Free Republic

The attention of Ford’s future product plans was largely focused on the Bronco Basecamp this week, though it’ll be beaten as the Blue Oval brand’s first import from China by the Transit City, with the electric van due in showrooms later this year. Arriving from November and priced from $50,000 drive-away, the Transit City is Ford’s first vehicle to be sold in Australia that’s manufactured by joint venture partner JMC in China. Smaller than the Toyota HiAce-rivalling Transit Custom, the Transit City will be electric-only, powered by a 110kW front-mounted motor, rather than its slightly larger sibling which offers turbo-diesel,...

Ford joined GM this year in seeking U.S. military contracts after the Trump administration approached U.S. companies about assisting the military with their expertise in mass manufacturing. The automakers’ efforts so far are largely focused on military vehicles, but could grow with time. Simultaneously, both companies are entering the energy storage system, or ESS, market amid an expected growing need related to rising consumer energy costs and data centers. Energy storage systems use a lot of the same underlying technology as electric vehicle batteries to store power for homes, businesses and even utilities. Both markets are viewed by Wall Street...

Goodfellow’s BedfellowsWho’s in Bed with the Washington PostBy Fedora Introduction I. A Radical Education: Boston University and Cambridge-Goddard II. Vietnam Roots: Indochina Resource Center A. Luce at International Voluntary Services B. Luce and Cornell’s Hanoi for Lunch Bunch C. Luce’s Tiger Cages and the Indochina Mobile Education Project D. Luce and Branfman: The COLIFAM Connection E. Luce, Branfman, Winter Soldier, and Project Air War F. The Indochina Resource Center: Branfman, Luce, and Goodfellow G. The IRC and the Indochina Peace Campaign: The Hayden-Fonda Link III. Post-Vietnam Transition: Campaign for a Democratic Foreign Policy and Coalition for a New Foreign and...

Ford announced a 10 percent decrease in U.S. vehicle sales for the second quarter with the automaker citing ongoing supplier issues affecting its F-Series trucks as a major cause of the shortfall. However, Ford’s EV sales dropped an astonishing 40 percent during the same time period. CNBC reports that Ford suffered a 10.3 percent decline in its second-quarter U.S. new vehicle sales, the automaker reported Thursday. The decline was attributed to two primary factors: persistent supplier problems affecting the company’s crucial F-Series pickup truck line and a substantial drop in all-electric vehicle sales. The Detroit-based automaker sold 549,200 vehicles during...

Ford said it leaned too hard on artificial intelligence for vehicle quality control and has spent the past three years hiring 350 veteran engineers to fix the resulting problems, the company said this week. Charles Poon, Ford's vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, said the company had misjudged what AI alone could deliver. "Mistakenly, we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that would produce a high-quality product," he told reporters. Many of the company's most experienced engineers had left Ford before their knowledge could be used, BBC reported. The automated quality...

ALLEN PARK, Mich.—A crew of engineers slipped past the empty security gate at a Ford Motor truck plant outside Detroit just after 3 a.m. The factory lines were still at that hour—but that was the point. The crew was there to test a section of a new pickup that few at the company knew even existed. Ford’s secret project had an ambitious goal: to figure out how to make electric vehicles in the U.S. that could compete with the Chinese models clobbering competitors globally. The secret is now out as Ford races toward building its first model, a new truck...

A video exposing Ford’s dystopian patents for new vehicles has gone viral on X, fueling outrage over the accelerating war on personal vehicle ownership and freedom of movement. The clip details in-cabin cameras, biometric scanners, lip-reading AI, emotion detection, and real-time criminal database queries – all deciding whether your truck will let you drive. In the video, the narrator states “imagine there was an emergency outside the truck… An accident…I jump in this truck. But it won’t shift into drive. Why? Because cameras and sensors inside of my cab won’t let me shift.” Ford can suck my white ass. pic.twitter.com/JjlTXPHZov...

Senior U.S. defense officials have held talks about producing weapons and other military supplies with top executives ​of companies including General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab and Ford Motor (F.N), opens new tab, the ‌Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the discussions. The preliminary and wide-ranging talks, which started before the war in Iran, come as the Trump ​administration wants automakers and other American manufacturers to play a ​larger role in weapons production, the Journal said. Defense officials told ⁠the newspaper that American manufacturers might be needed to backstop ​traditional defense contractors and asked whether the...

JACKSON COUNTY, Ga. — Battery company SK Battery America Inc. laid off nearly 1,000 workers at a manufacturing plant northeast of Atlanta on Friday amid automakers’ changing electrification plans and uncertain consumer demand for EVs. The company said Friday marked the last working day for 958 plant employees, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, notice filed by human resources chief Chuck Moore. Impacted workers will be paid through May 6. SK opened the $2.6 billion battery plant in Commerce, Georgia, in January 2022. It notably supplied the Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck. Ford announced plans...

