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A banner advertises the Ford Mustang Mach-E electric vehicle at a Ford dealership on August 21, 2024 in Glendale, California.  Mario Tama | Getty Images DETROIT – Ford Motor‘s profit engine for decades has been large trucks and SUVs in the U.S. So it might surprise investors that the automaker believes its new path to profitability for electric vehicles will first be led by smaller, more affordable vehicles. The new plan is an “insurance policy” for the automaker to be able to expand its growingly popular hybrid models and create more affordable EVs that it believes will deliver a more capital-efficient, profitable electric vehicle business for the company and investors, according to Marin Gjaja, Ford’s chief operating officer for its Model e EV unit. “We’re quite convinced that the highest adoption rates for electric vehicles will be in the affordable segment on the lower size-end of the range,” he told CNBC on Thursday. “We have to play there in order to compete with the entrants that are coming.” Those expected newcomers are largely Chinese automakers, such as Warren Buffett-backed BYD, that have been rapidly growing from their home market to Europe and other countries. Gjaja’s comments come a day after the automaker announced updates to its EV strategy that will cost up to $1.9 billion. That includes about $400 million for the write-down of manufacturing assets, as well as additional expenses and cash expenditures of up to $1.5 billion. Stock Chart IconStock chart icon Ford, Tesla and GM stocks Ford’s new plans for North America include canceling a large, electric three-row SUV that was already far in development, delaying production of its next-generation “T3” electric full-size pickup truck by about 18 months until late 2027, and refocusing battery production and sourcing to the U.S. Instead of the three-row SUV or…

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Filed under: News - @ August 23, 2024 1:20 pm