Posted on 11/01/2024 2:20:12 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
Ford Motor Company is halting production of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck at a Michigan factory, the auto giant announced Thursday. Just three years ago, President Joe Biden and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D., Mich.) visited the plant to celebrate the truck's rollout, calling it an "incredible facility" that shows there's "no limit to what American ingenuity and manufacturing can accomplish."
Ford—which, like other major automakers, has struggled to keep its EV business afloat—will shutter the Dearborn, Michigan, manufacturing plant beginning on Nov. 18 and until Jan. 6, 2025. "We continue to adjust production for an optimal mix of sales growth and profitability," the company said in a statement Thursday.
"Ford’s halt in F-150 Lightning production highlights the disastrous impact of federal EV mandates driven by the Biden-Harris administration," Jason Isaac, the CEO of the American Energy Institute, told the Washington Free Beacon. "These mandates are destabilizing the global auto industry while paving the way for cheap Chinese imports to dominate."
"American automakers and workers are paying the price for policies that ignore real consumer demand," Isaac continued.
The announcement is a stunning blow to Ford's ambitious plans to scale-up EV production and sales, and underscores the broader problems facing the EV industry. And it comes two months after Ford canceled plans to develop an all-electric three-row SUV due to slowing consumer demand and just days after Ford projected its EV business would lose $5 billion in 2024.
It is also a setback for the Biden-Harris administration and Democrats' climate plans to rapidly saturate the market with EVs and phase out traditional gas-powered cars.
(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...
Is the timing a hint?
I, for one, like my 2024 3.5l F150 with a 36 gal. gas tank.
Up to a 700 mi. range.
Accept no substitute.
$75k loss on each one produced.
Is that fascism if the government forced them to create a money losing product?
Oh wait, isn’t that exactly a mirror image of our government?
Biden and his party would rather see America fail than rightly praise Tesla.
No statement from Ford in the article.
This could be six weeks of scheduled re-tooling for model changes and updates.
If they announce worker re-assignments or lay-offs, it could just mean they are adjusting to market forces.
Don’t read too much into this.
Watch out for “agenda sensationalizing”
Stay tuned..
This late in the race I doubt it. It’s probably simple economics. They make way more trucks than they can sell. There is no point in making more until the pipeline clears and they get new dealership orders. Which won’t happen until the dealers clear their lots. Which may or may not happen without additional incentives. Those things are expensive.
I suspect it has more to do with a 111 day supply of them.
that means ain’t no one buying them.
By the time they sell all the ones they already made then the battery lifespan will have already been greatly reduced.
People buying electric are succking up to the liberal elites and to impress their woke neighbors
Anybody using a truck for work, including myself and all of my farmer friends, wouldn’t be caught dead in an electric
They'll make it up on volume.
Hey, why not hire Alissa Heinerscheid to run EV marketing?
Knowing when to change course takes ingenuity.
No, more like an incredible example of government interfering with the invisible hand of our free market economy….
Mopar going the same way.
BTTT
If Trump wins, Ford faces bankruptcy. In fact watching Ford stock on November 4-5 markets will tell who the investor community really thinks (or knows) will win.
“”We continue to adjust production for an optimal mix of sales growth and profitability””
1984 Corporate Speak
In several of the the other EV cutback announcements, other auto companies use similar phraseology, often fitting in the woke vocabulary of sustainable, etc.
Germany is freak out after Volkswagen announced closure of entire auto factories. VW made EVs during heavy government subsidies. Once the subsidies decreased, ended,,,, oh well..... Go Woke, Get Broke.
They don’t live up to advertised specs. Significantly.
“..Anybody using a truck for work, including myself and all of my farmer friends, wouldn’t be caught dead in an electric...”
Can’t disagree.
We use a gas 6.4L 3/4 ton 4WD Ram pickup. That thing still manages to eek out 16.5 to 17mpg on the highway most of the . We need it to haul, tow and for cargo capacity. Ain’t any current electric gonna meet that demand.
On the flip side, I’m a firm believer in a free economy. EVs should opening compete for market share with absolutely NO govt. interference whatsoever. If one desires an EV, and it meets their needs, by all means, go purchase one and use it as one sees fit.
However, don’t govt. “mandate” that stuff on the rest of us that have no need or use for em.
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