Ford says it's lost a lot of money in 2022. $3.1 billion isn't a small sum, especially to lose. Put in perspective, you could buy roughly 79,134 base Ford F-150 Lightning trucks with that much cash. Or $41 billion less than what Elon paid for Twitter. No matter how you cut it, that's a serious pile of cash, even for an automaker as big as the Blue Oval.

Of course, part of that loss isn't really on Ford. No one in Dearborn was lighting cash on fire. Instead, slow production as a result of the semiconductor shortage is to blame for part of the loss. Ford cites another reason for such a hefty loss: Rivian. The brand's Q1 earnings report reveals the brand's investment in the EV startup as the reason that was "primarily attributable" to the loss. With the brand's stake in Rivian down to $5.1 billion from $10.6 billion, it's easy to see why they'd say that.

However, Ford also says that it made $2.3 billion in pretax profit and that the Blue Oval is still on track to hit its profit projections for the year. CEO Jim Farley said demand for Ford products like the Mustang Mach E is high. "The appeal of these products - Bronco, Bronco Sport, Maverick, Mustang Mach-E, E-Transit and now the F-150 Lightning - is undeniable. That's translating into orders," said Farley.

Ford says it's "breaking constraints" to get its vehicles into as many customers' driveways as possible. The brand is committed to reaching a global manufacturing capacity of at least 600,000 EVs by the end of next year and is ramping up battery supply to match. It sounds to us like Ford is working hard to prevent any shortages down the road.

The brand's Q1 report states that while the brand's production and shipments were down in January and February- again because of the chip shortage - it saw some improvement in March of this year. Hopefully, this is the start of some relief for the automaker's production woes. There's a reason you can't get a Bronco at MSRP right now. However, Farley also stated the brand has a huge number of orders to fill this year.

While $3.1 billion is a lot to lose, Ford still has plenty of cash and liquidity to spare, with those sums totaling $29 billion and $45 billion, respectively. Losses aside, let's hope that the improvements in production and shipments Ford saw in March continue. We'd like to pay normal prices for cars again if that's alright with everyone.