If any other CEO in America had incinerated $35 billion of shareholder capital on a failed ideological crusade, security would be escorting him or her out of the building with a cardboard box in hand. Yet, at Ford Motor Company, CEO Jim Farley (pictured above in a Ford F-150 Lightning) appears to be immune to the consequences of his own catastrophic decision-making.
We recently noted how Farley attempted to rewrite history, praising President Trump’s rollback of fuel economy standards as “common sense” while pretending he hadn’t spent the last four years cheerleading the very mandates that “forced” Ford into the electric vehicle ditch.
Now, the bill for that detour has arrived, and it is staggering.
On Monday, Ford announced it is taking a massive $19.5 billion charge to write down the value of its EV investments. To put that number in perspective, that single accounting charge is larger than the entire market capitalization of many Fortune 500 companies.
The carnage doesn’t stop there. The company is indefinitely halting production of the F-150 Lightning—the truck Farley once wrote a “love letter” to—and canceling its successor. The “Rouge Electric Vehicle Center,” once the crown jewel of Ford’s green marketing, is effectively a monument to failure.
Energy expert Robert Bryce, who has been sounding the alarm on Ford’s reckless strategy for years, did the math on his Substack. When you combine this new write-down with the operating losses Ford’s “Model e” division has racked up since 2022, the total cost of Farley’s EV obsession hits $35.1 billion.
As Bryce points out, that figure is “more than three times the amount [Ford] made in profit since 2022.”
Farley frames this disaster as a “strategic shift,” claiming the company will now focus on hybrids and “extended-range” electric vehicles. He talks about “market reality” as if he is a passive observer rather than the captain who steered the ship into the iceberg.
Let’s be clear: This wasn’t a case of bad luck. This was a failure of leadership. Farley bet the company’s future on the fantasy that government mandates and taxpayer subsidies could override basic economics and consumer preference. He chased ESG scores instead of listening to his dealers, who warned him that the electric trucks were piling up on lots.
Even now, Farley seems incapable of full repentance. While he pivots to hybrids, he is still promising a new “skunkworks” project to build an affordable EV by 2027. Why should investors trust the man who lost $60,000 on every Lightning sold to figure out how to make a profit on a cheaper model?
The “BlueOval City” project in Tennessee, fueled by billions in Department of Energy loans, is now being frantically repurposed. The “Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center” is being renamed the “Tennessee Truck Plant” to build gas-powered trucks in 2029. It is a humiliating rebrand that perfectly encapsulates the collapse of the Biden-Farley green dream.
Shareholders have lost billions. Workers face uncertainty as production lines go dark. Taxpayers are on the hook for loans to a strategy that has imploded.
Robert Bryce asked the only question that matters: “Why does Jim Farley still have a job?” (A question NLPC has asked about his similarly situated General Motors counterpart Mary Barra).
It is a question the Ford Board of Directors needs to answer immediately.
(Video below from Robert Bryce published roughly one year ago)
