Posted on 10/29/2023 11:03:18 AM PDT by Libloather
Ford has said it will postpone $12billion of investment into EVs because its current generation of electric cars is facing a 'challenging market'.
The new plan will see construction pause on some of the company's EV factories, including a battery plant in Kentucky, its executives noted during its third quarter earnings call on Thursday.
Ford's EV unit, called Ford Model e, lost $1.3 billion on an operating basis in the quarter - roughly double its loss in the same period last year. Shares of the company were down almost 10 percent in the hours after markets opened on Friday.
Its decision comes amid similar moves by other auto makers to pare back spending on electric vehicle projects.
This week Honda and GM said their $5billion partnership to build an affordable EV was scrapped. GM also said it would push back the manufacture of its Chevy Equinox EV, Chevy Silverado EV and GMC Sierra Denali EV.
John Lawler, chief financial advisor (CFO) of Ford, said that the company was not withdrawing altogether from electric investments, but delaying them.
'We are being judicious about our production and adjusting future capacity to better match market demand,' said Lawler during the call. 'It's a more challenging market.'
'We have taken out some Mustang Mach-E production and we are also slowing down several investments including making a decision with SK On to delay the second Blue Oval SK JV battery plant in Kentucky,' he added.
Ford has embarked on a joint-venture with Korean company SK On to open two side-by-side electric battery plants in Hardin County, Kentucky. Each of the two plants is expected to hire around 2,500 people.
The first plant is on schedule to start production in 2025. The second plant, which was due to go live in 2026, is the facility affected...
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Boards, CEO’s, CFO’s and anybody else responsible for caving to the political climate pimps should be shit-canned. All big three companies. Maybe for once we havs something to thank the unions for?
That goldfish bowl had a 4.2 Liter inline 6. Muscle car like all AMCs.
The USA seems to be in race to achieve green, woke, eco-fascist social-engineering and bankruptcy.
I guess it will be a tie
The price is part of it.
Tesla was going to be just another electric toy car company until it started making the lower end one. I think it retails in the 40s. Other than that, all of his other stuff is high end, $100k plus.
Other companies like Rivian don’t have anything that isn’t going for close to or over $100k. And there aren’t too many folks these days that operate in that income sphere that are gobbling up these toy cars.
The practicality of some of these cars is a complete different topic.
It was funny to watch AOC tap dance around why she bought her Tesla in lieu of buying one from one from Ford or Chevy.
Woman has no poker face.
They just decided to do it slower.
If I were an investor, I would be very concerned about this statement because it says to me that they are willing to piss away profits to make a product the market does not want, thus NOT maximizing investors’ share value and dividends.
The price is part of it.“
Not really, with the taxpayer subsidy’s there are many EV’s available at the same price as comparable ICE car but they are not selling. Most people just don’t want them. They don’t want them for a number of good reasons.
As a kid, I worked for Hertz Rent-a-Car. I was sent to the lot to bring back an AMX Javelin. Not sure what size engine it had in it, but I remember kicking it while on the straight-away into the airport...and it drove me back into the driver’s seat. The thing was fast.
Fine with me. I’m not burning down my car port just to feel good about myself.
Maybe Ron White is correct.
I can agree with that.
So it comes down to, basically, the ones that wanted one have already bought one. And the rest are going to be sold onsie’s and twosie’s, as folks aren’t lining up down the street.
Yes, that’s how l see it too. The car makers are looking at the Government effort to regulate ICE cars out of existence through vicious CAFE standards and rat Governors banning them in the future. So they are trying to adapt and car makers typically use 5 year planning. So it has put them in very difficult place. This is what happens when you have a fascist Government shred normal market forces.
I think we have reached peake EV scare.
The USA will be carbon after they make us money free.
I either read it incorrectly or it was an isolated incident. For me the threat of one catching fire in my house is enough. If you need further convincing be my guest and go search for the example you require.
All cars catch can catch on fire, the whole concept requires mass storage of energy, gas or electric, which is inherently carries risk. Electric cars seem to be catching fire at slightly hire rate, and they are much harder to put out. So I agree there is a danger. But let’s just stay grounded in our critiques.
The fire thing is just another item on the list. Not a high probability but a possibility.
Well I did a quick search and some stories/sites are using the word “explosion” whether its correct use or not who knows.. Spontaneous fire is enough for me.
There are click bait headlines with the word explosion, but if you look at the actual articles, they are all fires. There were a bunch of “explosive” headlines after the recent hurricane in Florida, but it was actually fires due to salt water flooding causing short circuits in the batteries. Bad, but not explosions.
This is all I can find but yeah they’re not the next Pinto.
The one thing I saw that’s interesting is they can catch fire after the accident say for example if the car is being towed afterward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RrqiO3k94k
https://www.govtech.com/fs/electric-vehicle-batteries-can-explode-after-an-accident
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