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In the latest sign of the EV market’s growing pains, Ford on Thursday announced it would double down on production of “one of its most popular and profitable” ICE vehicles at a plant that had been poised to assemble EVs.
The automaker said that it would bring production of F-Series Super Duty trucks to a third plant in North America in 2026: Oakville Assembly Complex in Ontario, where Ford had planned to build an electric three-row SUV. The change comes after the automaker said in April that it would delay the launch of that EV from 2025 to 2027 because of market conditions.
“Super Duty is a vital tool for businesses and people around the world and, even with our Kentucky Truck Plant and Ohio Assembly Plant running flat out, we can’t meet the demand,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement.
“At the same time,” he added, “we look forward to introducing three-row electric utility vehicles, leveraging our experience in three-row utility vehicles and our learnings as America’s No. 2 electric vehicle brand to deliver fantastic, profitable vehicles.”
The latest announcement, which comes with a $3 billion investment across multiple plants to support Super Duty production, secures Oakville’s near-term future amid uncertainty about the pace of EV adoption. The investment would provide 1,800 jobs at the plant as well as more than 200 at a nearby engine plant and at components plants in the US.
Sam Fiorani, VP of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions, chalked the decision up to “the slow transition to EVs.”
“Ford saw the opportunity to fill this plant with a much more profitable product as they figure out where to build the three-row electric crossover, and when to build it,” he told Tech Brew.
Ford already has retooled some of its plants for EV production, he noted, but there simply isn’t enough demand to fill all that capacity: “Moving to a product like the Super Duty gives them additional profit going forward and allows them to better finance the EV transition when it’s ready later in this decade.”
Ford didn’t immediately respond to Tech Brew’s request for further comment.
Although Ford’s EV sales continue to grow, its EV business lost $1.3 billion in Q1. Its commercial vehicle business generated earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of $3 billion.
In the meantime, Ford has leaned heavily into hybrid vehicles, which have proven popular with consumers.