Ford retreats from massive EVs towards hybrids and energy-storage programs for AI information
facilities and infrastructure in a serious strategic overhaul.
Ford has signaled a dramatic shift in its electrification technique,
stepping away from huge, totally electrical automobiles (EVs) which have struggled to search out
consumers. Although as soon as positioned as a challenger to Tesla and the vanguard of the
electrical pickup revolution, Ford is pivoting exhausting. The corporate will take a $19.5
billion hit because it scales again its EV investments, canceling a number of deliberate
electrical fashions and rethinking its method to electrified mobility.
A centerpiece of this retreat is the choice to discontinue huge
battery-electric automobiles such because the F-150 Lightning of their present kind and
different massive EV plans which have failed to satisfy gross sales expectations or monetary
viability.
BREAKING: Ford declares it can repurpose its battery manufacturing facility in Glendale, Kentucky. https://t.co/CSJctqxvHs pic.twitter.com/OqI8QIpgnJ
— Paul Miles (@PaulMiles840) December 15, 2025
Jim Farley, CEO at Ford Motor Firm (LinkedIn).
Ford CEO Jim Farley and different executives have framed this as a customer-driven
shift, noting that demand for giant EVs has collapsed whereas curiosity in
hybrids and extended-range choices has grown. Farley stated on Monday that the choice mirrored a pointy contraction within the US EV market and a shift in purchaser conduct.
“The EV market within the US went from 12% of the trade to solely 5, and that basically, in the long run, was the massive decider for us,” he stated.
Repurposing Battery Factories for AI-Associated Power Storage
Right here’s the place issues get fascinating. As a substitute of letting idle EV battery
capability go to waste, Ford is repurposing key battery crops to construct energy-storage
programs aimed toward supporting synthetic intelligence (AI)-related information facilities and {the electrical} grid.
The corporate’s Glendale, Kentucky battery facility initially devoted
to electrical car manufacturing might be remodeled right into a hub for large-scale
battery power storage programs (BESS) that may serve
business AI information facilities and infrastructure prospects. Ford plans to deploy at
least 20 gigawatt-hours of storage capability by the tip of 2027, leveraging
present industrial experience and underutilized battery manufacturing capability.
Ford is entering into the battery storage enterprise.
As a substitute of utilizing batteries for giant EVs, Ford will repurpose that capability to energy information facilities and assist the electrical grid.
Transport is scheduled to start out in 2027, with 20GWh deliberate to be produced yearly.#Energy #Ford… pic.twitter.com/q3PPKOX5Jc
— Hyperlink Applied sciences (@LinkTechnlogies) December 16, 2025
This transfer positions Ford to faucet into a requirement wave pushed by speedy
development in AI and cloud computing. As information facilities proliferate and power wants
surge as a result of surge in the usage of AI, operators are more and more adopting battery storage to chop prices,
enhance reliability, and buffer electrical energy demand spikes.
There’s additionally a nod to residential functions: Ford will use different
services to make smaller energy-storage models for properties, rounding out a
broader portfolio of storage options.
A New Powertrain Combine: Hybrids, EREVs, and Inexpensive EVs
Ford’s retreat from heavy EV bets doesn’t equate to abandoning
electrification totally. Quite, it’s being pitched as a strategic realignment
towards electrified automobiles that make extra monetary sense for each the corporate
and typical consumers.
Underneath the up to date plan, Ford will
concentrate on a various array of powertrains:
- Hybrids: Autos combining inside combustion engines with electrical
motors to enhance gasoline economic system and decrease prices. - Prolonged-range EVs (EREVs): Electrical automobiles with onboard turbines
(typically gasoline engines) that recharge batteries on the go, decreasing vary
nervousness. - Smaller, inexpensive BEVs: New EVs constructed on Ford’s Common EV Platform
aimed toward price-sensitive segments, together with a midsize electrical truck for 2027.
By 2030, Ford expects roughly 50 p.c of its world gross sales combine to
include hybrids, EREVs, and totally electrical automobiles, in contrast with simply 17
p.c at this time.
Why This Issues
Market Actuality Test
Ford’s pivot displays a broader actuality: gross sales of enormous, costly EVs
have softened considerably as US federal incentives expire, materials prices
stay excessive, and shopper preferences shift towards extra versatile choices.
