Lawler said this quarter’s results were a “peek at what’s possible” from the company’s growth plans, called Ford +.
In a call with analysts, CEO Jim Farley said he hopes Ford’s performance in the past quarter become a pattern of “boringly predictable…but extremely ambitious” earnings reports.
Its adjusted earnings before interest and taxes rose 45 percent to $3.4 billion. A majority of that — $2.6 billion — came from Ford Blue, the company’s gasoline-powered business.
Ford made $1.36 billion on its commercial business, Ford Pro, and lost $722 million on its electric vehicle business, Model e.
Company officials have said they expect losses from the EV business to increase nearly 50 percent to $3 billion this year, while it expects Ford Blue to make about $7 billion and Ford Pro to produce about $6 billion in earnings.
Ford still expects to approach contribution margin breakeven on EVs by the end of this year. It expects to make 8 percent margins on EVs by late 2026.
Farley praised the Ford Pro unit, saying sales from subscription services are increasing and helping it become a more “resilient” operation whose profits and losses are less cyclical than the traditional auto business.
Ford on Tuesday said it continues to target $9 billion to $11 billion in adjusted EBIT on the full year and about $6 billion in adjusted free cash flow.
Despite the strong sales numbers in the first quarter, Ford officials warned that increasing incentives could be a headwind for the remainder of the year.
The company finished the first-quarter with nearly $29 billion in cash and more than $46 billion in liquidity.
