Ford vs Tesla: Revenue, Sales, and Vehicle Profit Margin

EV charging station. Flickr Image.

Tesla has established itself as a pioneer in the electric vehicle (EV) industry. Conversely, Ford only entered the battery EV market in 2020 with the launch of the all-electric MUSTANG MACH-E.

While Ford may not be the first mover in the electric vehicle (EV) space, it remains a formidable player in the automobile industry, equipped with the necessary resources to compete with Tesla in the EV race.

That said, this page offers a comparative analysis of Ford and Tesla across several key areas, including revenue per vehicle, vehicle profit, and margins.

Let’s get started!

Investors interested in other key statistics of Ford Motor and Tesla may find more resources on these pages:

Ford

• Marketing and advertising budget comparison: Ford, Tesla, and GM,
• Ford revenue streams: sales of new and used cars, services, and more,
• Ford Motor cash analysis: cash position and cash flow,
• Ford global wholesale volumes and sales by region/country,

Tesla

• Tesla revenue by country: U.S., China, Norway, Netherlands, etc.,
• Tesla vs GM: revenue, sales, and vehicle profit margin,
• Tesla expansion: Superchargers, service fleets, and locations,
• Tesla segment results: revenue breakdown and profit margin,

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Definitions

To help readers understand the content better, the following terms and glossaries have been provided.

Revenue Per Car: Revenue Per Car is defined as automotive revenue excluding leasing, regulatory credits, non-automotive segments, etc., divided by vehicle sales.

Revenue Per Car = Automotive Revenue / Vehicle Sales

Vehicle sales represent vehicle wholesale in the case of Ford Motor and vehicle retail volume excluding leasing in the case of Tesla.

Profit Per Car: Profit Per Car is defined as automotive gross profit divided by vehicle sales

Profit Per Car = Automotive Gross Profit / Vehicle Sales

Vehicle sales represent vehicle wholesale in the case of Ford Motor and vehicle retail volume excluding leasing in the case of Tesla.

Vehicle Margin: Vehicle margin is defined as automotive gross profit as a ratio of automotive revenue.

Vehicle Margin = Automotive Gross Profit / Automotive Revenue

Automotive revenue represents car sales revenue excluding Ford Credit in the case of Ford Motor and leasing, regulatory credits, and energy in the case of Tesla.

Operating Margin: Operating margin is a financial metric that measures a company’s efficiency in generating profit from its operations.

It is expressed as a percentage and is calculated by dividing operating income (also known as operating profit) by net sales (revenue).

Operating Margin = Operating Income / Total Net Revenue

Essentially, operating margin shows what percentage of revenue is left over after paying for variable costs of production, such as wages and raw materials.

It’s a key indicator of a company’s financial health and its ability to manage its operations effectively. The higher the operating margin, the more profitable the company is considered to be.

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Insight & Summary of Ford vs Tesla in Revenue, Profit Margin, and Per Vehicle Economics

The following analysis consolidates the trends observed across the comparison between Ford and Tesla in several financial metrics for the 2017–2025 period.

• The revenue gap is enormous and widening in Ford’s favour, but the profitability gap is equally large and moving in Tesla’s favour — making this a study in two very different business models converging toward a contested middle ground. Ford generated $187.3B in total revenue in 2025 versus Tesla’s $94.8B — nearly double — yet Ford’s operating profit in 2025 was -$9.2B against Tesla’s +$4.4B. On a 3-year average, Ford’s revenue advantage ($182.8B vs. $96.4B) is self-evident, but its operating profit ($0.5B) and gross profit ($9.7B) are structurally weaker than Tesla’s ($6.8B operating; $11.2B gross) despite selling 2.5 times as many cars. The asymmetry reveals that Ford’s scale advantage in volume has not translated into a profitability advantage — and FY2025 has sharply exposed this vulnerability.

• Ford’s FY2025 results represent a historic deterioration that changes the comparison materially. Ford’s automotive gross profit collapsed from $15.4B (9.3% margin) in 2023 to -$0.5B (-0.3%) in 2025 — a $15.9B swing in two years — driven by EV losses (Ford Blue / Model e segment), rising warranty costs, and material cost inflation. Operating profit fell to -$9.2B (-4.9% margin), the worst in the dataset. The 3-year average gross margin of 5.8% and operating margin of 0.3% are distorted by this collapse: the FY2023 and FY2024 figures of 9.3% and 8.3% gross margin were competitive, and the 2025 outcome reflects specific structural issues rather than a sustained trend. That said, the severity of the FY2025 numbers — and their drag on the 3-year average — is the defining feature of the Ford side of this comparison.

