Ford accelerates turnaround with pickup pricing

Ford Motor is no longer stuck in second gear. The $30 billion automaker reported $2.4 billion in third-quarter earnings on Wednesday, crushing Refinitiv's mean analyst estimate. But new Chief Executive Jim Farley, whose first official day was Oct. 1, may find it tough to keep up this pace and deliver on electric-vehicle promises.

The United States' second-largest vehicle maker should now be in the black this year, an improvement on its own earlier forecasts. The Michigan-based company's $37.5 billion revenue was almost twice the previous three months' haul. And Ford's adjusted pre-tax profit margin of 9.7% in the period topped its 8% goal.

That's a helpful bequest from former CEO Jim Hackett, but it can't last. Covid-19 shutdowns caused supply to decline, even as demand jumped - especially in the United States, where retail truck sales spiked more than 8% versus 2019. Along with an assist from Ford's finance arm, that brought a favorable impact from higher vehicle prices, something that isn't sustainable.

Farley knows he can't take his foot off the gas. The company has been undergoing an $11 billion corporate rejig, first announced in 2018 under Hackett, to reallocate capital away from weaker lines, like North American sedans, and toward core products such as F-series trucks and investments in electric and autonomous technologies. Cutting costs is central to this project. Reductions are coming through in some markets, but new models, critical to revenue and market share, will mean sequentially higher structural costs in the current quarter, the company says.

And while the new technology plan is ambitious, it lacks specifics. True, Ford said it's releasing an electric Transit cargo van in November - part of its push to dominate in commercial EVs - and stressed the importance of the electric version of its best-selling F-150 truck. Management also wants to expand in data, software, and charging. But Farley wouldn't offer many details about planned investments.

Moving forward, the bizarre pandemic pricing environment should normalize. And Ford is still playing catch-up in the race for next-generation auto dominance with the likes of $385 billion Tesla and $49 billion General Motors. The new boss has some breathing room, but it may be years before he's taking victory laps.