Austin

My thoughts are similar to yours; I'm not sure Ford can pull this off without glitches. I have a reservation and will hold on until I'm forced to make a decision. Hopefully Z plan pricing will be known at that point. The other thoughts are more about how we use our two vehicles. Our around-town car only gets 5k annually and we've had a couple of PHEV's that work very well (Volt/Fusion Energi) although a little more range would be nice. Our trip car gets around 15k annually and is presently a Lincoln MKZ Hybrid which works well. I don't know how a BEV fits in this picture. For limited local use it would be expensive and subjected to parking lot dings. For trips, the charging infrastructure it tied mainly to expressways and could inhibit our trips somewhat (time/flexibility). We're all set up with a Level 2 charger in the garage with separately-metered off-peak charging so a PHEV or BEV at home is no issue.. I am still able to lease management cars from Ford which is the easy way to go but of course the Mach E won't be available, at least initially. I really want to see the details on the Corsair PHEV next spring. With AWD and a decent electric range, that could actually fit the bill nicely. You're also correct that there are going to be a lot more choices in a few years. As the supply infrastructure is built up, the value proposition will improve. Batteries will improve in range and charging speed and, combined with more charging infrastructure, longer trips won't be a concern.

Thanks, that's accurate. The Automotive News article said "build battery cells" which is not.

I think it's more accurate to say that Dearborn will be producing F150 EV battery packs, not cells. I haven't heard where the cells are being sourced, but capacity is an issue and all the manufacturers are going to have to get their volume committed or potentially make JV investments. I believe the Mach E cells will be coming from the new LG plant in Wroclaw, Poland and it will be limited to 50k vehicles the first year. SK Innovation (part of South Korea's #3 chaebol) will be building a new cell plant in Georgia to support VW, and I did see Ford mentioned in one of the articles. I assume Ford is playing off LG and SK Innovation, but there are other customers in line also. .

Yes, pretty funny. Ford certainly used the AVTM incentive to the max but played by the rules. Moving Escape to Louisville was another that had more to do with a product move than anything else. GM couldn't claim any AVTM loans because they weren't solvent at the time, and decided not to go for them later due to political considerations (does anybody remember the GM trash talk after 11 years?). Tesla paid their loan back early; not because they were good guys, but because the government received stock warrants to balance their risky future. The warrants, as it turns out, would have been worth a lot more than the loan. Ford's initially borrowed $5.9 billion. The 2018 annual report (FS35) shows the following for the total of all the AVTM loans: AVTM due within one year: $591 million AVTM due more than one year: $1,470 million ..