Ford has written off $1.9bn as it cancelled plans for an all-electric large SUV in the US, opting to produce a hybrid version instead in the latest sign of western carmakers struggling to make profitable electric cars.

The US carmaker said on Wednesday that it would not be able to reach a profit on the electric SUV within a year, its measure of whether a new car is viable, citing the stiff competition from Chinese manufacturers. It will initially write off the cost of $400m (£300m) in tooling for the vehicle, plus another $1.5bn (£1.15bn) in extra costs in the future.

Ford also said it would delay the successor to its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck until 2027, after initially targeting a launch next year.

  • @[email protected]
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    fedilink
    22 months ago

    Ahh. I thought there might be some sort of incentive like how Warner bros axed a fully finished movie because they could use the write off

    • @Hugin
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      22 months ago

      Even that was only worth doing because of special tax rules for when companies are sold.