Even With Half Their Profits Lost in The Abyss… Ford’s Dropping Another $5B to Challenge Tesla

When Ford jumped into the EV game during the pandemic, they probably figured it’d be an unfair fight… like Jake Paul dancing into the ring with Mike Tyson and walking out without a scratch. Well now it’s 2025 and… yeah, that’s not quite how it’s gone. Instead of duking it out for an easy payday, they’ve somehow ended up in the way less glamorous competition for “Who Can Lose the Most Cash in the Shortest Time.”

And right now? They’re going toe-to-toe with the bottom feeders of the EV world… Rivian, Fisker, and a few other deep-sea dwellers we won’t name here (mostly to avoid triggering the remaining bagholders who are probably checking the stock price for the 5th time today).

And no, this isn’t just me roasting for clicks… the numbers are fugly (pardon my french). Over the last two and a half years, Ford’s EV division has bled out a somehow impressive $12 billion, with $2.2 billion of that coming in just the first half of 2025. To put that in perspective, last year alone those EV losses ate up roughly half of Ford’s total profits. That’s not “we’re investing in the future” money… that’s “we handed 50 cents of every dollar we made to the world’s most expensive science project and prayed it works out” money.

So why keep swinging? Why not pull the plug, go back to selling the trucks and SUVs that actually make money, and stop lighting cash on fire? Because Ford doesn’t think EVs are optional. Jim Farley’s been blunt: the industry’s going electric whether the margins are pretty or not. And Ford’s already sunk billions into battery plants and factory retooling… walking away now would be like a bagholder rage-selling ARKK at the bottom. You’ve already taken the beating, everyone knows you bought at the top, and the only way you get your dignity back is if it moons again.

Even with EV deliveries down 12% in the first half of 2025 (and the Lightning squatting on dealer lots like a free couch on Craigslist) Ford’s still pushing the accelerator.

So here comes what they’re branding the “next Model T moment,” which in plain English is a $5 billion gamble that they can make EVs cheap enough and fast enough to actually move off the lot. About $2 billion will flip the Louisville Assembly Plant (in Muhammad Ali’s hometown, fitting for a division that needs a comeback fight) into a midsize electric pickup line by 2027. The other $3 billion’s going to a Michigan battery plant for LFP batteries, the nickel-free kind that are cheaper and lighter. On paper, that should get the truck to a $30K sticker… in reality, once tax credits vanish, you’re staring at closer to $37.5K and hoping the sales pitch still lands.

The production overhaul is equally (what’s the word), interesting?. Instead of Henry Ford’s famous single-line system, they’re switching to an “assembly tree”... three separate build lines for the front end, back end, and battery/cab, merging at the end. Ford says this will cut build time by 15%, reduce parts by 20%, and eliminate 40% of their workstations. Of course, fewer workstations means 600 fewer jobs at the Louisville plant, but Farley insists those workers will be placed elsewhere (aka: unemployment lines).

(Source: CBS News)

What’s wild is that despite the EV dumpster fire on paper, Ford’s stock is actually up about 15% this year. That’s partly because Wall Street still thinks the company’s gas-powered truck empire can bankroll the EV experiment long enough to make it work, and partly because investors have bought into the all-or-nothing “EVs or bust” storyline.

The problem is, timing couldn’t be trickier. On Sept. 30, the federal EV tax credit disappears, which means that $30K pickup suddenly feels a lot more like $37,500. And Tesla’s still hacking away at prices… putting even more pressure on Ford’s margins before this truck ever rolls off the line.

So essentially, Ford’s hoping that this $5 billion reinvention puts them back in contention with Elon. If it works, they’re back in the EV fight for real. If it flops… they’ll still strut off like a millionaire who pays for a $50K-a-year country club membership they never set foot in… not because they like golf, but because it’s a flex. And honestly, that might be the genius here: new shareholders get hyped on the “future of EVs” pitch, while the old guard shrugs and says, “Yeah, not thrilled about the EV losses… but if we’re still crushing with that kind of baggage? Must be a pretty great stock.”

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Ford and Tesla as mentioned in the article.