Ford and General Motors are gearing up for electric vehicle offenses, but it appears their short-term plans are heavily reliant on petrol-powered crossovers, trucks and SUVs.
According to documents seen by Reuters, Ford and GM will only build approximately 320,000 electric vehicles in North America in 2026. That’s a sizable increase from the 35,000 they intend to build this year, but the publication noted it’s still less than the 367,500 units delivered by Tesla in 2019.
For comparison, Ford and GM are expected to build 5.2 million trucks and SUVs in 2026. While some of those will be electric, like the Cadillac Lyriq and Ford Mustang Mach-E, data from AutoForecast Solutions suggests 93% of them will use internal combustion engines.
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With GM cutting back on slow selling sedans and Ford eliminating them altogether, it’s not surprising to hear SUV production will outnumber car production by more than eight to one in 2026. Reuters also noted the automakers will become even more dependent on trucks and SUVs as nearly 87% of the vehicles built by them will fall into one of those two categories.
The decision to focus on trucks and SUVs is hardly a surprise as models such as the Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Silverado and Ford F-150 are cash cows that make their automakers tidy profits. Some of this money is then feed into the development of electric vehicles.
While Ford and GM are planning an assortment of upcoming EVs, it appears the automakers are being cautious as they want to make demand matches up with supply. This sentiment was echoed by Ford’s chief of product development, Hau Thai-Tang, who told the publication “We’re trying to time this with the natural demand of consumers [so] we’re not forced to do artificial things and we don’t violate the laws of economics.”
