Ford Just Wrote Off $20 Billion In Dumped EV Investments, But Swears An "Affordable" EV Pickup On Its Way

[hatrack]

Last year Ford Motor suspended production of an electric pickup truck, shut down a battery factory in Kentucky and booked a $20 billion loss to account for its diminished plans. Then, last month, the senior executive who oversaw development of this new technology left the company.

But Ford executives insist that those setbacks do not mean that the company has given up on electric vehicles. As evidence, they point to a former warehouse here in Long Beach, Calif.

There, a team lead by Alan Clarke, a Tesla veteran, is building a new electric pickup truck that will go on sale next year, the first of many models designed to compete on price and technology with the best cars sold by Chinese automakers.

Ford has begun lifting the secrecy that has shrouded the project, and last week allowed reporters to tour its Electric Vehicle Development Center in Long Beach.

EDIT

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/business/ford-motor-electric-pickup-truck.html

[NNadir]

1. Don't worry. Be happy. We're about to enter hydrogen nirvana.

I've been hearing about hydrogen for the last 50 years, along with fusion nirvana, most recently here at DU, where, I remember it well, a guy with an odd name, Elon Musk, was often represented as heroic.

After 50 years of trying, it's got to work, right?

Neither electrlytic hydrogen nor batteries are "green" unless electricity is "green" which despite hype to the contrary, now bordering on climate denial, it isn't.

Hydrogen however is a great way to rebrand fossil fuels. Who cares about exergy destruction if it's good for marketing?