Thread regarding Ford layoffs

Great idea except the leadership at Ford has committed to TN for their EV investment. There will be a grand repeat of the Wixom closing in Dearborn.

I like this Ford buying the Packard Plant idea. I like it a lot. Think of this, the company could make it a hub for all electrification & autonomous development and collaboration for employees. Maybe even build prototypes there?

Does leadership read these comments here?

What leadership? Not on the private side. There are some ops in commercial side but that market will become flooded very fast. Then what? Maybe Billy can buy the Old Packard Plant :) . Ford is been missing it with Product for the last 25 years. Launch performance is terrible. Until that and the quality is fixed the Oval will not move forward. Putting product out there is not the only answer. reliability is very key for commercial operators. Reputation like reliable and dependable are key too. So, I hope they fix that first?

EV startups are even more dysfunctional than Ford. Imagine Ford but broke, and all the management either came from another failed EV startup which never shipped anything, or some famously toxic valley outfit like AWS which has never seen a car before. They're not well regarded in the tech industry to work for and there's a nonzero chance that any of them could pull a Nikola or Lordstown and just suddenly deflate like a leaky bounce castle.

Nothing could be further from the truth. These EVs are not mainstream and no where close to as in a couple decades or more away from this milestone. In the meantime people will need new products which will still offer ICE powertrains.

These big players are all in Olympic size pool swimming toward the wall looking to the left and right at where their competitors are in the midst of this transition. It isn't always the 1st to the wall that takes the true trophy. Last thing a big player in this space wants to do is blow their war chest on the wrong horse.

@1ojl+1dTF9mVO The threat to Ford is that startups are able to do what Ford cannot. They are efficient, effective innovators. While Ford is more of a bloated dinosaur attempting to throw its weight around. When that doesn’t work they cozy up to politicians to get free money and advantages that the startups can’t get, or they cozy up to the press to get them to sing Fords praises while taking digs at the startups. Smacks of desperation to be sure.

Ford employees, especially those with no non-Ford skills, should be very fearful as soon their jobs will be disrupted by startups and/or the completion taking the last market share that Ford has held on to. Ford has ceded all but one market share to the superior competition. Now all the competitors have to do is step up and take the last market share. While Ford has been focusing on devising and implementing decade long plan to shift to lowest-cost workers and reduce pension and healthcare obligations, The competition had a long game plan to box Ford into a corner with one market share and then take that away. Who would you rather work for a desperate dinosaur who plans to ship your job to India, or the winning competitors/startups?

Very few Ford employees would be able to gain employment at Tesla, as Tesla requires every employee to have skills, knowledge and actually contribute value. Say what you will about Tesla, they did disrupt the automotive space and succeeded despite all the detractors and mud lingers. Without the disrupters Ford would still be sitting and twirling.

Thanks Mr. Farley. Glad to see you are still reading the posts. Sadly, these are not as kind as the Det Free Press.

Isnt most of rivian made up of former Ford engineers, employees, and retire-ees??

Come on, if you fools think rivian is the cats ash, just you wait till the recalls start a pouring in.

And rivian will never have a F150 to lean on for incoming cash. FACT.

To the question of what can Rivian do that Ford can’t, start with not be in last place (Lincoln) or18 of 28 in auto manufacturers reliability.

Keep hearing that Ford aspires to be the tallest mid-et in the market.

Very low bar to benchmark and not anywhere near market leadership.

Last year, Ford ranked 22nd overall out of 26 brands in the annual Consumer Reports reliability survey, a disappointing finish indeed.

However, the results of the 2021 reliability study are in, and Ford improved considerably, moving up to 18th place among 28 brands, though that still ranks below the industry average. However, it is markedly better than Lincoln’s last-place finish in this year’s survey

Despite building cars and trucks for 100 years, Ford today struggles to engineer and build reliable vehicles. Their EV design features sophomoric design and horrible build (based on recalls). Ford would have torpedoed Rivian had they been successful in their effort to purchase them. Rivian’s success will be the only positive in the upcoming Ford quarterly reports where “small losses” from operations are celebrated and outside investment valuations save the day.

Initially Ford tried to buy Rivian. They really thought they could just waltz in with a checkbook and buy it. After that delusional moment passed by they “invested” in Rivian.
Good on Rivian for not selling out as sell out to Ford would of been a disaster for Rivian. They would of Ford-washed processes and engineering, instituted layers of bureaucracy and effectively eliminated all innovation.

It’s a shame as Ford has all the puzzle pieces, they should be able to assemble them, if only they would purge all the non value add employees, easily 65% of salaried work force. But they won’t as the non-value add are running the show.

As I near the end of my career at Ford. I begin to wander what is their long term plans? Ford is like we need to do the flavor of the week to give the impression they know what they are doing. The investment in Rivian I will give them a gold star for. But Ford needs for those other vehicle line to make money other than F-Series. Until that happens I have a hard time investing in Ford. Right now everything is speculation vs actual product. Our recent launch performance is something that seriously needs to be addressed. The management team is another area of concern. They are boring lack vision and plan. Their body language tells the story. I doubt they believe what they say.

It was interesting when Rivian dumped Ford from its Board of Directors.

Do u know anything Rivian can but Ford can’t?