Ford Motor Co. has begun cutting orders from battery suppliers to stem growing electric-vehicle losses, according to people familiar with the matter, as it throttles back ambitions in a rapidly decelerating market for plug-in models.
  • Automaker is shifting its strategy for EVs as demand wanes
  • Suppliers in South Korea, China grapple with unsold inventory
  • Dem Bosain@midwest.socialEnglish
    991·
    6 months ago

    Just like the '70s, Detroit wants to build enormous energy-dense cars, while automakers from another Asian country come in and sell what the market demands.

    Expect US automakers to blame unions when they face another round of bankruptcies and begin demanding government bailouts.

    • Peppycito@sh.itjust.works
      20·
      6 months ago

      Expect US automakers to blame unions when they face another round of bankruptcies and begin demanding government bailouts.

      Hmmm… I’ll keep this thought in mind. 🍻

  • ObsidianZed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    69·
    6 months ago

    Ford announced new EV truck starting at $39,000

    Now the cheapest model starts at ~$63,000

    Whatever they’re doing, it’s wrong.

        • Fondots@lemmy.world
          9·
          6 months ago

          My dad has a '93 ranger, 4 cylinder engine, long (7ft) bed, single cab, RWD.

          It is the yardstick I measure all trucks against, and damn near all of them come up short.

          It gets pretty damn close to 20mpg, which isn’t half bad compared to a lot of trucks 30 years newer.

          I’ve never felt like I needed more bed, there’s been the odd occasion where an 8ft bed would’ve been nice, but not totally necessary, but I’ve absolutely never felt any desire for a shorter bed. What good is a pickup truck you can’t use to move a couch?

          It doesn’t get used for any towing, or serious hauling heavy shit, but it’s carried plenty of loads of camping gear for a few dozen boy scouts, the occasional small load of firewood, etc. I wouldn’t want to load it up with a bed full of gravel, but for the kind of thing the average homeowner/outdoorsman does, it’s plenty of truck.

          An extended cab would be nice sometimes, but realistically 90% of the time it’s just me, and most of the rest of the time it’s me and 1 other person or a dog. When the situation really calls for it though, it’s got a bench seat, and you can squeeze a 3rd person in there (I don’t recommend 2 people and a dog though)

          The only 2 things I can really knock it for are

          That little engine does not go fast. It’s 0-60 time is probably best expressed as “eventually.” Although once with a long stretch of empty highway I did manage to nudge it up a bit past the 85mph that the speedometer goes up to, it was a little terrifying, everything shook and rattled, but it made it out in one piece.

          It is terrible in any kind of bad weather or loose gravel/dirt. There is no weight over those rear wheels if you’re not carrying anything, 4wd would not be unwelcome sometimes.

          If some company would come out with basically that exact truck with just a few modern upgrades, I’d buy one in a heartbeat. The new rangers and such are practically the same size as the f150s of this truck’s era, and most perplexingly to me, I don’t think anyone makes them with a 7ft bed. With modern engines, I’m sure they could cram an engine in there that gets better MPG and even a bit of a performance increase to do a little bit of light towing and so the truck can get out of its own way. Single cabs are kind of a rarity these days, and even the extended cabs seem like they’re being phased out for a full crew cab. For the like 3 times a year I have more than 1 other person in my car, they can suck it up and sit in the middle of a bench or in a jump seat in the back.

          I got my fingers crossed that in a few years maybe we’ll see some more variations fson the maverick. That truck is about the right size for me if they would give me a little more bed space, and I’m really hoping for an AWD plug in hybrid version at some point.

  • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
    221·
    6 months ago

    Ford losing $100,000 per car while Tesla reportedly is at like a 30% margin per vehicle.

    Something tells me Ford isn’t actually trying.

    • thr0w4w4y2@sh.itjust.works
      18·
      6 months ago

      give them a break - it’s taking all their time, money and energy to lobby for cheap, high quality, long range, compact vehicles made in Asia to be banned from the US or tariffed into oblivion.

    • Dkarma@lemmy.world
      8·
      6 months ago

      Large corps like this barely “work” as in function not labor. There’s like 25 people holding these companies together and not a single fucking one is upper management…

    • invertedspear@lemm.ee
      5·
      6 months ago

      I mean, let’s be real, Ford isn’t losing 100k/ev, their EV division has lost $100k/EV sold so far. It takes a lot of initial capital to get factory lines off the ground. Plus all the R&D that goes into turning and electric Edge into a “Mustang” and making an EV truck that fits the F150 mold.

      They are chasing the dragon of early adopters that were willing to drop $100k on a platinum trim truck. There aren’t anymore left. What the market needs is an electric maverick, and a return of the electric Focus. Both could be done for less than $30k and they would sell like crazy. But Ford is stuck thinking EV = premium, when there aren’t many people left with premium budgets, at least until the economy improves for the masses again.