this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
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Ford Delays $12 Billion in EV Investments Due To UAW Strike Impact and Slow Consumer Demand::The 41-day United Auto Workers strike took a toll on Ford, leading to a $1.3 billion hit to its Q3 earnings, and forcing the automaker to reevaluate its electric vehicle (EV) strategy. One significant development [...]

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Oh no! Pay your workers more maybe?

[–] univers3man 41 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And make the EVs affordable so they can be demanded?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Affordable? Are you in the market for a new Ford vehicle? What does your budget look like?

If you're in the US you can get into a Chevy Bolt for like ~$20k after the federal tax incentive, plus any state incentives that would apply in your situation.

If you're talking about Ford specifically, they're not going after the budget market because they're trying to play to their strengths - the F150 and Mustang. Neither of those brands are typically associated with being cost conscious, but the F150 has been the best selling vehicle in the country for 41 years now. The F150 Lightning is priced comparably to the gas powered option for similar features, and the Mach-E is right in line with the Mustang GT, which makes sense because let's be honest, nobody buys an ecoboost Mustang expecting to enjoy it.

[–] Nudding 1 points 1 year ago

Chevy and Ford are garbage.

[–] Pretzilla -3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Just to put a number on it, the UAW cost increase is around $1000 per vehicle.

Ed: apologizes for the delay in the source. Here's a gift article from the nytimes Please un-downvote now, thanks

But I still can't vouch for the veracity of the claim. Mr. Lawler is Ford CFO.

"Mr. Lawler said on a conference call that the contract would raise the company’s labor costs by an average of $850 to $900 per vehicle."

Ford’s U.A.W. Deal Will Raise Costs While Easing Labor Strife https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/26/business/ford-uaw-contract.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6Ew.VpuI.7GTqA_SNwFxD

[–] eguidarelli 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Can you provide a source for that?

Edit: Appreciate it!

[–] Pretzilla 1 points 1 year ago
[–] surewhynotlem 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, that won't affect the cost. If Ford could increase the price of their vehicles by $1,000 and still sell them, they would be doing that right now. All this will do is eat into their profits.

[–] Pretzilla 1 points 1 year ago

Pretty much. Prices are set by supply and demand, but when you tack on a fixed cost across the board it does put upward pressure on the price.

[–] QuarterSwede 3 points 1 year ago

I would have thought it was more honestly. I know what team’s labor is and it’s north of that figure for $10K customer price.

$1,000 labor is 2% on a $50,000 vehicle. 1.5% on $75,000. Obviously I’m not looking at dealership markup, etc for ease of math. This just gives you an idea of what percentage that is.

[–] surewhynotlem 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That sounds wrong. Their factories and parts must be super cheap for labor to make up such as large portion of cost.

[–] guacupado 2 points 1 year ago

The UAW pres, I think, said labor was like 5% the cost of vehicles. They could double everyone's pay and still make ridiculous profits.

[–] Poach 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's the cost to Ford, or how much they'd raise the price of their vehicles to compensate?

[–] sucricdrawkcab 42 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Make actual Electric cars, not a 90k electric pickup, or a "Mustang" EV crossover. The truck I get because the F-150 runs auto sales charts but nobody was, is, buying it. A majority of those crowds are not really EV friendly so why they went all in seems silly.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah a Mustang EV crossover that they had to recall because the engines were shutting off when people floor it, which was also overpriced and not up to feature parity with other similarly-priced EVs. Maybe if they made a good EV or lowered the price consumer demand would suddenly materialize.

[–] sucricdrawkcab 5 points 1 year ago

A recall is better than the class action lawsuit going on for the normal Mustang transmission issues.

[–] QuarterSwede 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They would have done way better to first sell a PHEV to get people into electric and ease their range anxiety. 100% worked on my wife and now she drives in EV almost exclusively.

[–] Cort 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fwiw, I own a Ford phev and love it. I'm looking at a bolt in the future since they have 10x the electric range.

[–] QuarterSwede 1 points 1 year ago

We leased a Mazda CX-90 PHEV.

[–] Wogi 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I fucking would if I could buy a 2 door truck. But no, the only electric pickup options are 4 door, maximum size cabs with practically no bed.

I only want a truck for the bed. If it's electric it can be a daily driver but I don't need a back seat. My wife has the little SUV for that.

But I can't get that. So instead I'm going to buy an electric sprinter van for half the price.

[–] _stranger_ 3 points 1 year ago

they're also twice the price of a regular truck if you want any kind of usable range, which is the worst part. I don't need a truck that can do a 2.9s quarter mile, I need one that I can drive 200 miles in one direction, park for a week, and then drive home, on a route with no chargers.

[–] guacupado 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I really didn't want to buy anything from Musk but Model 3s are still the best price for performance available.

[–] grayman 1 points 1 year ago

Most of the money you pay for that car goes to China. A good bit goes to the workers. A very small amount goes to Elon. I wouldn't buy one because of the slave mines.

[–] Yaztromo 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I want an EV.

I have the money for an EV.

I put in my order for my EV in early 2022.

I am still waiting on my EV to be ordered, nevermind manufactured and delivered.

[–] madcaesar 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I want an EV.

I have the money for an EV.

There is no way I'm paying the current crazy prices for cars.

[–] Cort 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not to mention the current interest rates!

[–] Wogi 2 points 1 year ago

I get emails daily promising to save me money on my auto loan.

If I want to go from a 1.8% interest rate to a 7.4% interest rate and add two years to the length.

Not sure how that's saving me money, fuck half the time the payments are more.

[–] RubberElectrons 10 points 1 year ago

It's almost always the second point. When a company is blaming something/someone, it's almost always the second point in their press releases, the first is there as the top half of their definition of a shit sandwich.