slemke

Yes, but it can still take months from wafer start to finished tested and packaged modules. Depends on the technology node and number of steps involved. The newest process nodes have more steps and take considerably longer than older nodes.

Would this be about the right time for pilot production to begin for the Raptor R? Maybe it will get the 6.8l from the start. I thought full production wasn’t until 2023.

Interesting read. Females were more likely to discontinue ownership than males. At least a fair number of those that discontinued ownership were open to purchasing one in the future. There may have been other issues with the vehicle not just it was PEV. Infrastructure, particularly easy charging at home will be important. Housing typically has at least a 30 year life expectancy, yet I’m not seeing widespread inclusion of charging capacity for all residents. It will be tough to reach the numbers expected by 2030.

Paint guy was referring to the Explorers that were intentionally set on fire as part of last year’s riots in Minneapolis. I suspect the prices at auction sites will be rising along with everything else. You can find some good deals. One of my former coworkers would buy from the government auction sites, fix up what was wrong and resell them. Were you able to inspect the vehicles in person before purchasing?

Does a raptor go brrrt?

I wouldn’t post the price either if I was charging a premium for it. Might be a local anomaly. Around here they don’t post the price for premium and then charge 0.60 or even $0.70 per gallon more in some instances. Not too bad when gas was over $4, but that’s a steep premium when gas is $2 something.

So basically if you want something you should order it. The few vehicles arriving at dealerships will likely be claimed as they are being unloaded if not before then.

How would you like that prepared? With that short of a timeline, I would bet Ford has the parts lined up. Job 1 is 9 weeks away. Chips are supposed to be more widely available in Q3 and that starts in 18 days.

Wouldn’t that be determined by Ford? Ford hired Munro to reduce cost on the battery tray. Whether or not that the results are made public would also be determined by Ford. Unless Munro can now make more money on YouTube videos than selling engineering services.

Let’s see what Ford revises on it over time. For as much attention to cost cutting as Ford does, they appear to be missing the things that save money, increase reliability, and won’t be noticed by consumers. Tesla’s have been on the market long enough to tear apart and benchmark. When watching the video I couldn’t stop thinking that there was some German engineering involved in the MAch E. Maybe Ford has learned a thing or two from the Mach E and we'll see the difference in the Lightning and Maverick.

Where are you getting your data from? E85prices.com lists E85 in MI as 23% cheaper than E10. $2.23 vs $2.84. In reality it really needs to be compared to premium and not regular. I could see some circumstances where gas prices fall below $2 a gallon where it would flip. That’s not the case right now, though. I checked Minneapolis, MN area and there were several stations selling E85 for under $2.

That would have appeased the UAW, but would not have qualified for the low cost DOE loan Ford needed to retool the plant. Ford wasn’t flush with cash at the time. And C sized vehicles were supposed to be the future. In hindsight I should have picked up a fire sale suburban or expedition when they couldn’t give them away. Many people lost much more trading in their big trucks and suvs for little cars they didn’t like to save on gas.

Easier said than done. Some of the problems are baked into the architecture. The folks will just move on and find the next vulnerability. It’s a never ending game of one up man ship. As Silversvt stated, spend $100 to ward off an attack that cost $1. In the end, it will be a combination of tighter computer security and government crackdown on the criminals. As Fuzzy eloquently stated that’s not likely to happen in Russia, China, Iran, etc anytime soon. Only if it benefits them will they do anything about it.

Ethanol is much more prevalent in the upper Midwest than on the East coast. Part of it is transportation, another is the subsidies local governments added to put the ethanol plants close to the farms and advertising. Sheetz is the only place I’ve reliably been able to get E15 around RTP. It is about 4 cents per gallon cheaper than regular. There are a few other places around with E85, but the price isn’t nearly as low as it is in ND or MN.

The F150 wasn’t appreciably smaller when the ranger was discontinued, but it was certainly much less expensive and less capable than it is now. Blame all the extra content and added capabilities for the higher price point. That opened the door for a smaller less expensive truck. From what I recall when the Ranger was introduced, there were debates within Ford about whether the Ranger should be mid sized or compact like the earliest generations. Apparently Ford went with both. The market for trucks is also much bigger now than it was then coming out of the “Great Recession” and high gas prices. Analysts were saying we were going to see more compact cars and fewer trucks and SUVs. With that advice, paring down the truck lineup made sense. Hopefully Ford doesn’t lock themselves into a portfolio that can’t change as consumer preferences change.

Time to put pressure on the “dysfunctional political system” to crack down on the criminal endeavors. They do it because they can get away with it.

Wait, they said that? Sheesh…just run the AP or source it from somebody that understands the industry. Automotive news reported Ford had lost 400000 units of production due to the chip shortage, the most in the industry. Doesn’t mean they were the most affected, it needs to be adjusted for % of capacity and profitability of the units lost.

Did you watch the video or read the disclosure? I got sidetracked thinking this was the tariff, but apparently Ford paid the difference between the 2.5% and 25% tariff or some portion of it anyway. What they are still fighting and what the video says will be settled out of court are any penalties and that could be an additional 600 million to 1.3 billion…so yes sentencing, but they are still negotiating and/or fighting about that. It isn’t finished. Ford did win one round along the way, so it isn’t clear cut. It is open to interpretation and that is what Ford will use to plead their case for a lesser penalty. The vans met the standards to be passenger vehicles. By settling the penalty out of court it leaves the door open for others to try their hand at creatively avoiding the chicken tax and the government to pursue those that do. If Ford lost that battle in court, it opens others up to being penalized. If they win, it could be the end of the chicken tax and protection for domestic truck production.

Wouldn’t there be room to negotiate the repayment terms and any penalties?

The 2001-2005 Escape was called Maverick in Europe and China. I had forgotten about this until this morning when a Google news feed article showed a picture of the old euro escape instead of the new Maverick truck.

Battery pack in the Maverick is 1.1Kwh. A mile or two is about right unless you’re coming down a mountain.

Unless there was another plant producing Escapes for the US and Canada, based on 2017 sales, the capacity is somewhere over 350k (308k in Us and another 47k for Canada). That leaves a bit of room for improvement.

The higher ethanol blended fuels like E-30, E-50, and E-85 are great for performance, particularly on direct injection applications. The added cooling they provide when injected directly mimics higher octane than what they are rated for. Many of the highest power ecoboost tunes rely on higher ethanol content fuels. Cheap way to get higher octane.

Or balance out escape production in KY. Ford can’t be pleased with the utilization of that plant. Something else is going to go there. The same with flat rock.

I concur. 15k bronco sports and an equal number of Mavericks will keep the plant busy. If not, add in the transit connect. I think the hybrid will come to the Bronco sport once Ford updates the revised ecvt for Awd. From the motor trend article, sounds like a PHEV will eventually appear. The new electric motor is also capable of a few more hp than what it is currently putting out in the Maverick.