The US automaker Ford posted a jump in sales in the past quarter, but had to accept a net loss due to an exit from its joint venture “Argo AI” for the development of self-driving cars. The second-largest US automaker announced on Wednesday after the market closed that revenues had increased by ten percent to 39.4 billion during the period. Adjusted operating profit was $1.8 billion.
However, a net loss of 827 million (838.66 million euros) was incurred. That’s because of a $2.7 billion pre-tax non-cash impairment charge on its investment in robotic car startup Argo AI, which Ford operated with Volkswagen, among others. Argo is now being wound up, Ford explained. “Talent engineers” should be offered positions at the parent company. Volkswagen also said it expects to hire some Argo employees. Ford CEO Jim Farley said we’re still a long way from viable, large-scale, fully autonomous vehicles. “And we won’t necessarily have to develop this technology ourselves.”
Correction of the forecast
Last week, Ford gave the first indication of a slowdown in business by correcting its forecast for the third quarter. At the competitor General Motors, analysts had expected weaker results before the figures were presented. The US top dog then surprised with a whopping increase in profit and confirmed its forecast for the year as a whole.
But that shouldn’t be more than an afterglow. According to experts, the industry is facing a downturn due to high inflation, rising interest rates and ongoing procurement problems. So far, many manufacturers are still benefiting from the fact that they cannot deliver as many vehicles as ordered due to the lack of parts. You can therefore push through higher prices and thereby offset the increased costs. In the meantime, however, the special boom is abating because more semiconductors are available again. Tesla, the world’s largest electric car manufacturer, recently had to cut back on its ambitious growth plans.