Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/DEARBORN: Ford Motor Co. Has reduced prices of its electric crossover SUV Mustang Mach-E by as much as $5,900 per vehicle, weeks after rival Tesla Inc. slashed prices globally on its electric vehicles by as much as 20 percent.
Shares of Ford closed down 2.9 percent in above-average trading to $12.89. Tesla fell 6.3 percent. The move comes as electric vehicle manufacturers are feeling pressure from Tesla’s price cut to respond.
Senior analyst Dan Ives said that “Ford just cut Mustang EV prices in response to Tesla’s price cut. Mini prices war about to begin with EVs in the United States with Tesla’s shot across the bow on price cuts,”
The move could make at least one additional version of the Mach-E again eligible for a 7,500 dollars federal tax credit, which requires the Ford EV to have the suggested retail price of no more than 55,000 dollars to be eligible.
Ford had planned to increase Mach-E production that year at its plant in Mexico to 130,000 cars from 78,000 in 2022 and said that in November, it was accelerating the Mustang Mach-E production and targeting an international annual production rate of 270,000 by the end of 2023, including its China production.
Ford builds Mach-E in China, Mexico
Ford builds the Mach-E in China and Mexico. “Tesla’s price cut was a major blow to the prospects of competing EV models, and the Mustang Mach-E directly competes with Tesla’s Model Y,” said Garrett Nelson, an analyst at CFRA Research.
Ford cut prices by up to 8 percent on various versions of the Mach-E, as well as cutting the price of the extended-range battery by about 19 percent. The lowest-priced models are getting smaller 600 dollars to 900 dollars price cuts. The Ford rate cuts only impact North American prices.
Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley said that “scaling could shorten customer wait times. And with higher production, we are reducing costs, which allows us to share these savings with customers.”
