Ford Mustang on display at the NY Auto Show, April 6, 2023.
Scott Mlyn | CNBC
DEARBORN, Mich. – Ford Motor made its case to Wall Street at an investor event Monday, sharing details of its plan to profitably build millions of EVs while growing its traditional operations.
Ford CEO Jim Farley kicked off the day discussing the company’s growth plans for its gas-powered, fleet, and electric business units.
“I’m not here to tell you that we’re undervalued, you’ll make your own decision,” Farley said.
Ford said early Monday that it is maintaining its 2023 guidance of between $9 billion and $11 billion in adjusted EBIT and about $6 billion in adjusted free cash flow.
The company ahead of the event also announced a series of new deals for the supply of lithium products in support of its plan to dramatically ramp up production of electric vehicles.
Ford is targeting an 8% EBIT margin on its electric vehicle unit and a 2 million EV production run rate by 2026, up from an expected 600,000 by year-end.
Ford went into greater detail about its profit expectations for each of its main business units but did not announce any significant changes to its plans, which some on Wall Street have criticized as being ambitious, if not unrealistic.
Farley focused much of his time on how Ford’s plans aim to bust the company out of the industry’s current valuation penalty box for traditional automakers compared to the likes of Tesla.
Ford estimated its total costs are $7 billion higher than its competition.
Ford CFO John Lawler was frank with analysts toward the end of the morning: “We’ve talked about this for years. You’re not going to believe us until we start delivering it … Because we’ve told you this before. That’s the truth. We have, and we haven’t delivered. So we have to prove it.”
The automaker is expected to lose about $3 billion on its “Model e” electric vehicle business this year, offset from profits in its traditional “Blue” and “Pro” fleet businesses. The company separated the…
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