A "racial equity" and "restorative justice" nonprofit funded by Minnesota taxpayers is calling for donations to a new bail fund that’s helping free anti-ICE agitators and illegal immigrants detained in Minneapolis. The Legal Rights Center, which Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison led for five years, is promoting the People’s Bail Fund of Minnesota through Know Your Rights MN, a Legal Rights Center project that provides legal information and resources for activists. The project’s website was updated Thursday to include a link to the bail fund, which only secured nonprofit status last week and is actively "accepting requests for ICE protest...

The next generation of Fords could be powered in part by high-voltage batteries made by BYD, with the US and Chinese car giants reportedly in talks for a supply deal. According to the Wall Street Journal, insiders claim Ford is discussing with BYD the prospect of buying batteries for its hybrid models, though a formal deal is yet to be reached. The report alleges the batteries would be used on Ford products not made in the US – likely due to high tariffs on Chinese products – and instead power hybrids made in other Ford factories around the world. It...

Oh wait the Ford workers did not get the "No Kings" memo from the Democrats.

DETROIT — General Motors is on pace to be the top U.S.-traded automaker stock of 2025, as shares of GM are having their best year since the Detroit company’s reemergence from bankruptcy in 2009. GM stock is up over 55% to a record of more than $80 per share, as of Friday’s close, topping the company’s previous annual increase of 48.3% last year. That includes a nearly 13% rise so far in December, adding to five consecutive months of share gains, according to FactSet. Several factors have been driving the share increase. But GM CEO Mary Barra and other executives...

Ford Motor Company logged far more recalls in 2025 than any other automaker, according to federal safety data, eclipsing a decade-old industry record and underscoring ongoing quality issues affecting millions of vehicles across multiple model lines. According to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Ford logged 152 recalls in 2025. The manufacturer with the second-most recalls was Honda, with 53, followed by Forest River with 32, General Motors with 27 and International Motors with 26. Last week, Ford filed a recall with the NHTSA over a software error that may cause a loss of drive power in certain...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- All 1,600 employees of the brand new electric vehicle battery plant in Kentucky will be laid off before Ford converts it to manufacture batteries for data centers and other utilities. Ford will turn the Glendale factory into a battery-storage business for customers such as utilities, wind- and solar-power developers, and massive data centers that train artificial intelligence, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. And Ford announced Monday it plans to begin shipping the battery energy storage systems from its Kentucky and Michigan plants in Late 2027, a shift to "higher-return opportunities." In total, the company said...

The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker will make a series of changes to its line of vehicles and production facilities to focus on producing affordable vehicles that better align with customer desires ... The company will also scrap production of certain larger EVs—including the F-150 Lightning, which it will retool as an electric vehicle with a gas-powered generator—as well as redouble development of smaller, lower-cost cars, including a midsize pickup truck in 2027. ... “This is a customer-driven shift" ... Ford will redeploy one-third of that workforce to production on a gas and hybrid model of the F-150 ... As EV demand...

Just four years after it was launched, the Ford Motor Company has pulled the plug on its electric F-150 Lightning truck. The company instead will reportedly be focusing on hybrid vehicles and a future lineup of smaller and more affordable electric vehicles. In a call with reporters on Monday, Andrew Frick, the president of Ford Blue and Ford Model E, the company's commercial and electric divisions, said, "The American consumer is speaking clearly and they want the benefits of electrification like instant torque and mobile power. But they also demand affordability … rather than spending billions more on large EVs...

Ford CEO Jim Farley has proven himself to be a passionate car guy, but every now and again he pops up to remind everyone he’s running a multi-billion dollar company with one of the most recognisable brand names in the world. Earlier this week, Farley stood with US President Donald Trump as fuel economy targets were slashed, effectively allowing Ford – and other brands – to battle less red tape and sell vehicles for greater profits, while at the same time providing better up-front affordability for buyers. Now, Farley has turned his attention to Europe, amid reports that the continent’s...

Americans were already feeling uneasy about purchasing an electric vehicle. Then the generous tax subsidies ended. Sales of EVs plummeted by nearly one-third in October after President Trump and Republicans killed the $7,500 federal tax credit. The end of EV subsidies follows a trio of regulatory changes that eliminate mandates on automakers to produce electric vehicles and are poised to push the decline in EV sales even further. “The policy reversal on EVs that has occurred this year is a remarkable return to sanity after decades of government actions to force EV production,” said Brent Bennett, a policy director at...

The aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford and three warships have been sent to the Caribbean, where they are joining a dozen Navy warships already off the coast of Venezuela, in an unprecedented show of military force. President Trump and his administration are taking aim at the administration of Nicolas Maduro, over his alleged role in the drug trade which presents a national security threat to the United States. It’s clear that if the US succeeds in destabilizing and displacing President Maduro’s regime, it would be a blow to the region’s drug traffickers. What is less known is that it would...