Ford is scrapping its signature all-electric truck and plans to provide energy storage for the artificial intelligence boom.
The major pivot, which Ford estimates will cost $19 billion, amounts to using one problem to solve another.
The company plowed billions of dollars into battery manufacturing to power its electric vehicles — only to find less enthusiasm for its EV line than anticipated. Now Ford is turning its biggest EV, the F-150 Lightning, into a hybrid and tweaking its batteries to woo a new customer base of data centers and other big energy users.
“It’s a sign of the times for the auto industry, and they recognize how important the batteries are to the economy, not just to transportation,” said Nick Nigro, the founder of Atlas Public Policy, a company that studies EV and battery markets.
