Behind the juicy dividend is a 5-billion bet that already failed once
Shares under fifteen bucks, a dividend over 4 percent, earnings at a few multiples, and management that just raised guidance. On paper, a textbook cheap dividend stock. Except the entire profit is pulled by gasoline trucks and vans, while the electric division burns $4 billion a year, and Ford is doubling down with another $5 billion bet on a $28,350 pickup. The exact same kind of bet that already cost the company billions once.
Key points
In the second quarter of 2026, Ford lifted adjusted operating profit by 17 percent to $2.5 billion, but booked a $1.3 billion loss due to one‑time write‑downs.
The Model e electric division will lose around $4 billion this year, and over the past few years Ford has written off a total of $19.5 billion on electric vehicles.
The company’s entire profit is driven by the gasoline‑powered Ford Blue and the commercial Ford Pro, which together earned over $6.4 billion in the first half and easily cover the electric‑vehicle losses and the dividend.
The new electric Fathom truck is priced at $28,350 — the same as the gasoline Maverick, which sold 155,000 units last year and is sold out years in advance.
The previous cheap electric pickup, the F‑150 Lightning, was supposed to be a blockbuster. The price jumped from $40,000 to $60,000, sales stalled at 33,510 units, and in December 2025 Ford ended production.
Few major automakers today offer investors as attractive a profile as Ford. The stock trades under fifteen dollars, the dividend yield exceeds 4 percent — more than double the market average — the valuation sits below nine times earnings, and management just raised the full‑year outlook. It looks like a classic cheap stock for a patient investor who wants to collect the dividend and wait for better days.
But when you look at where the profit comes from, the picture shifts. The money is made by gasoline trucks under the Ford Blue banner and commercial vehicles and services under the Ford Pro brand. The electric Model e division, on the other hand, is losing money — and not a little — around $4 billion this year. And this is no new pain. Over the past few years, Ford has written off a combined $19.5 billion on its electric‑vehicle transition, a sum that would sink many a smaller company.
It is into this situation that Ford has now launched its biggest bet in years. The Fathom electric pickup at $28,350, the first vehicle on an all‑new low‑cost platform into which the company has poured around $5 billion. CEO Jim Farley talks about it as a “Model T moment” — a turning point that will turn an electric vehicle into a mass‑market product. It sounds grand. The catch is, a cheap car only makes money when you sell hundreds of thousands of units, and Ford is aiming at a segment that in the US barely exists yet.
And something else is hanging in the air. Ford has walked this path once before. A few years ago, another electric truck, the F‑150 Lightning, was supposed to be the blockbuster and ended up as a cautionary tale. So the question for an investor is not whether the stock is cheap — it is, by most measures. It is a different question. Is Fathom the turning point that finally stops the electric‑vehicle bleeding, or another $5 billion thrown into the same trap? And if the latter, how much longer can gasoline trucks carry both the juicy dividend and a loss‑making future at the same time?