Featured Ford hits the brakes on $12 billion in EV spending because EVs are too expensive

Toyota's PR team today made sure that everyone knows that Toyota is gloating about this right now!

 

First paragraph from the article:

Ford is postponing $12 billion in EV factory building, including a planned battery factory in Kentucky. The reasons given were an unwillingness by customers to pay extra for its electric vehicles. You see, they’re too expensive, and now Ford’s massive transformation into an EV company is now going to take a lot longer than before.​

Curious as the Ford Transit EV is nice van. The range is a little short for me but looks to be a great hauler and usable handy-man, working vehicle.

Bob Wilson

 

"Boohoo! We don't want to spend as much as Tesla did on ev's - prior to their big profits - because it'll cut into our existing gasser profits".
Who knows, maybe the US government will have to do what China did to Toyota’s manufacturing - telling them, "do it or get the heck out".
Funny how when you kick some companies in the rear that say they can't, they suddenly find a way
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Perhaps part of the problem is that they aren't significantly redesigning the Transit to haul all those batteries, so your cute little economy delivery van that's near full size is suddenly a super heavy many ton vehicle and once you get all the usual useless idiots turning it into a house on wheels without comprehending the life-saving value of a super lightweight design you end up with not just people angry about lack of range but people driving incredibly overweight and dangerous loads at deadly speeds

 

Have you seen an e-Transit?

More van than I need and too short range. But it would be a nice service technician vehicle.

As for the VW van:

The sliding, side doors make it a people hauler. Only VW still manages to not produce it. Compared to a CyberTruck or any of the electric pickups, I would prefer the MicroBus style body ... but it is not available. Heck, even Toyota showed a 'concept' that is more likely to show up than foot-dragging VW.

Bob Wilson

 

Choices ..... short range?

or the MB sprinter van - ev range of 248 miles

https://www.mercedesoflittleton.com/blogs/1765/electric-vehicles/electric-sprinter-van-coming-to-us/#:~:text=Mercedes%20Benz%20has%20announced%20plans,electrify%20all%20vehicles%20by%202030.

iirc already available in the eu - and coming to usa very soon. if ford's loyal customers hate short range - guess they'll just have to jump ship

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I see those as more RV convertibles. A fine business but a lot of mass to move about. Regardless, this morning's pop-up chat session:

Info: Welcome to live chat! How can we help you today?
8:28, Oct 28 You: When will the eSprinter van be available in Huntsville, AL?
8:28, Oct 28 Lauryn L.: Hi there, my name is Lauryn L., it's a pleasure to assist.
8:29, Oct 28 Lauryn L.: Give me one moment while I look into this for you
8:29, Oct 28 You: Thanks!
8:30, Oct 28 Lauryn L.: You're welcome
8:33, Oct 28 Lauryn L.: Currently, I am not seeing any eSprinter vans available in the inventory at this time however I can definitely look into this further and collect the information on when we are expecting the arrival of these vehicles. How does that sound?
8:34, Oct 28 You: Thank you but I'll pass for now. You've been very helpful.​

I suspect the Biden subsidies focused on USA production of EVs and batteries makes importing the eSprinter financially impractical.

Bob Wilson

 

A sales critter not knowing stuff?
Unheard of !!
Any who - according to this read;

2024 Mercedes-Benz eSprinter Announced | Edmunds.

They are not being imported but rather are being made in Charleston South Carolina
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For years the EV market has been having record breaking growth year after year. For the first half of the year in the US that growth was 97%. Then the market slowed down, and the third quarter growth was just...49.8%. This is leading to naysayers to gloat, even though it is a growth still faster than they predicted.

A cool down of an extremely hot market is expected at some time. It even happened in China. Yet EV market share there still managed to double from 15% to 30% with the slow down.
Canalys Newsroom - Global EV sales up 49% to 6.2 million units in H1 2023, with 55% of vehicles sold in Mainland China 
Electric Vehicle Sales and Market Share (US - Updated Monthly) - CarEdge

As for Ford, they might have been banking on that record growth rate, but we can't discount other factors, like higher interest rates for their decision.

You truly believe that you'll be able to buy a Toyota concept before a VW that is already for sale in Europe, and is planned as a 2025 model in 2024 for the US?

That's where the ICE model is made for the US. I guess they will assemble the pack here to at least get half the credit. Then again, work vans are usually bought for commercial use, so they might not be planning with the consumer credit in mind.

I'm thinking Ford designed the e-Transit for price and purpose. The range should be plenty for local business use with nightly charging. Looks like it will start $20k less than the eSprinter.

 

MB's eqs electric car charges at over 200 KW. With so many DC charge stations coming online? A bigger battery can add more miles at a quicker rate than a smaller battery. If we needed one for business - that might be a more practical way to go in order to keep drivers on the road rather than standing around waiting for their slower Quick Charge to get enough travel miles.
Ford's e-transit maxes at 115kW.
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The average delivery truck in the US is driven about the same annual miles as a personal car. For a 5 day work week, it is under 60 miles a day. The 100+ miles of the e-Transit will be plenty for most jobs, and can be fully charged on Level 2 overnight for much lower costs than DC charging.
Alternative Fuels Data Center: Maps and Data - Average Annual Vehicle Miles Traveled by Major Vehicle Category

 

A moot point in the future.

 

... because little batteries are going away? the sentence is sort of vague
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Chemistry improvements will allow more from less. And like all technologies, there is the reality of diminishing returns.

 

One thing still to be determined is how many times you can recharge new chemistries .... so the fact that you can pack more miles in a smaller form fit doesn't equate to checking all the boxes - if it means all those more frequent charges equate to quicker capacity loss. Discounting the piss poor thermal management - as an analogy - look what took all those Nissan Leaf gen 1 cars off the road so quickly .... you only have 76 miles to start? Loose 50% of your range - & now suddenly you're stuck with a 38 miles range? Like poor thermal management - continual recharging reduces capacity as well
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Those are two excellent examples of both design directions... The e-transit on top was a standard van quickly modified to be electric and the VW bus on the bottom first designed an entirely new chassis optimized for batteries and electric motors and then the rest of the vehicle was designed into that chassis and they're about to hit 10 years of design iterations. Either way they still aren't actually a real thing you can buy.

 

Or an unplanned, expensive settlement with the UAW.

 

like most public corporations, ceo's are focused on wall street. look at how toyota over reacted to a complaint from activist stock holders.
as the old baseball daying goes, 'if you listen to the fans, you'll soon be sitting with them'.