• Tesla has undergone its own margin compression, but from a position of structural strength. Tesla’s automotive gross margin peaked at 26.5% in 2021 and 26.2% in 2022 — a level no mass-market automaker has achieved in modern history — before compressing to 17.1% (2023), 14.6% (2024), and 14.5% (2025). The 3-year average of 15.4% is lower than Tesla bulls would have forecast three years ago, but remains far ahead of Ford’s 5.8% average. Tesla’s operating margin followed a similar arc: from 16.8% in 2022 to 4.6% in 2025, with a 3-year average of 7.0%. The compression reflects deliberate price reductions to defend volume share against Chinese EV competition, increased R&D spend, and the cost of production ramp (Cybertruck, new Gigafactories). Unlike Ford, Tesla’s margin compression is self-inflicted through strategic pricing, not structural cost failure.

• Vehicle volumes tell opposite stories: Ford is stable, Tesla is contracting. Ford wholesale volumes have been remarkably consistent at 4.2–4.5 million units across 2022–2025, with the 3-year average of 4,426,000 units reflecting a steady if unspectacular commercial vehicle and truck franchise. Tesla peaked at 1,808,581 deliveries in 2023, declined to 1,789,226 in 2024 (-1.1%), and contracted sharply to 1,636,129 in 2025 (-8.6%) — the 3-year average of 1,744,645 units represents a business that has stalled in volume terms after a decade of hypergrowth. Whether this is temporary (brand perception, political headwinds in the U.S. and Europe, awaiting new model cycle) or structural (market saturation, intensifying Chinese competition) is the most contested question in Tesla’s investment thesis.

• Per-car economics are where Tesla’s structural advantage is most starkly visible — and where both companies are moving in the wrong direction. Tesla’s revenue per car averaged $42,803 over 2023–2025 versus Ford’s $38,607 — Tesla commands a ~$4,200 per-vehicle premium on average despite having compressed pricing significantly from its 2019 peak of $56,566. Ford’s revenue per car has grown consistently from $22,047 in 2017 to $39,590 in 2025, reflecting the successful product mix shift toward trucks (F-150, F-Series), Bronco, and commercial vehicles. The gross profit per car comparison is where the gap is most acute: Tesla averaged $6,613 per car over 2023–2025 versus Ford’s $2,188 — a 3x difference. At the FY2025 level specifically, Tesla earned $5,992 per car while Ford lost $107 per car. For a company of Ford’s scale producing 4.4 million vehicles, a -$107 gross profit per car is arithmetically devastating.

• Structural Takeaway: The Ford vs. Tesla comparison in 2025 does not have a clear winner — it has two companies experiencing simultaneous distress from different directions. Ford’s FY2025 collapse (-$0.5B gross profit, -$9.2B operating profit) is the more acute near-term crisis. Tesla’s volume stagnation and margin compression represent a more strategic long-run concern. The 3-year averages capture a transition period for both: Ford moving from legacy profitability toward EV-related losses, and Tesla moving from peak margin toward a more competitive, lower-priced equilibrium. The next two years will be decisive for both companies and the comparison will look materially different depending on whether Ford’s EV losses stabilise and whether Tesla’s next model cycle (refreshed Model Y, new affordable vehicle) re-accelerates volume.

The table below combines all key Ford vs Tesla comparison metrics into a single view for the latest three fiscal years.

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Ford vs Tesla: Total and Automotive Revenue

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Ford vs Tesla: Automotive Profit and Margin

The definition of vehicle margin is available here: vehicle margin. Vehicle margin for both companies is evaluated based on the automotive gross profit margin.

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Ford vs Tesla: Operating Profit and Margin

The definition of operating margin is available here: operating margin.

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Ford vs Tesla: Vehicle Sales and Revenue Per Car

The definition of revenue per car is available here: revenue per car.

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Ford vs Tesla: Gross Profit and Margin Per Car

The definition of profit per car is available here: profit per car. Profit per car for both companies is evaluated based on the automotive gross profit.

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References and Credits

1. All financial figures presented are obtained and referenced from Ford Motor and Tesla’s annual reports published on the respective investor relations pages:

i) Ford Earnings Releases, and
ii) Tesla SEC filings.

2. Flickr Images.

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Disclosure

We may use the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to produce some of the text in this article. However, the data is directly obtained from original sources (usually the quarterly and annual reports) and meticulously cross-checked by our editors multiple times to ensure its accuracy and reliability.

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