Ford Says Plunge Into More-Mobile World Worth Short Profit Slump
- Results may slip in 2017 amid spending on driverless cars
- Robot taxis alone may bring 100,000 annual sales, Ford says
This article is for subscribers only.
Ford Motor Co.’s headlong push into driverless and electric cars will come at a price, with financial results falling next year as it boosts spending on the new products and fixes weaknesses in luxury autos and emerging markets.
The trade-off should be temporary, with earnings rising again in 2018, and is needed to stay ahead of dramatic changes in how people will get around as more of them migrate to big cities, Ford told investors at an all-day conference Wednesday. The good news, the automaker said, is the promise of 20 percent profit margins in these as-yet untapped mobility markets -- more than double the returns in its traditional car business.