I guess the intent of the split is that Ford wins the EV race, but I doubt very much that will happen. I wish we would, but I'm afraid this risky move will just hurt the company. That's just my opinion.
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Nope
Past performance shows otherwise.
Look at Mazda:
- partner with Ford: quality, safety, reliability declines
- partner with Toyota: quality, safety, reliability improves
Just like people, some companies are takers, others are givers and true partners.
This new direction the company is going is based on home run timing.
I don't think anybody will doubt that someday people will drive a vehicle powered by another system other than ICE.
But is that EV market there in the next 2-5 years? EV may work in a city but what about the Urban areas? The NA market is not like Europe. We have quite a few people living in the suburbs.
Do we fully understand customer expectations for EVs? Charge times, range, updated grid system, home charge port cost and updates, and battery replacement & disposal?
What upsets me are some people spin EVs as an economical equal or better. but you take away the gas tax (because we do not know what the charging tax will be) and government subsidies. you may find just the opposite. I am sorry but I do not feel the government should subsidize a person buying a car. that product should stand on its own merit.
Yes, there are better battery technologies out there that are in the very early development stages, but that is still out there yet before they become commercially viable.
Uber and grocery vehicles collect data? So. What data is available that isn't blatantly obvious. Delivery /taxi drivers are broke and unemployable otherwise with few skills. Uber customers are too broke to have a car. Grocery and Door dash customers are too lazy to procure their own food and are OK paying 20% more for being served. Not seeing the big value.
LOL " management has cascaded the direction for the company"... Yes I used to respect my superiors, but you have to use common sense as well when the objective for a transportation company of product innovation, quality, reliability and durability gets replaced by "chase every whimsy and follow far behind the real leaders".
@2qpw+1fKHnPJ8 I am sorry that the direction the company is taking makes no sense at all. We have the best selling vehicle for more than 30 years, and the best selling pickup for more than 40 years. Why change it? Why dismiss the people that works on ICE, which powers the one vehicle that still makes money?
I consider the EVs in general a waste of resources. The idea seems fine in paper, but the numbers don't add. Now, I am not opposed to Ford building EVs, after all, as Tesla proved it, there is a market for those vehicles. I am opposed to Ford replacing all the line-up with EVs, betting all the company in one dice throw. TBH, 9/10th of what upper management is saying do not make sense. The other 1/10th would make sense only in another context.
Now, as the name in the company doesn't match mine, it seems there is not much I can do regarding the company. Therefore, I'll do exactly what is better for me and I'll be leaving soon.
@1bzj+1fKHnPJ8, @1mwg+1fKHnPJ8 and @1pqc+1fKHnPJ8. If you are not yet managers at Ford, you should apply for it. Evidently you are management material: no clue of what you are talking about, just repeating the buzzwords and the Kool Aid.
@1mwg+1fKHnPJ8 "You do realize that uber and grocery delivery vehicles collect data don't you?"
Do you mean the name, address, credit card and buying preferences of the clients of Uber and grocery delivering companies? Nope. That data is collected by those companies, not by Ford. The vehicles can tell how many miles daily, how many stops, how many gallons of gas, which are very good for fleet managers, except Uber/Grocery Stores do not have fleets.
"our latest connected vehicles are collecting data even while sitting. 24/7"
Yes, it is called noise. Most of the data is useless, specially the one "sitting". So then we'll have to have massive data warehouses, running algorithms/queries to eliminated all the noise in order to find what we need. Let's do an example: camera inside the car running continuously. Then user wants to know when something specific happen, he/she would have to review the whole stored video in order to find the right moment. Got it?
Data will push our profits to record heights. EV is the future, embrace it. ICE is old news, no need for it. Quality and product, who needs it.
You do realize that uber and grocery delivery vehicles collect data don't you? Plus, our latest connected vehicles are collecting data even while sitting. 24/7. This is a great time for business were in. Don't marginalize it.
Gather, sell, and administer connected data? Sounds like a classic Ford powerpoint full of the buzzwords of the day. What is all this glorious data being gathered while cars sit in garages? We work form home 80%. Groceries come by Shipt, food by Doordash, and 95% of home products from Amazon. You are being gaslit - data is dead.
