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Ford Pumped The Brakes On An Electric Truck. Now, Here Come The Lawsuits

When EV plans get canceled or pushed back, suppliers are left holding the bag. Plus: Mercedes revamps its EV strategy in America.

CM Ford T3 Top

Photo by: Ford

Patrick George

By: Patrick George

Nov 24, 2025 at 10:13am ET

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When an exciting new car gets postponed or even canceled, it's not just prospective customers who are left feeling burned. And the fallout even goes well beyond the people who work for the automakers and may find themselves suddenly out of work, too.

The suppliers—the vast global network of companies that make the various parts of your car—are feeling the sting from the electric-vehicle slowdown in particular. Now some are taking their complaints over broken business deals to court, underscoring just how fragile and interconnected the auto industry’s EV transition has become.

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That kicks off this Monday edition of Critical Materials, our morning roundup of industry and technology news that's coming soon to your inbox every weekday, too. Also on deck today: Mercedes-Benz adjusts its U.S.-market strategy, including for EVs, and China's Geely Group is having a moment.

30%: Ford Suppliers Go To Court After Delayed EV Truck

Ford F-150 Lightning Concept Art

Photo by: Ford

Nexteer and Swoboda Inc. aren't household names the way Ford Motor is, but they "make" your car just as much as any automaker does. They're two supplier companies, Chinese and German, respectively, who had a role in making Ford's upcoming full-size electric truck—the one thought to be an F-150 Lightning successor.

But like other aspects of Ford's EV plan, that truck has been pushed back until at least 2028. While Ford was an early mover in the modern EV space as it attempted to chase Tesla's lead with products like the Mustang Mach-E and Lightning, the Blue Oval brand has consistently struggled with EV profitability. Now, many of its original plans have been canceled or delayed, and it's largely resting its electric future on a new affordable EV platform that will yield a $30,000 pickup truck.

As a result, Swoboda is suing Nexteer in an attempt to recoup costs from the delayed truck project.

Here's more on the supplier fight from Crain's Detroit Business:

Swoboda Inc., a German supplier with a base 157 miles West of Detroit in the Grand Rapids suburb of Kentwood, sued its tier-one customer in August, seeking to recoup $3 million it said it incurred before Nexteer “suddenly and unilaterally” canceled the agreement.

Swoboda tooled up to supply Nexteer with cylindrical headers to be used in Ford’s P800 TE1 program, according to the lawsuit filed in Oakland County Circuit Court. The program codename refers to the Dearborn-based automaker’s next-gen full-size electric pickup truck, which was delayed until at least 2028.

Swoboda entered the supply deal in July 2023 and paid for $1.4 million of tooling and $1.2 million of machinery to make the components, according to the complaint, which said that Nexteer has not reimbursed the company.

Put more simply, Nexteer, the larger supplier company, is being sued by the smaller supplier company, Swoboda, which it contracted to make parts for that electric Ford. But with the truck being pushed back, Swoboda aims to get the money back that it spent getting ready for production.

While a fight between two supplier companies isn't the most exciting news around, it speaks volumes about how tricky it is for the entire industry to plan for EV demand, profitability and successful sales. More from that story:

Large tier-one suppliers can withstand program cancellations and delays, but not so for smaller parts makers, said Steven Wybo, senior managing director at Birmingham-based Riveron Consulting LLC.

“The next level of suppliers, under a billion dollars in revenue, those guys are desperate right now because if you had 10-15 percent of business tied up in BEV, and now it’s not launching, or is a fraction of the quoted volumes, you don’t have the luxury of the capital markets or a bunch of cash sitting around to weather it, so you’re getting aggressive,” Wybo said.

A few other supplier lawsuits have been filed for similar reasons, including when Stellantis axed its all-electric Ram truck. The point is, this is a precarious moment, and the fallout is widespread.

60%: Inside Mercedes-Benz's U.S. 'Product Offensive'

Mercedes-AMG GT XX concept smashes several distance records for EVs

Photo by: Mercedes-AMG

I do have to hand it to Mercedes-Benz. While it's retrenching from the tepid reception to its original generation of EQ electric cars, it still has some impressive battery-powered options coming our way soon. And in the meantime, it's also paying the bills with stuff its customers want (more V8 engines) and fewer things they don't want (inexplicable four-cylinder plug-in hybrid AMGs that nobody asked for.)

Best of all, these new EV options aren't expected to be priced too differently from their gas counterparts. More on Mercedes' reset in the U.S. from Automotive News:

After seeing little return from its significant investment in an electric-only model line, Mercedes has moved to a powertrain-agnostic strategy. Starting with the next-generation CLA arriving in December, future models will be available with battery-only and hybrid powertrains.

“It’s not either-or; it’s both,” Chamberlain said, adding that Mercedes will price its EVs in the “same zip code” as their gasoline-powered counterparts. While pricing for the CLA EV has not been disclosed, Mercedes told retailers it will start at more than $48,000 with shipping.

[...] The highlight of the product presentation was a pair of battery-powered AMG models. The AMG GT, a four-door electric sports car riding on the AMG.EA platform, is scheduled to reach dealerships in late 2026.

According to retailers, the AMG GT is a performance beast, with more than 1,000 hp and a 0-to-60 time of 2.3 seconds. It will be powered by three axial flux e-motors that have about four times the power density of conventional radial motors.

“The car is going to be absolutely screaming,” one dealer said.

Supercars are great and all, but I'm rather excited for the new electric CLA-Class and GLC-Class.

90%: Geely Scores A Win As China's EV Market Hits An Inflection Point

Photos of the Zeekr 007 GT in China, Shanghai Auto Show 2025

Photo by: Patrick George

China's advanced EV market will soon deal with the situation everyone saw coming: a slowdown after years of exponential growth, a consolidation among a glut of car brands and an end to government subsidies. There are over 100 Chinese car brands, but soon, we'll see who the long-term winners really are.

And the Geely Group—owner of Volvo, Polestar, Zeekr, Geely, Lynk & Co. and others—is netting out pretty well, even if some of those individual brands have their struggles right now. This is especially true of Zeekr, it would seem from the Wall Street Journal:

Geely Automobile delivered a strong third quarter despite stiff competition in its home market of China, with both net profit and revenue rising sharply, supported by effective cost controls and robust sales.

Net profit jumped 59% from a year earlier to 3.82 billion yuan, equivalent to $538.1 million, as revenue climbed 27% to 89.19 billion yuan, the Hangzhou-based automaker said Monday. Geely sold a total of 761,000 vehicles during the quarter, up 43% from the previous year.

The solid set of results comes as Geely has been gaining market share with its strong product offerings. The Chinese automaker has enjoyed rapid growth in sales volume this year, thanks to its wide product range and competitive pricing. The strong momentum prompted the company to raise its annual sales target by about 11% to 3 million vehicles.

Zeekr on Monday posted strong third-quarter sales, with total deliveries rising 12.5% to 140,195 units. Its revenue rose 9.1% to 31.56 billion yuan, and its gross margin improved to 19.2%.

In my experience, the Zeekr and Lynk & Co. EVs and hybrids are better cars than what we've seen from the brands Geely sells in the United States. Both brands are growing fast in Europe, too.

What do you think?

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Comments

100%: Will Ford's 'End Of The Decade' EV Strategy Work Out?

Ford Universal EV Platform

Photo by: Ford

Ford promises that a lot of newer and better EV options are coming, but not until 2027 and 2028—barring any future delays. Given how fast the industry shifts these days, that's both very soon and eons away. Until then, the Lightning and Mach-E will have to carry the day, it seems. Was that the right move, or should Ford have kept some new options coming until then, like most of its competitors?

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com

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