Ford -- A Stand-Alone Post -- June 23, 2023

Locator: 45023EVS.

Ramping up production of EVs-- which will never have much of a profit margin -- compared to the decked-out Ford ICE F-150 Raptor -- is very, very, very expensive. Ford admits it and it's a recurrent theme on the blog.

I think Ford is in more trouble -- at least short term -- than folks think. Two things:

Yesterday, this is a loan, not a grant or a gift, but a loan:

Largest loan in the history of the government's DOE Loan Program Office. Think about that. DOE was established to monitor / assist / promote the US nuclear program. Nukes -- one word -- expensive. There must have been a lot of "nuke" loans over the years -- now a car manufacturer saw a need to set that record. Think about that.

• link here.

And then today: Ford announces another round of layoffs -- this time, salaried workers. Ford won't simply bee cutting ICE assets, but also... EV assets. Now that Ford has give up on its own charging network and partnered with the richest man in the world to do it right, Ford no longer needs that division.

From the linked article:

Motor is preparing to initiate another round of layoffs in the coming weeks, the latest in a broader effort by the automaker to streamline operations and reduce costs.

The layoffs, expected to mostly include U.S. salaried workers, would be one of several that Ford has initiated in less than a year and could be announced as early as next week.

The number of people Ford plans to lay off in this latest round couldn’t be learned. The cuts are expected to affect employees on Ford’s gas-engine side of the business, as well as its electric-vehicle and software division. 

I think Ford is in more trouble than analysts are willing to say out loud.

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All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. 

Again, all my posts are done quickly. There will be typographical and content errors in all my posts. If any of my posts are important to you, go to the source.