Last August, The Blue Oval announced that it was canceling plans to build a new pair of three-row, all-electric SUVs at the Oakville Assembly plant, which had previously been delayed from 2025 to 2027. At that time, Ford noted that this decision would result in a special non-cash charge of about $400 million for the write-down of certain product-specific manufacturing assets for those models, and the decision may also result in additional expenses and cash expenditures of up to $1.5 billion. Now, we’re learning that Ford wrote off a chunk of that loss in the first quarter of this year.
Ford’s Q1 2025 financial reporting outlines a $100 million dollar loss in the first quarter for the line item dubbed “EV Program Cancellation,” which is not something that it absorbed in Q4 2024, it seems. However, there is a line item for “Extended Oakville Assembly Plant Changeover” that totaled $300 million in the final quarter of last year, which makes sense given Ford’s decision to pivot away from those two EV SUVs and go in a very different direction.
As Ford Authority previously reported, The Blue Oval is instead opting to retool the Oakville plant to prepare it for production of the Ford Super Duty – in addition to the Kentucky Truck plant and the Ohio Assembly plant, where that model is already assembled. Meanwhile, Ford plans to replace the EV SUVs with new hybrid models in the coming years as part of its broader pivot in that direction.
The addition of Ford Super Duty production at Oakville will result in an expected output of up to 100,000 units annually. The automaker will invest $3 billion to make this happen, with $2.3 billion of that sum going toward retooling the Oakville plant for Ford Super Duty production, including the installation of both assembly and stamping equipment. This move will also add around 1,800 jobs at the Oakville plant, with 150 more joining the ranks at the Windsor Engine Complex to build V8 engines for the Super Duty as well.
Comment
Wow, Ford figured out no one wants EVs.