Ford Motor announced it expects its electric vehicle business unit to lose $3 billion this year, but remains on track to achieve a pretax margin of 8% by late 2026. The automaker will begin reporting results on its business unit for Model e (electric vehicles) on May 2nd. Ford projects Model e’s cumulative three-year loss from 2021-2023 at $6 billion, including a pro-forma loss last year of $2.1 billion. 

Chief Financial Officer John Lawler said Ford will no longer report financial results by region, only by business unit, because “that’s how we’re running the company now.” He said Ford will provide quarterly and annual sales and market share for the company’s top five global markets, but no longer will report by region. The automaker will have the global capacity to build 600,000 electric vehicles by the end of 2023 and 2 million by late 2026.  Mr Lawler added, “and we intend to fully use that capacity,” and that “Model e should be viewed as a startup company within Ford.” The Model e unit is working on second- and even third-generation electric vehicles. It currently offers three EVs for sale in the U.S.: the Mustang Mach E SUV, the F-150 Lightning pickup and an electric Transit commercial van.

The company expects its Ford Pro commercial vehicle business to nearly double pretax profit this year to $6 billion, while the traditional Ford Blue business should see a modest increase to $7 billion. Last year, Ford had a pretax loss of $600 million in China, broke even in Europe and posted a modest $400 million profit in South America, with most of its earnings before interest and taxes - $9.2 billion - coming from North America.

Ford Motor Company (F) stock ticked up after the announcement and then lost some steam, trading around $11.34 a share late Thursday afternoon (down 1.24%). Coming into Thursday trading, Ford stock had fallen about 33% over the past 12 months.