By scaling again and taking a considerable hit the place vital, Ford is
acknowledging that the EV market’s early hype hasn’t aligned with the financial
actuality of mainstream consumers. Hybrids and EREVs, whereas maybe much less
headline-grabbing, attraction to prospects who need higher gasoline economic system with out the
compromises or price premiums of enormous BEVs.
Fascinating transfer by Ford > Ford launches BESS unit, targets information heart sector as key offtaker. Will repurpose electrical car batteries to be used inside the #DataCenter sector – DCD https://t.co/2MGd9F3ubY pic.twitter.com/iVUycvh2Kd
— Ron Vokoun (@RonVokoun) December 17, 2025
AI Knowledge Facilities and Power Infrastructure: A New Frontier
Ford’s daring energy-storage play might transform some of the
consequential points of this technique. Demand for batteries to assist information
facilities, utilities, and grid stabilization is surging due to AI development,
electrification of trade, and renewable integration. Ford’s choice to lean
into this market makes use of its battery experience in a manner that may ship greater
returns than competing in an oversupplied EV phase.
That places the corporate in direct competitors with established
energy-storage gamers and even Tesla, which has constructed a multi-billion-dollar
storage enterprise from Megapacks
and associated merchandise.
Legacy Meets Reinvention
There’s a broader narrative right here, too. Ford, an organization that helped
usher in mass-market vehicles greater than a century in the past, is now reinventing
components of its enterprise to deal with the power wants of tomorrow. Whether or not this guess
on power storage pays off stays to be seen, but it surely’s a far cry from the
all-in EV technique of only a few years in the past.
Trying Forward
Ford’s strategic pivot underscores the unpredictable nature of the auto
trade’s electrification journey. With underperforming EV fashions being
shelved, hybrids gaining traction, and new energy-storage ambitions taking
form, the corporate is charting a course that blends legacy energy with
forward-looking development sectors.
If Ford can capitalize on the booming information heart and grid storage
markets whereas sustaining relevance in electrified automobiles that align with
shopper demand, it could emerge as a much more balanced industrial powerhouse, even
if it forsakes the pure EV crown it as soon as chased.
Ford retreats from massive EVs towards hybrids and energy-storage programs for AI information
facilities and infrastructure in a serious strategic overhaul.
Ford has signaled a dramatic shift in its electrification technique,
stepping away from huge, totally electrical automobiles (EVs) which have struggled to search out
consumers. Although as soon as positioned as a challenger to Tesla and the vanguard of the
electrical pickup revolution, Ford is pivoting exhausting. The corporate will take a $19.5
billion hit because it scales again its EV investments, canceling a number of deliberate
electrical fashions and rethinking its method to electrified mobility.
A centerpiece of this retreat is the choice to discontinue huge
battery-electric automobiles such because the F-150 Lightning of their present kind and
different massive EV plans which have failed to satisfy gross sales expectations or monetary
viability.
BREAKING: Ford declares it can repurpose its battery manufacturing facility in Glendale, Kentucky. https://t.co/CSJctqxvHs pic.twitter.com/OqI8QIpgnJ
— Paul Miles (@PaulMiles840) December 15, 2025
Jim Farley, CEO at Ford Motor Firm (LinkedIn).
Ford CEO Jim Farley and different executives have framed this as a customer-driven
shift, noting that demand for giant EVs has collapsed whereas curiosity in
hybrids and extended-range choices has grown. Farley stated on Monday that the choice mirrored a pointy contraction within the US EV market and a shift in purchaser conduct.
“The EV market within the US went from 12% of the trade to solely 5, and that basically, in the long run, was the massive decider for us,” he stated.
Repurposing Battery Factories for AI-Associated Power Storage
Right here’s the place issues get fascinating. As a substitute of letting idle EV battery
capability go to waste, Ford is repurposing key battery crops to construct energy-storage
programs aimed toward supporting synthetic intelligence (AI)-related information facilities and {the electrical} grid.
The corporate’s Glendale, Kentucky battery facility initially devoted
to electrical car manufacturing might be remodeled right into a hub for large-scale
battery power storage programs (BESS) that may serve
business AI information facilities and infrastructure prospects. Ford plans to deploy at
least 20 gigawatt-hours of storage capability by the tip of 2027, leveraging
present industrial experience and underutilized battery manufacturing capability.
