Talking Autos -- December 9, 2022

See also, Ford, the business model.

Note: while reading this article, remember: "everyone" says the US is headed for a very severe recession in early 2023 to be followed by a long period of American stagflation.

Ford: link here -- long, long story in The Detroit News. The headline puts a positive spin on Ford but --

• I'm really having trouble looking for much good news.
• buried deep in the article: sales results in November underperformed the industry as a whole;

EVs

• Ford EV brand: now #2 behind Tesla
• y/y: November sales
• all vehicles: down 7.8%; sales: 146,364 vehicles
• truck sales: down 1.2%; sales: 81,210 vehicles
• SUV sales ... fasten your seat belts -- down 15%; sales: 61,889 units
• EVs: doubled y/y
• market share: 8.6%
• sales: 6,255
• So, November, 2022 EV sales: 6,255
• Ford's goal: producing 600,000 EV's annually by end of next year (2023)
• ramp up from 6,000 / month to 50,0000 / month twelve months from now
• talk of a recession first two quarters of 2023
• goal: 2 million EVs by the end of 2025

Tesla:

• doesn't provide detailed breakdown of sales
• independent source suggests Tesla sold:
• 340,000 in first nine months of 2022;
• that averages out to 38,000 / month
• vs Ford's total EV sales to date in 2022:
• Ford: 53,752 EVs;
• works out to 6,000 EVs / month
• F-150 Lightning (#1 EV pickup in US), Mustang Mach-E, E-Transit
• Tesla market share: has dropped from 79% in 2020 to 65% this year (2022)

Hyundai-Kai:

• number 2 for EV sales in the US

Ford pickup line up:

• Ford F-Series will easily retain title as best selling pickup brand
• but that flagship franchise saw sales slide 8.7% y/y
• Ranger pickup sales down 70% (rounded)
• Maverick compact p/u up almost 200% y/y

All:

• independent-derived numbers because not all report figures
• GM: strongest y/y sales growth in the industry; up 42.2% (again compare with F's 8% decline)
• Stellantis; largest y/y decline of major OEMs with sales down 13%, y/y

Others:

• American Honda: sales down 6% y/y
• Hyundai Motor America: record November sales up 43% y/y

Most interesting, the last paragraph in the story:

Meanwhile, Ford reported that retail orders for 2023 model year vehicles are up 104% compared to orders for 2022 model year vehicles a year ago.

The company, which has increasingly emphasized customers placing orders in advance, has 307,000 orders for '23 vehicles.

Andrew Frick, vice president of sales, distribution and trucks for Ford Blue, said in a statement that growth in the order bank is being driven by demand for the Super Duty and Maverick trucks.

Super Duty has notched a record 152,000 orders since they opened in late October.

****************************
GM in Forbes

Link here.

GM's Mary Barra confident of complete consumer EV conversion / acceptance.

A quote that surprised me:

“There's a lot of forces that are going to be driving people to electric vehicles. They're fun to drive. They're great vehicles. I've been driving a Bolt and then we own a Hummer and you get used to not going to the gas station really quickly."

Thoughts:

1. I don't picture Mary pumping her own gas;

2.  Unless charging at home, waiting in queues to charge an EV certainly is not more pleasant that filling up with gasoline with no wait.

Americans buying an EV is still contingent upon price of gasoline. 

From the article:

A survey of more than 2,000 U.S. vehicle owners on their attitudes towards EVs, revealed 56% said they'd consider one if gas prices reached $5.00 a gallon.

Since spiking earlier this year, gas prices have fallen to an average of $3.329 a gallon according to the Triple A. There goes one stimulus to change.

GM goal: all light-duty vehicles to be battery EV by 2035. 

Talking her book; I did not a lot of warm fuzzies from the article.