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Ford mulls EV battery cell output, CEO says


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Didn't take long to undercut Hackett's position:

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"Absolutely, we're discussing it as a team," Farley said. "We think it's the natural time now because our volume is really growing. What we're finding is there's not a lot of capacity flexibility if you buy your batteries from someone else. There's a lot of other reasons beyond cost to make a move. It's something we're discussing within the company, and it's the right time to discuss it."

 

The article also mentions that going into cell production is a way for Ford to offset job losses as the market moves to EV:

Quote

"The fact of the matter is electric vehicles have 40 percent less parts, and that means they're a lot easier to put together," Farley said. "We do have to solve for the reality that when electrification becomes 25 percent or 50 percent of our industry in the coming years, what are we going to do about the jobs? One of the obvious choices is going into cell production."

 

Both reasons have merit. I think Ford need to move quickly here, particularly because of reason number one above. Supply constraint is a real issue. Lack of innovation is another issue - it's inevitable that as Ford adds this manufacturing competency to their portfolio, they will innovate and improve this component of their vehicles - there's too much institutional capability within Ford to expect otherwise. If they don't move in this direction, I fear it will become a competitive issue for them (if it hasn't already).

 

Also: as demonstrated by the UK announcement I posted elsewhere, there also exists a possibility that more governments will attempt to accelerate the move the EV's by moving up their transition deadlines (whether or not the consumers will oblige by paying the higher prices for EV's is another topic) - if this occurs, Ford might well be better positioned if manufacturing its own cells, given Farley's observation about supply constraints when purchasing cells (and other issues as he referenced).

https://www.autonews.com/manufacturing/ford-mulls-ev-battery-cell-output-ceo-says

 

Edited by Harley Lover
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1 hour ago, silvrsvt said:

The flip side is gearing up for one tech when say solid state batteries become viable and your stuck with the older stuff for longer then you want to be.  

 

Doesn't seem to be stopping GM and VW. That was just Ford's (Hackett's) excuse wrapped up in a pretty package. At the end of the day, Ford need to control its supply or it won't have enough to support its plans - as Farley duly noted.

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16 minutes ago, AGR said:

Well, there's one stupid Hackett decision gone... 

 

Its only stupid if they end up being constrained by battery supply and it’s a little early to say whether that’s the case.

 

I do agree it’s a good move for the future just to be safe.

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48 minutes ago, akirby said:

 

Its only stupid if they end up being constrained by battery supply and it’s a little early to say whether that’s the case.

 

I do agree it’s a good move for the future just to be safe.

More important is to keep the UAW happy as with less engines and other component parts needed, Ford has to keep its workforce busy building something. Thus battery factories and electric motor factories that keeps employees happy and working.

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4 hours ago, FordBuyer said:

More important is to keep the UAW happy as with less engines and other component parts needed, Ford has to keep its workforce busy building something. Thus battery factories and electric motor factories that keeps employees happy and working.


Ford's relationship with the UAW has been the best of the big 3 going back decades. I don't think either side is worried about that right now. 

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6 minutes ago, akirby said:

 

And there is no evidence that they can sell more than that (yet).  They certainly didn’t sell out reservations.


Maybe not in North America. We don't know how many sales/orders Europe has yet and they’re far more aggressive with pushing BEV sales in that part of the world and Ford already said the bulk of Mach-E sales would be in Europe. 

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18 minutes ago, fuzzymoomoo said:


Maybe not in North America. We don't know how many sales/orders Europe has yet and they’re far more aggressive with pushing BEV sales in that part of the world and Ford already said the bulk of Mach-E sales would be in Europe. 


Not saying it won’t be constrained, just that we don’t know yet.

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7 hours ago, Harley Lover said:

 

Doesn't seem to be stopping GM and VW. That was just Ford's (Hackett's) excuse wrapped up in a pretty package. At the end of the day, Ford need to control its supply or it won't have enough to support its plans - as Farley duly noted.

They cannot control supply....the supply is in the ground....cobalt

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8 minutes ago, akirby said:


If you mean cancelling sedans then that’s a silly argument. 


And I don’t mean it’s silly because I disagree with it.  I mean it’s silly to call it stupid because you don’t know what the choices were.  Keeping sedans would have forced cancellation or delays in other projects such as Bronco Sport and Maverick and other things we don’t know about.  Cancelling them without replacing them would have been stupid,

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