WionDrive News Desk 
Ford Motor Co posed an exceptional performance in its first-quarter earnings report published on Wednesday, which saw the figures beat the expectations of Wall Street. This was driven by strong performance in its commercial vehicle segment, which was complemented by hybrid vehicle sales. The company looks forward to attaining the top limit of the annual earnings estimate of USD 10 billion to USD 12 billion above the interest and taxes. This news was immediately followed by a 3% increase in Ford’s share price on the after-market.
Nevertheless, Ford faces a significant challenge, described by CEO Jim Farley as “a substantial burden not only for Ford but for the entire industry”: EV production. The corporation experienced an operating loss of USD 1.3 billion in its EV and software segment, which was posted in the first quarter. Executives of the company foresee the fiscal year to have a pre-tax loss from USD 5 billion to USD 5.5 billion for the said segment.
In the short term, Ford will focus on hybrid vehicles in order to provide smooth introduction to the customers into the future with battery technology. The goal is to bring about an increase in the sales of hybrids by 40% this year and as much as four times this number in the subsequent years. Executives have told that production of the next generation of Ford’s EV will be delayed as long as the profits are not guaranteed.
Similarly to Ford which is still struggling with the age old internal combustion engine and EV, Tesla and other EV manufacturers are also facing the same difficulty. In the past weeks, Elon Musk’s company unveiled a 10% cut in personnel globally and also made a disclosure of the first revenue fall since the pandemic. Nevertheless, the in-house EV production costs of the company are estimated to fall due to the effect of learning curve and economies of scale but on the other hand, the rivals in the market are expected to become more aggressive in terms of pricing which nullifies the effect.
