mlhm5

Up to 400 miles on 200kWh battery. Basically 1/2 the range Tesla has now in 5 years. $8 billion in profit so they will sink close to 100% of profits into EV’s, with sunk costs, stranded assets ICE at least to 2025 with no stumbles? It gets exhausting listening to legacy car companies talking about what they’re going to do a few years from now. Whatever it takes to get investors to stay onboard, IMO. It is as if they feel they’re being dragged into the future against their will. What GM presented this week was nothing more than a promise that one day they will have more compliance products using 2012 specs to choose from, but nothing earth-shaking and exciting.

Yeah! Owning those Fords was a big mistake, however the 1949 Merc I owned, I loved.

Currently, I only have two cars both are MB. One is a 2010 ML350 4matic and the other is a 2014 ML350 Bluetec. The last two Fords I owned were a 1964 Galaxie 1964 P-code and a 1956 Ford F100. I do not have either any longer.

GM crushed the EV1, discontinued the Volt, and lost $9K on every Bolt sold. Now they are going to spend $20 billion chasing Tesla using the same failed GM strategy. We build the frame, chassis, motors and assemble and buy everything else from 3rd party suppliers including software and chips and electronics. We will have an EV in every product line. Fail! Pick a segment and dominate it. Tesla gave you the roadmap.

"...[VW] will "match the dealers 50 cents to the dollar" on facility investments to offset costs to sell them, including engineering and installation costs for high-capacity chargers, changes in service bays to make them compatible with servicing EVs and updated signage and showroom displays." This is the one my daughter wants if they ever make it

expected is the keyword in that sentence.

I have no idea what early in the platform's life means but it is just vaporware until the plant is built and according to the report from 12/2019 it could be 2023, however until then, they will be paying $200 a kWh for the battery if they can get them from LG. https://www.ft.com/content/59b03d00-5d6a-11ea-b0ab-339c2307bcd4 " CEO Mary Barra told attendees at the announcement that Ultium batteries will be able to breach the much-anticipated $100/kWh barrier "early in the platform's life," which would be a significant achievement. Some think that Tesla is also closing in on that magic number, although others in the industry are far less confident of seeing costs fall that much in the next few years." "The joint venture is certainly a coup for GM in the effort to build affordable, mass-market EVs. The South Korean company said earlier on Thursday that it would invest $916 million in its US subsidiary by 2023 to set up the joint venture with GM, according to a Reuters report."

These batteries will cost north of $200 per kWh so a 100kWh battery will be the most expensive thing in the car. Since GM is not making these batteries and AFAIK, or assembling the packs, they are completely dependent on a single third party (IMO) for the success of their EV line. IMO they are making the same mistake they always make. Instead of introducing a new product line to wow the public (as Ford did) they are bringing EV to all the brands and hoping people stick with the brands. Pick a segment to dominate and throw your best shot. That is what Ford is doing in the SUV market. Hard to see the underlying strategy here except throw enough at the wall and some will stick.

It would be absolutely wrong to think that Tesla has not learned how to be extremely adept at building EVs after 8+ years and having built over 400K Model 3s in the last two years and that just manufacturing and does not include battery technology, software technology, FSD, etc. I think there is a mindset among big auto manufacturers where they believe the only job of the manufacturer is to source all the parts and technology from third parties and make the frame, suspension, engine and assemble the car and then deal with any warranty repairs and recalls. After all it has been that way forever and change is hard if not impossible. In 2030 we will see who is still standing. Probably the ones that invested billions and billions today into EV, battery technology, software, etc. and actually believe that EVs are the future. The rest will be struggling to stay in business.

Tesla Is Years Ahead Of Competitors With No Signs Of Stopping - Forbes " Tesla’s new FSD computer has capabilities that have dumbfounded the other auto manufacturers to the degree that they aren’t really sure what to do. A Nikkei tear-down of the Tesla Model 3 found that Tesla’s electronics are 6 years ahead of the #1 and #2 car manufacturers in the world, Toyota and VW. They even said an engineer at a major Japanese auto manufacturer was stunned, saying that, “we cannot do it.”

Tesla has 8+ years of experience in building EVs. Ford has not built 1000 yet. I would not be so quick to say it was as easy as it looks.

Tesla has stated that they cannot meet demand with current production and are building a gigafactory in Europe to supply Europe. In Europe, the move to EV is happening at a quicker pace because of EU regulations and the range anxiety is just not there because the major oil companies have bought the charger networks and are rapidly expanding them. In the US only Tesla and VW have rapid charger networks and the major oil companies are not involved yet. IMO, Tesla sales in 2019 and 2020 may total close to 1MM cars. Would they get involved when one company sells 1MM EVs?

Tesla has sold 400K Model 3 cars. The big boys never, ever thought EVs would catch on. Now they are playing catch-up and far too slowly. Between China and Freemont Tesla is now producing over 100K model 3s a quarter. No other auto manufacturer has ever build 30K EVs in a single year and even MB and Audi are having problems building 20K EVs. In Europe the oil companies have bought all the major charging networks and traveling in Europe with an EV is going to be a lot easier because of that fact. Here in the US the oil companies are not involved and only Tesla and VW have major charging networks. Ford is not planning to put charging stations at their dealerships AFAIK and they are planning to sell/manufacture 50K Mustang Mach Es by the end of 2021.

In Europe, the major oil companies are heavily involved in the charging networks, not so in the USA. https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Shell-Buys-One-Of-Europes-Largest-EV-Charging-Networks.html https://www.treehugger.com/cars/oil-giant-buys-uks-largest-electric-vehicle-charging-network.html https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-02/big-oil-utilities-are-lining-up-for-an-electric-vehicle-war

Short answer is they are being forced to. Way back in 2014 when no one was thinking seriously about EVs, the European Union nations agreed in 2014 that carmakers should limit CO2 emissions to 95 grams per kilometer across their entire model range within seven years (by 2021) and failure to do so would result in a huge fine of 95 euros per gram of CO2 over the limit, multiplied by the number of cars sold in 2020 and 2021. This emission level corresponds to fuel consumption of around 4.1 l/100 km of petrol or 57mpg. “…car manufacturers in the EU are not expected to meet the new 95g/km target and could face fines amounting to more than €20 billion in both 2021 and 2022. All major carmakers are expected to miss their respective emissions targets under this new regime.” "The number of EVs on sale in Europe is set to more than triple to at least 200 by 2021, according to a recent report published by Transport and Environment (T&E).” https://autovistagroup.com/news-and-insights/carmakers-face-eu20-billion-fines-exceeding-co2-targets-part-1 https://autovistagroup.com/news-and-insights/carmakers-face-eu20-billion-fines-exceeding-co2-targets-part-2 https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/transport/vehicles/cars_en https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/automakers-risk-massive-fines-co2-target-miss-analysts-say