Not a Great Business Model - Ford is Bleeding Losses on EV's

[PW45]

The Lightning was trash. If you actually used it like a truck, you got a small fraction of its claimed range.

Nobody wanted the Mustang Mach E.

yeah one of the local (or several) governments seemed to have invested in a ton of Mach-Es for all those .gov keyboard warriors they have there, probably still working from home.

The problem isn't the EV itself, it is the force feeding of this. We've adopted some awful 'energy codes' here that require a ton of EV charging stations at new construction. Needless to say the never have ONE engineer in the decision making process. Long story short, our electric grid can not handle a massive EV changeover.

Sponsored

 

[Great Offender]

Chicken tax and EV's? Didn't think they would ever be in the same conversation especially as an excuse to NOT manufacture small cars. You don't get to have small cars because short small people like my wife have been convinced that she alone needs to drive an giant SUV. An SUV rollover almost killed her (hit by a car) but she believes she is safer??? Blames it on the Grand Cherokee and not the car that hit her? Flipped it 4x and lived.

Car manufacturers have forced you into large expensive vehicles that you can't afford at "$1,500 a month over 7 years" and people can't or won't stop buying them. Why make a cheaper car when you are the business to make money but I do now see signs they are regretting their choices with small cars.

EV's don't sell well because most have had their minds subliminally trained to hate anything but oil and gas burners. Yes they have their problems but the Chinese seem to have figured out and do it a LOT cheaper. Their government has been excelling at all the new green tech as we fight about it. We've invented a lot of these technologies decades ago but they were politically unpopular with some so we let the Chinese laugh at us and become world leaders in green tech. Well done!?!?

 

[Flanders]

This is just wrong. The numbers in the OP are based on a slide presentation linked to in the linked article. Somebody screwed up.

The presentation shows $0.1B revenue on 10k units sold in Q1 2024. Taken at face value that's an average selling price of $10k per EV. Also, Ford sold 20,223 EVs sold in the US alone during the quarter.

For the prior year quarter, the presentation shows $0.7B revenue on 12k units sold, an ASP of $58k. That is at least plausible. Ford sold 10,866 EVs in the US that quarter.

 

[sharpsicle]

My favorite part was then the author called EBIT "expenditures but not interest or taxes".

Close. But for a super common term like that, being close only shows how uninformed you are about your topic.

I wish automotive journalism were better. But today, it's just trash, and it's hard to actually believe anything these guys are writing anymore because it's all filler these days written by someone who doesn't understand what they're really writing about.

 

[bucolic]

I love driving EV's and was an early adapter with a 2012 Chevy Volt I owned for 3 years. It was a cool little fun to drive car.

The problem for me is the range and the infrastructure isn't ready for my type of driving. I actually glanced at a Hummer EV and thought about one to replace the Gladiator but it is an obscene, 9000lb, highly inefficient hog of an electric vehicle! Not to mention crazy priced.

It is an absolute blast to drive with 0-60 in under 4 seconds, but by my calculations, it could cost me more in electric to drive than my diesel GMC that gets 36 MPG on the highway as it uses 1.5 KWH per mile of driving. I took a trip this weekend of 290 miles and got 36 MPG and had over 700 miles of range upon fill up.

I couldn't have made that trip in an EV with an advertised range of 350 miles without stopping to charge as it was in the high 30's for temps and no way would you get 350 miles. You probably would get right around the 250-mile mark before you needed to stop and charge.

Once the infrastructure is in and no long lines for charging stations in populated areas, a true 500 mile range can be had in all temperatures while driving normal, and charging times are cut down to 10 minutes or less I am all in. A 9000 lb vehicle that can go from 0-60 in 3.3 seconds...HELL YEAH!

 

[AmosMoses]

The intense hate that some show towards BEVs in these threads is bizarre.

It's really not that bizarre that people don't want to participate in funding others people's electric vehicles and have their ice options limited by government mandates, concocted by people that probably couldn't change their own oil. There's evidence all around us that the institutions that come up with the math that affect most of us, can't even govern their own large cities. The only thing they are good at is filtering the truth from the public to serve their own monetary gains.

 

[Rummie]

It's really not that bizarre that people don't want to participate in funding others people's electric vehicles and have their ice options limited by government mandates, concocted by people that probably couldn't change their own oil. There's evidence all around us that the institutions that come up with the math that affect most of us, can't even govern their own large cities. The only thing they are good at is filtering the truth from the public to serve their own monetary gains.

I don't think you read my entire post. Might want to try that again.

 

[AmosMoses]

I don't think you read my entire post. Might want to try that again.

Yes there are some against EV because it's a new thing, like the yj guys bitched about the new tj, who didn't like the new jk, who didn't like the new jl. I think the possibilities with EV are cool and exciting but like I said, the kind of people and organizations we give immense power to, to govern business and commerce is a complete shitshow. Iam kind of glad western society is having less babies and migration is very popular because there is no future in many of the people we are producing.

 

[Rummie]

the kind of people and organizations we give immense power to, to govern business and commerce is a complete shitshow.

I'm certainly not going to disagree with that. lol

 

[DailyMoparGuy]

Until they figure out faster charging, EVs aren’t practical for most people. That shit is is inconvenient as hell unless you have a charger at home/your destination. If I could charge that thing as fast as can fill up my Jeep, I’d have no issue with it as a commuter vehicle (not an adventure vehicle).

Hybrids are king imo. Best of both worlds. The new Prius gets 57 mpg. You could drive from Bangor, Maine to San Diego, CA for around $200 (assuming gas averages 3.50 /gal). That would cost me over $600 in my Jeep but I will certainly have more fun.

EVs are fun as hell to drive though. I’ll always admit that much. STUPID acceleration and low center of gravity makes for a fun ride.

 

[Lunentucker]

The smartest EV technology has been around forever.

 

[Rahkmalla]

If it was just MachE I’d be fine with it but calling it a Mustang is blasphemous. Not that the regular Mustang looks much better anymore. SMH. At least they still offer a V8

prepare your vomit bags, the Corvette SUV is still planned for 2025 last i heard.

For me personally you can call it the Ford Turd Sandwich and if it's a cool looking station wagon, i'd drive it. Just don't give it a 1 inch lift and call it a "Cross Country" like Volvo did when they ruined all their wagons except the V60 T8 or Mercedes ruined the E450 by making it only available in All Terrain guise. (clearly i'm in the minority here, obviously people are buying cross countries and all-terrains in much higher numbers than low slung wagons, but this is the part where i tell you the masses have zero taste)

 

[Sting-Gray Neutral Pres.]

(clearly i'm in the minority here, obviously people are buying cross countries and all-terrains in much higher numbers than low slung wagons, but this is the part where i tell you the masses have zero taste)

Hello, fellow Jalop!

 

[Hootbro]

Not against EV's, just against forced adoption by limiting my ICE options.

Legacy ICE manufacturers like Ford are going to take it in the shorts for many quarters to come. I do not see all them being around in 10-15 years as they have too much capital tied up in production methods and fixed capital assets that are not going to make it into a majority EV production model.

Sponsored