Ford reported lower-than-anticipated fourth-quarter operating results on Tuesday, hit by unexpectedly high tariffs and lower vehicle volumes due to a supplier outage.
The US automaker, which had previously signalled a loss for the final quarter of 2025 owing to more than $14 billion in electric vehicle programme write-downs, reported earnings below expectations even when EV costs were excluded.
Ford lost $11.1 billion on revenues of $45.9 billion, down five per cent from the year-ago period.
Excluding one-off items, Ford’s earnings came in at 13 cents per share, six cents short of analyst expectations.
Ford incurred around $900 million more in tariff costs for 2025 following a late-December decision by the Trump administration limiting a provision designed to mitigate levies on imported auto parts.
As a result, Ford ended the year with a $2 billion tariff hit for 2025, compared with an earlier forecast of $1 billion, said Chief Financial Officer Sherry House.
Meanwhile, Ford’s sales volumes were affected by a pair of fires at the Novelis Oswego aluminium plant in upstate New York in October and November, resulting in another $2 billion hit for the year.
House said the hot mill at the site is partially operational and expects the plant to be fully functional sometime in mid-2026.
“We’ve got people on the ground there and know exactly what is going on and where things stand,” House said on a conference call with reporters. “We have contingency plans to secure sufficient supply for the hot mill from various sources.”
While Ford expects some costs associated with US President Donald Trump’s tariffs to ease in 2026, the company anticipates a larger hit from importing aluminium due to Trump’s levies on the metal, House added.
Ford projected 2026 adjusted earnings of between $8 billion and $10 billion, up from $6.8 billion in 2025 and in line with analyst expectations.
