US car giant Ford has closed the last quarter with heavy losses of $US11.1 billion ($A15.7 billion).
The decisive factors were the restructuring of its heavily loss-making electric vehicle business, a fire at an aluminium supplier and US President Donald Trump’s import tariffs, according to results released on Tuesday.
The US carmaker had already announced a write-down of $US19.5 billion ($A27.6 billion) on battery-powered vehicles.
Ford had closed the same quarter last year with a profit of $US1.8 billion ($A2.5 billion).
Sales fell by five per cent year-on-year to $US45.9 billion ($A64.9 billion).
At the divisional level, the picture was similar to previous quarters: the electric car division posted an operating loss of $US1.2 billion ($A1.7 billion).
Meanwhile, cars with combustion engines brought Ford an operating profit of $US727 million ($A1 billion), and the commercial vehicle division earned about $US1.2 billion ($A1.7 billion) on this basis.
Following Tesla’s success, the major US carmakers General Motors, Ford and Stellantis invested billions of dollars to add more electric cars to their model ranges.
In the future, Ford intends to focus more on hybrid vehicles – and on smaller models in the electric car segment.
The fully electric version of the large F-150 pickup truck has been discontinued.
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