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I seriously wonder what is going to happen in 10 years when we start seeing the sunset of ICE mandated by states like California, yet EV's are basically unaffordable for any household not making $150K+. I remember reading articles 2-3 years ago talking about pending supply chain issues for lithium ion batteries and other minerals that go into EV batteries, and now it is playing out in real-time. Definitely feels like the cart is being put before the horse and legislators are only looking at the end game and not looking at how we actually get there. I'm for sustainability and reducing carbon/emissions, but I'm also a realist.

Adding a third shift at either plant probably comes down to having adequate supplies to support building the units that adding a third shift would represent - one would think that Ford could certainly sell the added output of the products if they were available.. Perhaps if/when a third shift is added at either/both plants, we can take it as an unspoken affirmation that the supply situation is much improved.

Policies that favor EVs are policies that disproportionately impact middle and lower class Americans. How are the middle and lower classes going to afford EV vehicles with the volatility of battery pricing?

With higher prices and no EV credit, it essentially is getting a $15k price bump (up to 8k price increase plus 7500 tax credit). I’m not a buyer at that price. Instead of giving money for buying an EV, the government should have used the money to build out the electric infrastructure. More charging stations would help adoption by reducing range anxiety. Higher adoption should lead to lower prices due to economies of scale.

That’s true - the issue I believe is cost. Mach E is a big price jump over the Edge and I’m sure the Explorer BEV will be priced higher than the Mach E. The BEV vehicles are unaffordable for a large section of Ford’s traditional buyers.

There's the rub. So on the one hand, the government is trying to encourage domestic sourcing of materials and on the other hand and is enforcing land use policies that make it almost impossible to open a new lithium, metals, or rare earth mining operation in the U.S. -- even though domestic resources rival those of China and elsewhere. Some of that, however, is due to environmental group efforts to kill projects through litigation, not necessarily by killing them outright but making the court delays so long they become non-economical -- yes, the same environmental groups that are insisting we move quickly to all-electric vehicles.

And next year Hermosillo adds a rumored 3rd shift to increase Bronco Sport and Maverick production.

The Chinese and Koreans stand to make billions from battery sales, the government is trying to encourage manufacturers to invest in regional resources and manufacturing to stop this being a complete walk over.

It does look better. Shows you how minor changes really make a difference and begs the question how the original design sailed through.

Ukraine, actually……

These BEV price increases are just sad. I was considering buying the base Pro model as an extra vehicle, but not anymore. The value proposition just declined substantially for me.

Interesting. That is about the amount of money the new Inflation Enhancement Act (or whatever it was called) will be providing to folks who purchase electric vehicles going forward. Kinda just transfers the money from the buyer to FMC.

Yup, I definitely won't be looking at one any longer as my next vehicle. That's a whole lot of gas you can buy with that.

Another DUMB ASS move by Ford right up there with dropping Fusion, Focus and Edge. And to think that they pay these people millions of dollars to make these stupid decisions ?

This seems like an odd move these are selling pretty well why would they discontinue it?

World Of Outlaws update: Donny Schatz in the TSR #15 Ford won his 11th Knoxville Nationals on August 13th. https://performance.ford.com/enthusiasts/media-room/2022/8/schatz-knoxville-win.html?emailid=PRODOP1394

On the contrary the keypad enables phone as key. If your phone dies/breaks/Paak just doesn’t work you can still get home. I haven’t used my key fob since the first week I had my car, but have had to use the code when PAAK wasn’t working (including once when fords servers were down). I also use the Kay pads on all three of my fords frequently when I don’t have my phone on me, for instance when grabbing something out of one of the cars on the driveway.