Ford quarterly revenue rises 20 pct

CHICAGO, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Ford Motor Company raked in 41.5 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in the first quarter of 2023, up 20 percent year on year, on shipments of nearly 1.1 million vehicles, an increase of 9 percent.

According to the quarterly report posted on its website on Tuesday, Ford's net income in the first quarter was 1.8 billion dollars, as against a net loss of 3.1 billion dollars a year ago; and the adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) were 3.4 billion dollars, up 45 percent year on year.

The Dearborn-based automaker's cash flow from operations in the first quarter was 2.8 billion dollars. At the end of the quarter, the automaker's balance sheet had nearly 29 billion dollars in cash and more than 46 billion dollars in liquidity.

This was the first time for Ford to report performance in three business segments of Ford Blue representing iconic gas and hybrid vehicles, Ford Model e representing breakthrough electric vehicles, and Ford Pro representing commercial products and services.

Ford Blue had first-quarter revenue of 25.1 billion dollars, EBIT of 2.6 billion dollars and an EBIT margin of 10.4 percent, all up sharply from a year ago.

For Ford Model e, Ford's momentum slipped in the first quarter, losing its position as the second-largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the United States to rival American automaker General Motors (GM).

Ford is maintaining the full-year 2023 performance expectations for adjusted EBIT of 9 billion dollars to 11 billion dollars, and adjusted free cash flow of about 6 billion dollars.

Meanwhile, the automaker reaffirmed its 2023 segment-level EBIT expectations of about 7 billion dollars for Ford Blue, up modestly from last year; a full-year loss of about 3 billion dollars for Ford Model e; and EBIT approaching 6 billion dollars for Ford Pro, which would be nearly twice its 2022 earnings.

GM released its first quarter results last week, reporting its first-quarter revenue at 40 billion dollars, net income attributable to stockholders at 2.4 billion dollars and EBIT-adjusted at 3.8 billion dollars.

GM has also updated its full-year 2023 earnings guidance. It adjusted full-year net income attributable to stockholders from 8.7-10.1 billion dollars to 8.4-9.9 billion dollars, adjusted EBIT from 10.5-12.5 billion dollars to 11-13 billion dollars, and adjusted automotive free cash flow from 5-7 billion dollars to 5.5-7.5 billion dollars.