@1bzj+1fKHnPJ8 the data dream is dead. Look at how GDIA has been marginalized over the last couple of years after the hockey guy was let go. Google and Apple already have all of the data we collect. No one is coming to Ford for the data except for Ford.
You all keep saying 'winning the EV race'. You must realize it is not the EV race per se that we Ford are trying to win. It is more of a race to gather, administer, use, and sell the data and connected data. Thats where the money and business growth is. Not in selling the EV vehicles or selling more EV vehicles than any other OEM. We can still get more than the needed revenue to be profitable with data even while not having the most vehicle sales.
@@1bbv+1fKHnPJ8 is correct - no one, not even tesla will win this race, because it is unwinnable. People for years talked about peak oil, what about peak raw materials for batteries, such as lithium, nickel, cadmium? Oh, and the fact very little of these raw materials exist in meaningful quantities in the West....mostly in places that aren't exactly friendly to us?
Not saying that BEV will not increase there market share - they certainly will due to governmental regulations. But they will not totally displace ICE, they can't. More likely to happen is that majority of people will not need to worry about transportation at all by 2050 (if the Masters of the Universe have there way) because you will be herded into mega cities and never level your little box...you will work from there, and will not even go anywhere for vacation - that experience will be delivered via Megaverse or similar virtual realty type experiences. It will be a brave new world for most of us, weather we like it or not.
I plan to hang out in my rural homestead until I leave this earth. I shudder to think what awaits for the kids of today. Maybe some will realize the Matrix series of movies were not entertainment, more like goal setting for the future.
No. There is no winning the EV race. Tesla will face interesting challenges being all EV. The legacy OEMs are actually in a much better place since they can rely on their ICE vehicles as well as EVs. Stellantis and GM seem to have that concept down. Ford, not so much. This EV and ICE split is just d-mb on so many levels. As the EV business continues to bleed red, and the ICE continues to be profitable, there will be a lot of finger pointing. When the EV batteries start nearing the end of life (and in cold regions like Michigan that will happen much more quickly), the EV problems will start rearing their ugly heads. Many states will start passing EV unfriendly legislation (expensive registration fees to make-up for lack of gas taxes, regulation around battery replacement and disposal, additional insurance for fire risks, etc) putting more pressure on EV businesses to be profitable.
So there is no winning. There are only degress of losing. I predict that ICE vehicles including hybrid (which Ford counts as "electrified") will be around will past 2050. Bank it. That is why Stellantis and GM are in better shape than Ford, because they aren't trying to move to an all EV lineup anytime soon.
@OP. The split was never about "winning" the EV race, but to push the stock price up. The start ups do not have the costs and obligations that Ford already has. So investors were interested in Ford separating the EV business from the ICE (as its own company). But doing this would mean the Ford family would not have the preferred shares in the EV company, so BF was not going to approve it. At the end, they created the "divisions" Model E/Ford Blue inside the Ford company to entice the investors without losing control of the shares. The idea is that, since the EV business is running separately, it could be easier to sold or spin into its own EV company later on. Ford shareholders during the future split, would get shares in the new EV company, thus making the investors to buy the F stock now.
Did you guys notice the LL3 and below managers are really concerned? They are afraid of losing theirs positions because they have no clue what the plan is. It means the splitting was a last minute decision between BF and JF, and it was not informed previously to the LL3s. So there is no plan, just a wish.
So, in the middle of the attrition wars between FMC and its NA employees, the EV division is formed and it just balloons the management ranks. EVs are hardly profitable (it took Tesla 10 years), but we are already getting rid of the ICE business, which by the way, it is the only money maker. So in my humble opinion, not only Ford is not going to win the EV race, but it is going to lose everything else.
No. Product contents do not meet customer high priority needs.
No, Ford will not win the EV race.
We have been building cars and trucks for over 100 years and are we winning?
Ford will not be the leader in the EV sector.
Folly by Ford & Farley.