Ford 2Q profit surges on strong revenue, but company faces electric vehicle growing pains

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Ford Motor Co.’s second-quarter profit more than tripled to $1.92 billion versus a year ago on stronger revenue and sales

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co.'s second-quarter profit more than tripled to $1.92 billion versus a year ago on strong internal combustion and commercial vehicle sales, but losses grew along with growing pains in the electric vehicle business.

Pretax losses at Model e, the EV business, topped $1 billion in the quarter, but they were more than offset by $2.3 billion in profits on internal combustion vehicles and $2.39 billion from commercial vehicles such as delivery vans.

The overall strong performance gave Ford the confidence to raise its guidance for full-year pretax profits, Chief Financial Officer John Lawler said Thursday. The company now expects to make $11 billion to $12 billion, up from $9 billion to $11 billion. Sales in the U.S., Ford's most lucrative market, rose 10% last quarter,

But Ford backed away from ambitious milestones for building electric vehicles in the future. The company had said it would build at an annual rate of 600,000 this year, but now says that won't happen until next year. Ford also delayed a goal of building 2 billion EVs per year by the end of 2026, pushing that out indefinitely.

Ford predicted its full-year pretax losses on electric vehicles will balloon to $4.5 billion, from $3 billion previously. But the company expects its Ford Blue combustion engine unit and the Ford Pro commercial vehicle operation will each make $8 billion on strong pricing, more than covering the EV losses. Commercial vehicle profits are expected to double from last year.

Lawler said the ramp up on EV production isn't going to be a straight line as the transformation from combustion engines to