akirby

I could be wrong but I still think this is more about platform efficiency in batteries, aerodynamics, manufacturing - squeezing out as much cost as possible and applying this to all EVs to some degree. I don’t see this team just developing a few new EVs in a vacuum.

I’m more hopeful based on the people involved (outsiders) and the fact it’s a clean slate environment. The dangers are Ford cutting corners to save money before things are fully implemented or if the cost assumptions end up being wrong.

None of the reports’ conclusions used that data. They only looked at fuel economy and the report even admitted that the utility factor (amount of time a plug in is driven on battery) estimate in the WLTP is way off. But that can also be explained by people driving further each day than expected, not just by people not plugging in. I’m not saying they’re plugging in or not plugging in. I’m saying the data used by the report does not support the conclusion that PHEVs are not being plugged in because it doesn’t take into account how many miles are driven each day. If they have actual electric usage data then they should be using it not fuel economy. They’re drawing a conclusion that isn’t supported by the data they have because their data is incomplete as it doesn’t take into account how many miles are being driven on a particular day.

I think skunkworks was more about finding ways to cut costs in all aspects from batteries to electronics to the assembly process. Those can be applied to everything going forward. I don’t see it making anything else redundant.

Where would they build it?

That changes nothing I said. Did you look at the two examples I gave for fuel consumption of two vehicles that were plugged in every night?

Nothing wrong with the platform, just the factory.

There are no future ICE platforms. C2 and CD6 is here and perfectly capable.

The sad part is there are buyers who won’t pay MSRP but would gladly pay double MSRP with a 20% discount.

It’s definitely bad, Get a second opinion but you might just have to replace it yourself.

No. I’m saying they have better things to spend time and money on. At any given time they probably have a dozen or more projects with a positive ROI that could be done but they’re all below the line which means resources were given to higher priority projects.

Every vehicle/project has a cost and an expected ROI (return on investment) based on volume and pricing and production costs and that has to be compared with other projects competing for the same resources. It’s never just a sales question.

Some even before they were built.

The battery plant would supply hybrid batteries. Whether that technically violates the agreement or not I don’t know. That’s one of the big issues they have to work out if they’re considering that option.

No it doesn’t address my scenario at all. Those studies only look at WLTP predictions vs measured overall fuel economy. It does not take into account how many miles are being driven on a daily basis (nor can it because that data is unavailable). They’re only measuring total miles driven vs fuel used. I just gave you 2 examples of hugely different mpg for 2 different vehicles that both get fully charged every night. Without knowing the background the study would conclude the vehicle only getting 42 mpg was not being plugged in. But that is 100% false. You cannot use observed mpg to determine if a vehicle is being plugged in without knowing how many miles are driven each day. Period. It’s simple math.

This. Stampings are easy to replace.

I think they’ll keep Lightning in some capacity for Ford Pro customers.

And let’s reiterate the flaw in simply measuring PHEV fuel consumption to conclude that they aren’t being plugged in. Let’s say my escape PHEV can go 30 miles on battery and gets 35 mpg afterwards and let’s say I charge fully every night. If I only drive 40 miles per day I use about 1/3 of a gallon. Thats 120 mpg. If I drive 210 miles per day I use about 5 gallons or 42 mpg. Just looking at fuel economy one might conclude that one is being plugged in and the other isn’t and that’s completely untrue. Another example of lies, damn lies and statistics.

We know exactly what it means and that was already stated. It means the WLTP estimated fuel economy is not an accurate prediction of real world fuel consumption based on samples. And the PHEV estimates are wildly optimistic.

I don’t see a problem on the 24V charger side - you’d be feeding it 24V DC. But I don’t know if that would work while they’re still connected to the vehicle as individual 12V devices.

Working in corporate America for almost 38 years you learn to read between the lines and understand how things work. IF they’re working on a plan to bring Edge and Nautilus back it’s not far enough along to announce yet. And they may truly have not yet decided what to do. Announcing this delay essentially buys them time to figure out what they want to do. I’m sure a lot of the remodeling is needed regardless of what they decide to do so that will continue to some point.

But not everybody cares about removable tops or doors and they just like the styling. I once cross shopped a Lincoln LS sedan, Mustang GT convertible and a Mercury Cougar coupe. I just wanted something fun to drive. Ended up with the LS V8.

Is it just me or does that shot remind anyone else of escape?

There was at one time but they’ve deleted some of those controls recently. Check the menus.

So Fisker Karma was a really appropriate name?