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Killing Vauxhall wouldn't save much money on its own. Opel and Vauxhall are essentially one brand with minor differences in badging. The main difference is steering wheel location. Opels are sold on the continent, Vauxhalls are sold in the British Isles.

What’s the driving factor in Ford changing it processes to avoid recalls? A. Public embarrassment…………Bssst B. Fear that customers may never return………..Bsst C. A $2 billion enema every quarter that destroys profit………….Ding Ding Ding. Seems like Ford only changes when the pain of financial loss is so incredibly overwhelming. That applies to Warranty costs, bad product investments and failed projects/business ventures. All we can hope for is that Ford gets on top of the root cause of those losses and stems the bleeding.

Probably as EVs start to become more mainstream. I highly doubt we'll ever see some 1,000 hp EV being sold in the 30s. But I can see a day where you can buy a super high performance EV for about as much as a mustang GT or something.

So I noted in the Ford Accessory site a nice 4 pc. locking cleat set for the 150..$105 came today and very heavy hardware. Only problem is the four locations in the bed that have tapped drill holes to accept this kit, according to pg. 414 of the owners manual show a plate that is attached that the cleats obviously lock into. So my logic says, as these four plates are not included in kit, must be that plates are installed when truck is built..Perhaps KC employee was distracted when this bed went by his station. Value of these four plates?...probably 5 bucks...tapping the holes probably a more costly figure. Sent note to my salesman, stand by🤔

While price is a concern and people complain about the Mustang moniker, as a Mach E customer on his second Mach E (my Rally arrived this week to replace my 2021 Premium), one of the things that I appreciate most is that it's essentially an conventional car that happens to have an electric powertrain. While I don't have and would never have a Tesla product, I'm very acquainted with them due to various benchmarking activities that I participate in. If "EV" means "austere," then I don't want that type of EV, despite how many idiots are suckered into Elon's reality distortion field. If you try to re-imagine an EV to a "Smart" car, then I don't want it. Make it a car that I'd like anyway as an ICE, and you've got a winner. I love my Mach E. It doesn't do 100% of what I want out of a car, but there's not a car in existence that does. It's why I have, for example, a trailer tow vehicle and Home Depot runner and family road trip vehicle – it supplements the Mach E.

I've got the big touchscreen on the Mach E and the Expedition. Without the haptic feedback, I'm often not actually activating the on-screen button. I have no idea why, since if it were an Apple device it would work flawlessly. For example, if I'm viewing navigation but want to hit CarPlay, it doesn't always actuate. And within CarPlay, if I want to switch applications, they don't always activate. The iPhone OS is able to learn where I'm touching versus where I think I'm touching, but Sync 4 doesn't, which makes it kind of suck. Physical controls wouldn't have this problem. There are really cool haptic feedback technologies available for flat screens that make them feel like tactile controls, but Ford isn't using them. Until then, physical controls are superior, but I have confidence that someday, flat screens will work just as well as tactile controls. I just wish I weren't a test subject.

I think the advance of battery technology will make that disparity a short term phenomena. As soon as the gap in price between 'small' and 'large' EV batteries narrows, consumers will opt for larger vehicles with longer range even if they are still somewhat more expensive. As I said it may be true short-term but I don't expect it to be the norm in the future. Battery technology is advancing to fast.

Good post. And it’s the exact reason that Ford needs to pivot away from an over reliance on T3 mass roll out. Not a criticism of Ford but a big discovery of the new reality of battery cost vs vehicle size/profit. Where exactly is the sweet spot, is it compacts or perhaps a well designed mid sized? Vehicle design and space efficiency are going to be big factors going forward and you’re right, a whole rethink of how Ford and buyers perceive vehicles. Wondering about midsize because Maverick’s interior room is pretty close to Ranger but it’s a lot lighter, maybe that example of C2 space efficiency will shine a light or be a eureka moment for Ford BEVs. We should be optimistic about Ford’s success/failures, early days and still getting things right while ICE sales are still strong and support the company. It’s not like mass BEVs are needed tomorrow…..

Perhaps, but isn't GE2 dead in the water to a degree? At least for the mustang, it seems like the logical choice is to develop an all new scalable architecture that can underpin everything from pure ICE, to hybrid and EVs, something the current platform can't do according to insiders.

Yes, Quantumscape is getting very close and just signed a licensing agreement with VW's PowerCo subsidiary.

The estimate today showed 8-4 to 8-17.......

I wonder if we'll ever see the magical solid state batteries

He’s exactly right. What is the cost difference between a v8 drivetrain in a F150 and an ecoboost I4 in a Maverick? $2k? $5k? The difference between a small battery pack and a huge one is more like $20k to get the same range and performance. Thats a $20k premium (or more) on top of the actual vehicle cost. So whereas today there might be a $10k difference between a Ranger and f150, with EVs that might be $25k just for the larger size with no increase in range or performance. The cost will come down over time but the difference remains. It’s an interesting dynamic.

I have a hunch Farley will be proven wrong about margins and customer preferences regarding EV's long term. Short term this may succeed, but Ford will have a ton of competition. Part of Ford's quality nightmare because is the best and brightest in the company are all on the unprofitable EV side.

I'm sure they'll have a product there, maybe they just want to move on from Mach E branding, thus no second gen, but there'll be an adjacent product? It'll be interesting to see where they source materials from though - I forsee screws getting tightened on all things Chinese.

Sounds like you're bad luck! 😛

Remember that the Mach-E was first announced in 2019 which means engineering probably started in 2016/2017. EV's were a brand new world back then and it made total sense to base an EV on an existing ICE platform. GM did the exact same thing with the first Chevy Bolt, which was based on the Cruze ICE platform. Live and learn as they say, which is what both Ford and GM have done.

It is a bit of hyperbole-they are building plants in North America using CATL as a partner along with LG (at BOC), so a Chinese and South Korean company.

Exactly! Strategic discipline has been an issue with Ford management for decades.

Maybe they’ll do a true EV Mustang coupe first.

One thing that would doom Dodge for sure would be if I buy a two door six pack when it becomes available. Every damn car I ever have owned has been discontinued except the Mustang and F150. It is a miracle they have survived considering my history. Thunderbird, Lincoln LS, Lincoln MKS, Lincoln Continental, Ranger Supercab, Taurus, BMW M550i..........I killed them all! 🤣

Which in turn means they've had years of experience with these products on the market. Meaning they've collected a lot of feedback and data from owners and reviewers that will serve to make the next generation of EVs even better. What frustrates me is some insiders have hinted that there might not be a mach-e second generation, which would be a mistake imo. Despite the mach-e's shortcomings, it's sold fairly well for an initial EV effort. It stands to reason an even less compromised second gen mach-e would do quite well. The smartest aspect of Ford's strategy was to focus on this idea of making their EVs aspirational. That's a theme that they should strive to carry into their CE1 EVs.

Agreed. The pieces that seem different to me now is the change in compensation for management and all the outsiders on the model E side including the skunkworks team. This should lead to new design, engineering and manufacturing processes for model E with higher quality baked in from the start. I think they’ll stick with it as long as costs continue to go down and profits stay up. The question is what happens if profits and/or sales start to fall - will they revert to their old ways? I hope not.

Agreed, but the trade off was they were able to bring them to market much sooner. Sales are pretty decent and buyers seem very satisfied.

They wanted to get a EV pickup out first because they're the pickup leader. You can't rethink the whole process and be first out of the gates unless you were years ahead on planning, which they weren't. So we got the stopgap measure, which isn't bad, but isn't world beating either. The alternative was doing what they've done with the 3-rows and cancel/push them back multiple times and years, endlessly waiting until they're "just right"