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Sunday, June 9, 2024

Ford CEO Jim Farley On EVs -- June 9, 2024

Locator: 47990EVS.

Link here

Farley's focus seems to be on 1) price; 2) price; and, 3) price. Farley doesn't call it "price" -- that's too easy -- he calls it the customers' inability to "handicap the charging [savings]." Which is the second or third derivative or "price." 

My take: Farley is telling his dealers and sales personnel to do a better job explaining to the customer the amount of money EV owners will save on electricity vs gasoline.

That's bad news for automakers. 

Sales fell off a cliff, 1Q24:

Electric vehicle growth is waning, leaving the wider industry wondering if it’s spending billions of dollars wisely.
Politics, vehicle affordability, and charging infrastructure have all been blamed.
Those issues matter—but according to Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley, battery-electric vehicles, or BEVs, face other headwinds, too.
“We’re entering new customers, the mainstream customers are not willing to pay a premium for EVs,” Farley told Barron’s. “They don’t know how to handicap the charging.”
Those are valid, well-understood points. Though all-electric car sales jumped 46% in 2023, sales grew just 3% in the first quarter of 2024.

Farley's comments suggest to me he doesn't understand American consumers.

Price is the #1 issue as long as we're talking prices above $50,000 for EVs when comparable ICE vehicles are coming in at $35,000.

But, that #1 issue, pricing, comes up only in discussions with prospective buyers when asked their #1 reason for not buying an EV.

In fact, the #1 issue for all prospective buys is charging, regardless of the cost, or the savings.

First of all, in many marriages these days, but not all marriages, the wife doesn't pay the bills; the husband pays the bill. The wife doesn't care about cost of charging or savings. So, that discussion is irrelevant for 30 - 50% (pick your number) of all couples looking to buy a new car. 

For 100% of all prospective buyers, it's all about tethering which I discussed at length here

Price or as Farley says, "handicapping," is #1 when folks are specifically asked. But it's #1 only when specifically asked; the real reason, and it goes without saying because "everyone" promoting EVs doesn't want to address the elephant in the sales room: tethering. 

[And trying to sell an EV based on performance? Does anyone really need a pickup truck that can reach 60 mph in 2.6 second? Seriously?]

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Enterprise Rentals

I rent from Enterprise on a regular basis. It is not uncommon on really busy days to come in to sign the paperwork for my reserved rental to be told they are still detailing it (washing it, inspecting it, etc) since the last customer just returned it .... but it will only take a few minutes. That's fine. 

Often they don't need to re-fuel the car because the smart driver returning the car will save a lot of money filling the gasoline tank on the way back to the rental center.

But with EVs, two things: folks returning a car are not going to take an extra hour or more to fully charge a returned vehicle when returning it, and if the next customer is waiting for it, that customer will have to wait for Enterprise to charge it before releasing it. And customers won't be happy if the charge is anything less than 90% "full" even though to maximize battery durability, maxing out at 80% is recommended.

My hunch: EVs are a huge, huge headache for Enterprise.

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