DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. warned of tough price competition and harder-to-reach profit targets Wednesday, a sign that the company and the auto industry face a tougher road after four years of robust recovery from the Great Recession.
Ford said its pretax profit next year would drop as much as $1.5 billion below a near-record level of $8.5 billion in 2013. The company will have to slow price increases in North America and its costs will rise because of an ambitious launch of almost two dozen vehicles worldwide.
US auto sales have risen by more than 1 million vehicles annually since 2009, but many analysts have said that pace isn’t sustainable. Joe Hinrichs, who runs Ford’s North and South American operations, told the Associated Press Monday that he expects sales growth to slow in 2014.
At a conference for analysts on Wednesday, chief financial officer Bob Shanks warned that Ford’s profit margins in North America will shrink because of price competition, the cost of launching nearly two dozen new vehicles, and economic conditions in Europe and South America.
That spooked investors and drove the company’s shares down more than 7 percent on about five times the normal volume. The stock closed at $15.65, down 6.29 percent.