Ford loses nearly $50,000 (£38,700) on every electric car it sells, results from the company show, as traditional manufacturers struggle with the switch away from petrol.

The company posted a loss of $1.1bn for its electric vehicle division, Ford E – equivalent to about $47,600 per car. It sold 23,957 electric vehicles (EVs), an increase of 61pc from a year earlier.

The numbers contributed to a torrid first half in which Ford E lost $2.5bn, with the business on track to lose $5bn overall this year, says The Daily Telegraph.

Ford blamed a price war across the industry for the loss, which came despite efforts to slash costs by $400m. 

The stark figures underline the huge sums of cash even mass market car manufacturers are burning through as they electrify their product line-ups. The $50,000 loss per car was first reported by industry expert Robert Bryce in his Substack newsletter.

Battery-powered cars are more expensive to produce than their internal combustion engine counterparts, complicating government efforts to slash carbon emissions by mandating their sale in greater numbers. Meanwhile, a wave of Chinese rivals are seeking to enter the market with cheap mass-produced EVs of their own.