American Auto Giant Pivots Plans to Build Electric Vehicles at Major Plant to Produce Heavy-Duty Pickups Instead

Ford EV plant

Ford is reversing course on plans to manufacture electric vehicles (EVs) at a major plant and instead will produce gas-powered, heavy-duty pickup trucks at the facility, Reuters reported Thursday.

The company initially planned to build three-row electric SUVs at its facility in Oakville, Canada, between 2025 and 2027, but the plant will now add capacity to produce 100,000 F-Series Super Duty trucks at the plant, according to Reuters. Ford said that it is still committed to producing those EVs on that timeline, though it is unclear which of its plants will handle that production.

Read More

Top Automaker Takes $1.3 Billion Bath on Key EV Line

Ford Headquarters

Top American automaker Ford hemorrhaged over a billion dollars on electric vehicles (EV) in the first quarter, leading to massive losses per vehicle.

Ford sold 10,000 vehicles in its EV Model e unit in the first three months of the year, losing $1.3 billion on the line altogether, equating to a loss of $130,000 per vehicle sold, according to data from the company’s first quarter earnings report. Despite the loss on EVs, Ford’s net income was $1.3 billion, selling over a million vehicles with $42.8 billion in revenue in the quarter.

Read More

Electric Vehicle Market Share Plummets in First Quarter as Consumers Sour

Tesla Showroom

Growth in sales for electric vehicles (EV) slowed in the first quarter of the year as consumers remained wary of the product even though growth in sales of new vehicles remained strong, leading to a drop in EV market share, according to The Associated Press.

Sales for new vehicles grew 5 percent in the first three months of the year, but EV sales grew only 2.7 percent as more consumers chose traditional vehicles due to cost and product concerns, according to the AP. The average sales price declined 3.6 percent year-over-year to $44,186 in March as dealers looked to offload built-up inventory.

Read More

Bentley Pushes Back Ambitious All-Electric Goals

Driver getting into his Bently

British luxury carmaker Bentley Motors is pushing back its plans to have an all-electric vehicle (EV) offering by 2030, following other top vehicle manufacturers, according to CNBC.

Bentley had originally planned to transition all of its vehicle sales to EVs by 2030 but announced that it would be looking to delay that change by a couple of years, continuing to offer hybrids through that time, CEO Adrian Hallmark said in a media briefing following the company’s fourth quarter results, according to CNBC. General Motors, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Honda have all backed off of previously made EV goals in the past year as low demand and high costs have stifled the commodity’s profitability compared to traditional vehicles.

Read More

Study: Most Partial Automation Driving Systems Need Work

Nissan Car

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says automakers should incorporate new rating programs into their partial driving automation systems to reduce traffic deaths.

The new IIHS ratings aim to encourage safeguards that can help reduce intentional misuse and prolonged attention lapses.

Read More

Ford Lost Billions on EVs in 2023

Ford EVs

Ford lost billions of dollars on its electric vehicle (EV) product lines last year, according to corporate documents.

The company lost $4.7 billion on EVs in 2023, a greater loss than the $4.5 billion the company expected it would lose in 2023 at mid-year, according to a summary of the company’s annual earnings. The company pointed to “an extremely competitive pricing environment” as a key reason for the losses.

Read More

Ford Slashes Production of EV Truck Biden Drove to Promote Green Agenda

EV Ford

Ford is cutting back production of its F-150 Lightning electric vehicle (EV), a model that President Joe Biden took for a test drive to market his administration’s EV agenda.

Ford made the official announcement that it will be reducing its F-150 Lightning output in 2024 amid slower-than-projected growth in EV demand. Biden test drove a F-150 Lightning in Michigan in May 2021 to promote his administration’s EV agenda, which aims for EVs to make up 50% of all new auto sales by 2030.

Read More

Democrats Support Efforts to Unionize More Auto Plants as EVs Are Projected to Cause Job Losses

Democrats are supporting the United Auto Workers (UAW) labor union’s efforts to unionize more auto plants as electric vehicles are projected to result in job loss across the industry within the next 10 years.

Democrats in Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which included tax incentives for the purchase of certain electric vehicles as well as funding to expand the EV charging network in the U.S.

Read More