rperez817

Honda is hiking wage rates by 11% for associates at its U.S. plants, a direct result of the UAW contract negotiations recently with GM, Ford, and Stellantis.. Honda hikes production workers' pay after UAW deals with Detroit Three | Reuters 11% wage increase alone is piddling compared what UAW negotiated for the workers it represents. UAW needs to be very aggressive in its efforts to unionize Toyota/Mazda, Honda, Nissan, Subaru, Hyundai, VW, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Geely/Volvo Cars, Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid workers in the U.S.

That's correct Rick73. Tesla is known for excellent planning, design, and implementation work for all aspects of its Supercharger network, which is why other OEMs are partnering with them.

If Ford and its dealers promote Mustang Mach-E appropriately, sales of Mach-E in the U.S. may match or exceed sales of Mustang Coupe & Convertible for Calendar Year 2023. At the end of October 2023, Ford sold 31,614 Mach-E and 39,585 Mustang Coupe & Convertible.

That's correct LSchicago. Here is the press release. bp boosts EV charging network with $100 million order of Tesla ultra-fast chargers | News and insights | Home

As a startup company, Rivian is in good shape financially. They reported a loss last quarter but made "strong progress" to reduce costs and more than doubled revenue compared to 3Q 2022. EX - 99.2 3Q23 Shareholder Letter (rivian.com) Rivian still expects to deliver 100,000 EDV vans to Amazon, the main thing is that Amazon no longer has exclusive rights to that product. Here is what Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe said during the investor call on Tuesday. Amazon is on board with this. Here is what Amazon transportation unit leader Udit Madan said.

Back to Rivian. Rivian is now selling its cargo vans to fleet customers other than Amazon. Pricing starts at $83,000. Rivian Will Now Sell You Its Electric Cargo Van (caranddriver.com)

Since 2020 automakers including Ford have embraced a new, more profitable business model for fleet vehicle sales that eliminates huge price concessions to government and business fleet customers alike and adds high margin software and service offerings. The fleet dumping business model that was common pre-pandemic is dead nowadays. Don't know how that impacts dealerships who do fleet courtesy deliveries, but it's good for Ford as evidenced by the 12.7% EBIT margin achieved by Ford Pro division YTD.

Hopefully Ford skips the ICE powered range extender arrangement entirely, and is able to bring BEV (Lightning?) F-Series Super Duty, at least the F-250 and F-350 versions, to market before Stellantis and GM do for their HD pickups.

In the U.S. market, it's just the opposite. Consumer Reports' study earlier this year found that "Consumer demand for electric vehicles is surging, far outpacing supply, and automakers who fail to respond quickly to shifting preferences risk losing out on the market share". Automakers Must Increase Production of Electric Vehicles or Risk Losing Customers, New Analysis Finds (consumerreports.org) For legacy automakers like Ford who can't rely on direct-to-consumer sales, franchised dealerships also need to do their part too in terms of customer relationship management, promotion, consumer education, and fixed ops for BEV, in collaboration with the OEMs.

OEM-dealer relations for Ford have been poor for decades, as ice-capades shared earlier in this thread. And that will continue until Ford is allowed to pursue true direct to consumer sales of new vehicles in all U.S. states, with no franchised dealerships acting as a middleman.

Based on current technology, F-250 and F-350 (Class 3) BEV is doable but for F-450 to F-750 (Classes 4-8), BEV isn't at the "sweet spot" yet among other alt-fuel options (FCEV, hybrid, CNG/RNG, etc.). But technology advancement has been very rapid with BEV. It's very likely that the BEV "sweet spot" area as depicted by the graphic below will grow significantly along both axes after 2025.

That's correct silvrsvt, Ford's marketing team for trucks and SUVs is the best in the industry when it comes to promoting those products based on "want" rather than "need". Ford's product development and marketing teams alike need to apply that strength to electrification of trucks and SUV, and bring BEV/Lightning versions of Bronco, Bronco Sport, Maverick, Ranger, and Super Duty to market ASAP.

Good points DeluxeStang. Regulatory compliance comes to mind, but silvrsvt's suggestion that government agencies may wise up and disallow 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger from qualifying for incentives intended for true zero-emissions vehicles is a real possibility. As you mentioned, the technology used for Ramcharger may have been worthwhile a decade ago, but nowadays is effectively obsolete. And Stellantis' claim that "the range on the 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger is effectively unlimited" is misleading, just like Toyota's infamous "Self-Charging Hybrid" moniker (which was banned in some European countries).

This is what Kerrigan Advisors said about Ford. And here's what they said about Toyota, which is on the other end of the spectrum in terms of dealer-OEM trust.

Here is more detail from page 5 of the Kerrigan Dealer Survey report.

Link to Kerrigan Dealer Survey 2023 report. The-Kerrigan-Dealer-Survey-2023-Release.pdf (kerriganadvisors.com)

Model X and Model Y are dramatically worse than Model S and Model 3 in the exterior styling department, but that's typical of crossover type vehicles that are derived from regular passenger cars.

That may have been Edmunds. In its comparison of Mustang Mach-E vs. Model Y vs. ID.4, it picked Mustang Mach-E as best overall.

Well said justins. I prefer Mustang Mach-E over Tesla Model Y because the Ford's exterior styling is so much better than the Tesla's. But for most consumers (who don't mind the ugly and/or boring styling that characterizes most crossover type vehicles), Model Y is a better choice overall as Motor Trend explained in its comparison. 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E vs. Tesla Model Y: The Next Normal (motortrend.com)

It's the Ford sheeple/loyalist customers that really deserve credit here. In the U.S., Ford has among the highest loyalty rates of any automotive brand (only Tesla is higher), but the lowest conquest rate.

It's the automakers including Ford that have a lot to answer for with CAFE and similar requirements elsewhere in the world. Automotive is a highly regulated industry globally and if a company wants to play the game, they need to abide by the rules. To paraphrase Aaron Robinson from Car and Driver.

Ford is emphasizing sales quality over sales quantity nowadays. If the folks you mentioned were not Ford sheeple and purchased a new Ford car for the deal rather than product merit (which was the case for nearly all U.S. market Ford sedans in the recent past for example), Ford probably doesn't want them to come back.

Toyota Camry got far more than "minor improvements" since the XV10 generation was introduced in 1991, with a complete redesign 6 times (3 of which used new platforms) and mid cycle updates 6 times to the present day (1991 - 2023)

Good catch T-dubz. California Route 1 trim on 2021-2023 Mustang Mach-E has effectively been replaced by the new Select AWD Extended Range trim for 2024 Model Year.

Not at all. As Autoline Daily said today, "This move was clearly in response to UAW's new pending contracts. Automotive News reports that Toyota typically gives raises twice a year, and it had already given its second one, a $0.25 increase, in September. So this third wage hike is unusual. And it's a much bigger increase than the last raise."