Ford Leans on Hybrids; GM Banks on EV Profitability

• Presentations from General Motors and Ford at this week’s Barclays Global Automotive and Mobility Tech Conference in New York provide insight into what we will drive between now and the end of the ‘20s.
• As EV demand fluctuates, Ford CFO John Lawler said “hybrids are going to be critical.” No one is going to put a fifth-wheel on an EV, he said, but buyers will put a big trailer on a hybrid truck.
• GM CFO Paul Jacobson reiterated challenges in the EV ramp-up, mostly problems with the automated technology and machinery to stack battery cells into modules. By the middle of 2024, “we expect that to be normalized and no longer a constraint,” he said.

John Lawler and Paul Jacobson, chief financial officers, respectively, of the Ford Motor Company and General Motors, agree the US market will buy about 16 million new vehicles next year. Their companies are on different paths toward the electric-vehicle revolution.

Each spoke individually before the Barclays Global Automotive and Mobility Tech Conference in New York this week. Jacobson repeated much of what he and CEO Mary Barra presented in Wednesday’s GM business update, but with more detail.

• GM’s Barra Is Disappointed with 2023 EV Production

Jacobson said he expects “spending on Cruise (automated vehicles) will be significantly lower than what it was in 2023.”

Scaling back autonomous-vehicle programs may be another subject on which the two companies agree.

Lawler said Ford “was sinking $1 billion per year” into Level 4 autonomous development when it dropped Argo AI last year to concentrate instead on Level 2+ and Level 3 technology, and “now we have the highest-rated driver-assist technology with Blue Cruise.”

Yes, Lawler and Jacobson were talking to a Wall Street crowd, where few drive their own cars or trucks. But their presentations provide insight into what we will drive between now and the end of the ‘20s.

Ford

EV growth is slowing, Lawler said, so Ford is investing less.

“Pricing has come down much quicker than we expected and than anybody has expected,” he told the Wall Street crowd. The EV market is shifting from early adopters to what he calls an “early majority”—consumers who are not willing to pay premium