rouge EV facility in Dearborn to ramp up production to an annual run rate of 150,000 Lightning pickups by 2023.
As for the 2022 model year, Ford CEO Jim Farley all but confirmed that the initial model year run is sold out, telling Yahoo Finance that “we are sold out for at least a year or so.”
"Even if you know Jim Farley it probably wouldn't matter, we are sold out for at least a year or so," Farley said. "And we stopped taking orders unfortunately — in theory, a customer can make an order and then wait for two years, [but] that doesn't make sense."
Farley did give fans a new product tease though during the F-150 Lightning launch event on Tuesday, claiming the upcoming Ford Blue Oval City EV plant in Tennessee would be building “another electric pickup that’s different than this one.” Industry watchers and analyst believe this could be a midsize or even compact pickup based on the current Ford Maverick.
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Pras Subramanian is a senior autos reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
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