Posted on 08/24/2024 1:38:41 PM PDT by karpov
One of the country's largest automakers announced this week that it was shifting its focus away from battery-powered electric vehicles (E.V.s) in favor of hybrids that still use some amount of gasoline. The decision to prioritize a transitional technology makes sense, even though federal regulators might not be happy.
Ford Motor Co. CFO John Lawler told journalists Wednesday that the company would be shifting its focus away from all-electric vehicles. This included scrapping an electric three-row SUV previously planned for release in 2025.
The decision marks a major shift in the company's priorities. Two years ago, the automaker restructured, cleaving its production line into two divisions: Ford Blue, which would continue to make traditional vehicles with internal combustion engines, and Ford Model e, which would make its growing line of E.V.s.
Ford has seen strong E.V. sales: In the second quarter of 2024, its Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning recorded respective year-over-year sales growth of 58 percent and 79 percent.
But it hasn't been all upside: The Model e division recorded losses of $1.3 billion in the first quarter of this year, averaging out to a staggering $132,000 loss per vehicle. For context, a fully loaded F-150 Lightning costs less than $100,000. The division also lost another $1.3 billion in the third quarter of 2023, which it attributed in part to "challenging market dynamics."
Instead, the company is prioritizing vehicles it thinks can sell more easily. "We're committed to creating long-term value by building a competitive and profitable business," Lawler said in a press release, focusing on vehicle models that could become profitable "within the first 12 months of launch."
Ford will continue to produce the Mach-E and F-150 Lightning, but Lawler indicated the company will begin to prioritize hybrids, which use both gas and electric motors.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
I would buy a hybrid or any other type of stupid electric cars.
How hard could it be to change from purely electric to hybrid? Seems to me like just a little redesign.
Hybrids don’t catch fire?
A hybrid seems to make sense to me - I assume (yeah, I know) it charges the battery as you drive along on the gas engine.
However, I haven’t studied how long the battery lasts and how much it costs to replace it.
Hybrids were always the smarter option if your gal was better fuel economy.
Battery is significantly smaller then an EV Battery.
Lithium essentially spontaneously combusts Due to how much is in the battery.
Same reason your phone is unlikely to explode even though it’s lithium. Not enough there to cause a reaction.
Cars can and always will catch fire, but EVS are the most likely of all of them
The PEOPLE vs FEDZILLA...
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, FORCE THE PROLES INTO EVs, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.I'm always amazed at how people miss that EV part of the preamble.
More seriously, I would consider a plug in hybrid. Most days I would be able to run all electric to work and back and then run on gas for longer trips or cold days when the engine's waste heat can heat the cat interior. Everyone I know with an all electric car has another car for long trips.
Almost half this country’s existing homes still have a 60A service.
They won’t be buying an EV or a hybrid any time soon.
Cat interior -> car interior. The interior of the cat is quite warm enough considering the amount of sunlight the exterior absorbs.
I knew someone who had a Prius hybrid, and I believe she ultimately ditched it because the battery was coming due for replacement. So I’d guess not cheap. Then again, vehicle maintenance is getting harder for those who do it themselves, and more expensive towards those who have to rely on others to do the work.
All these people are idiots!
Battery technology just isn’t
“There” yet.
This is all Democrat political BS.
Your life is being controlled by
Politicians not you.
If you leave it to normal market forces,
power plants, distribution, and battery power will
catch up, if they are cheaper and better.
Make it political and you will fail.
Now we understand the Marxism phase 'What Can Be, Unburdened By What Has Been'….
The EPA (aka the Globalist/Deep State) hate hybrids and ICE vehicles because they lose control.
“Same reason your phone is unlikely to explode even though it’s lithium. Not enough there to cause a reaction.”
I have had a lithium battery catch fire as I was removing it from a small Apple tablet. I assure you that the battery in a phone could cause a fire and/or really severe injury if mechanically damaged or defective. Fortunately, for this to happen with a single cell in a phone, this is very rare (unless the phone is bent or punctured).
The tiny lithium batteries in disposable vapes have “gone off” with pretty spectacular results for their size.
“I would buy a hybrid or any other type of stupid electric cars”
I’m thinking you are missing ‘nt ?
Why would you buy one?
It is a practical and sensible compromise. Especially if they make it diesel over electric. But they never compromise, and they hate diesels.
Oh man, a diesel hybrid. Think of the possibilities.
Never happen, of course.
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