Ford Motor said Thursday it would retool a plant in Canada to produce large pickup trucks rather than the electric sport utility vehicles it had previously planned to make there.
The move is the latest example of how automakers are pulling back on aggressive investment plans in response to the slowing growth of electric vehicle sales. On Wednesday, General Motors said it now expected to make 200,000 to 250,000 battery-powered cars and trucks this year, about 50,000 fewer than it had previously forecast.
The Ford plant, in Oakville, Ontario, recently stopped making the gasoline-powered Ford Edge SUV and was slated to shift to new electric versions of the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator, both three-row SUVs. Instead, Ford will turn the factory in Oakville into a third production location for its Super Duty pickup trucks, which are among its most profitable models.
Also see: Why most EVs in the US are still being shipped to the same few states
Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, said the company’s two other Super Duty plants, in Kentucky and Ohio, were running at full capacity but couldn’t produce as many vehicles as its commercial customers wanted. Super Duty trucks are typically used to haul heavy equipment and materials by building contractors, oil and gas companies and other businesses.
“We can’t meet the demand,” he said in a statement.
In recent months, Ford and General Motors have slowed the pace of their investments in electric vehicles, delaying some new models and work on battery plants they had been rushing to build. Just a few years ago, GM and Ford expected to make more than 1 million electric vehicles a year by the middle of the decade. Mary T. Barra, CEO of GM, said this week that the company might not meet that goal.
More on EVs: GM ending production of Chevy Malibu, switching production to EV Bolt
Tesla, the leading producer of electric cars, has responded to slower growth by repeatedly cutting the prices of its electric cars. The company has also slowed its plans to build an electric-car factory in Mexico and canceled a meeting between its CEO, Elon Musk, and the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, to discuss building a plant in that country.
Ford said the Oakville plant should start making Super Duty trucks in 2026, with a capacity of 100,000 vehicles a year. The move will secure about 1,800 jobs at the plant as well as 50 others at an engine plant in Windsor, Ontario.
In April, Ford said it would delay the start of production of the electric Explorer and Aviator in Oakville from 2025 to 2027, raising concerns about the status of jobs at the plant.
Other automakers: Volkswagen investing up to $5 billion in Rivian Automotive in Irvine
The Canadian autoworkers union, Unifor, welcomed the new plan for pickup production. “We came to an agreement that will not only see our members back to work sooner, it protects our members’ jobs well into the future,” Lana Payne, president of Unifor, said in a statement.
Ford said it still planned to make the electric Explorer and Aviator but did not say when or where it would do that.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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