Ford is entering into the battery storage enterprise.
As a substitute of utilizing batteries for giant EVs, Ford will repurpose that capability to energy information facilities and assist the electrical grid.
Transport is scheduled to start out in 2027, with 20GWh deliberate to be produced yearly.#Energy #Ford… pic.twitter.com/q3PPKOX5Jc
— Hyperlink Applied sciences (@LinkTechnlogies) December 16, 2025
This transfer positions Ford to faucet into a requirement wave pushed by speedy
development in AI and cloud computing. As information facilities proliferate and power wants
surge as a result of surge in the usage of AI, operators are more and more adopting battery storage to chop prices,
enhance reliability, and buffer electrical energy demand spikes.
There’s additionally a nod to residential functions: Ford will use different
services to make smaller energy-storage models for properties, rounding out a
broader portfolio of storage options.
A New Powertrain Combine: Hybrids, EREVs, and Inexpensive EVs
Ford’s retreat from heavy EV bets doesn’t equate to abandoning
electrification totally. Quite, it’s being pitched as a strategic realignment
towards electrified automobiles that make extra monetary sense for each the corporate
and typical consumers.
Underneath the up to date plan, Ford will
concentrate on a various array of powertrains:
- Hybrids: Autos combining inside combustion engines with electrical
motors to enhance gasoline economic system and decrease prices. - Prolonged-range EVs (EREVs): Electrical automobiles with onboard turbines
(typically gasoline engines) that recharge batteries on the go, decreasing vary
nervousness. - Smaller, inexpensive BEVs: New EVs constructed on Ford’s Common EV Platform
aimed toward price-sensitive segments, together with a midsize electrical truck for 2027.
By 2030, Ford expects roughly 50 p.c of its world gross sales combine to
include hybrids, EREVs, and totally electrical automobiles, in contrast with simply 17
p.c at this time.
Why This Issues
Market Actuality Test
Ford’s pivot displays a broader actuality: gross sales of enormous, costly EVs
have softened considerably as US federal incentives expire, materials prices
stay excessive, and shopper preferences shift towards extra versatile choices.
By scaling again and taking a considerable hit the place vital, Ford is
acknowledging that the EV market’s early hype hasn’t aligned with the financial
actuality of mainstream consumers. Hybrids and EREVs, whereas maybe much less
headline-grabbing, attraction to prospects who need higher gasoline economic system with out the
compromises or price premiums of enormous BEVs.
Fascinating transfer by Ford > Ford launches BESS unit, targets information heart sector as key offtaker. Will repurpose electrical car batteries to be used inside the #DataCenter sector – DCD https://t.co/2MGd9F3ubY pic.twitter.com/iVUycvh2Kd
— Ron Vokoun (@RonVokoun) December 17, 2025
AI Knowledge Facilities and Power Infrastructure: A New Frontier
Ford’s daring energy-storage play might transform some of the
consequential points of this technique. Demand for batteries to assist information
facilities, utilities, and grid stabilization is surging due to AI development,
electrification of trade, and renewable integration. Ford’s choice to lean
into this market makes use of its battery experience in a manner that may ship greater
returns than competing in an oversupplied EV phase.
That places the corporate in direct competitors with established
energy-storage gamers and even Tesla, which has constructed a multi-billion-dollar
storage enterprise from Megapacks
and associated merchandise.
Legacy Meets Reinvention
There’s a broader narrative right here, too. Ford, an organization that helped
usher in mass-market vehicles greater than a century in the past, is now reinventing
components of its enterprise to deal with the power wants of tomorrow. Whether or not this guess
on power storage pays off stays to be seen, but it surely’s a far cry from the
all-in EV technique of only a few years in the past.
Trying Forward
Ford’s strategic pivot underscores the unpredictable nature of the auto
trade’s electrification journey. With underperforming EV fashions being
shelved, hybrids gaining traction, and new energy-storage ambitions taking
form, the corporate is charting a course that blends legacy energy with
forward-looking development sectors.
If Ford can capitalize on the booming information heart and grid storage
markets whereas sustaining relevance in electrified automobiles that align with
shopper demand, it could emerge as a much more balanced industrial powerhouse, even
if it forsakes the pure EV crown it as soon as chased.
