As anyone who has purchased a vehicle lately will tell you, it’s little wonder that automakers are now in cost-cutting mode. At these prices, the marginal consumer is simply saying no. My local dealer informs me that production schedules for some models are so backed up that the buyer must either pony up more dough for next year’s model or forfeit the sale.
Ford Motor Co (F.N) said on Tuesday it will begin layoffs this week, impacting mostly engineering jobs in the U.S. and Canada, as part of the Detroit automaker’s move to exit unprofitable locations and cut headcount.
The development comes after the company said in May it expects to take up restructuring charges between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in 2023.
Buried in the story is this little note about EV production:
Ford CEO Jim Farley has previously said the automaker had too many people and that not enough of its workforce had the skills required as the auto industry shifts to electric vehicles and digital services.
How many mechanics get electrocuted will be the next interesting statistics.
As they train for a totally different experience in being electrical engineers as these components fail due to incompetence of understanding wear and breakage with bumpy roads that will be worse as the increased weight means larger holes.
I’m afraid the auto industry is setting itself up for another crash when they discover governments cannot force people to buy the EVs they forced auto companies to build.
Electric vehicles and digital services? Why do we need digital services in a car?
Car manufacturers plan to include digital services in electric vehicles to generate more recurring revenue.
Touch screens in automobiles is quite literally INSANE.
There is one in my car. I never use the features associated with it unless parked. I also get to talk to my car if I want.
If cell phones are “distracted driving”, why not digital screens? Must only be used while parked.
Why digital ‘services’? So governments can limit your car trips. Remember how Freeland blocked accounts of those pro-Freedom? Same way they would LOVE to block other things for us. That’s why they push for digital currency, for digital vaccination passport (EU already has some prelim agreement with WHO for this) and in the far-future, emulate China’s social score.
That’s why I keep advising everyone: cling to your gas-guzzling/analog things like for your dear life! All ‘smart’ things (smart home/car digital this/that) can also observe and block your access to those things.
Exactly! Imagine Google Waze, various municipalities, various levels of government and various banks getting together. The second you go over a speed limit, money will start being deducted from your bank account – the banks will get a fee for this – and it will be transferred into government coffers as a “speeding fine.” These data will also be shared with your insurance company. Many people – particularly women (not to mention bearded, bicycling beta males) – will welcome this under the guise of “increased road safety”. Just you wait!!
I think a government imposed mileage tax is in the works.
How you going to pay for roads with no gasoline tax?
Joe, like this perhaps:
https://thepostmillennial.com/states-consider-charging-residents-taxes-by-the-mile-instead-of-the-gallon
Yup , start at a dollar /mile for all vehicles and ramp it up every year especially on the commercial truck
You track every vehicle using satilite or a 407 sytle setup.
Dont relent on gas and carbon taxes, ram it through and make people feel the pain.
Then bring in your 15 minutes city solution.
Total control is the game.
Things like Subscription based seat warmers…
Speaking of the massive amounts of money to be lost in building EVs:
“Lordstown Motors, a U.S.-based electric vehicle startup that launched with huge fanfare and financial backing five years ago, has filed for bankruptcy. ”
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4069623-ev-startup-lordstown-motors-files-for-bankruptcy/
Delaware? FoxConn? Sounds like they failed to pay Hunter his full consulting fee …
Sum ting Wong. How come production is backed up? And they are cutting costs? Supply/demand? Consumers balking at prices, yet can’t get cars?
the msm is quick to point out the trump connection .
Until yesterday I had never heard of this company
Gee lack of production leads to lack of goods – which people still need – so price has to go up – and there we have a great example of inflation at work – its all on the supply side.
The last time Ford sold this few vehicles was back during the crash of 08/09 – and there were excellent deals to be made – I got 16,500 off the price of a F-150 lariat full load. Dealers were desperate to make deals.
This time round though – with limited production, low volume is leading to extremely high prices – with only the most well off and corporations being able to afford.
But we need to keep raising rates to quell this “inflation”
IDK … I see a LOT of Guatemalan contractors in my local Home Depot parking lot driving brand new, fully loaded, deluxe pickup trucks …
Correction should be “raising interest rates” to quell this inflation
I was looking into buying a used low KM SUV, sweet mother of gawd, the prices are obscene. I own a Rogue and it’s a filthy money pit, but currently the price of used vehicles is insane. Most new car dealers haven’t unloaded their 2022 products, nor their 2023. A used Ford Ranger 2020 with high miles was priced at 47,000. I wish golf carts were legal on-road vehicle.
In 2019 I bought a 2014 VW Touareg for $24k. If I wanted a 2014 Touareg today, it would cost me around $26k!!
My ’65 Ford is looking better all the time. When I came to renew my insurance, I was advised to increase the insured value by 50%. Likewise for my airplane, I increased the insured value at my broker’s advice, by 50%. Both my classic car and airplane are now supposedly worth four times what they were worth 10 years ago.
I sold my VW golf for mere pennies on the dollar, I was the single owner for 15 years and it cost me near nothing to maintain but we kept the cursed Nissan, stupid move. I wish I had your forsight.
It wont be long before we have a Canadian version of the Trabant or Lada
It is called a Tesla.
Ford received a $9.2Billion sweetheart loan from the DOE for building three huge EV battery plants in the U.S.
Too big to fail and with your tax dollars…they’ll make sure it stays that way.
I just parted ways with a dealer I have been going to for over 20 years. I can’t say if this is common across the country, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Why did I leave? Well, since their inventory of new vehicles took a big hit due to the pandemic, they decided to try and make up some of the revenue in their service department.
I took the Jeep in for the annual inspection and emissions test and asked for fluid changes while it was there. They tried to tell me I needed new brake pads and rotors or they wouldn’t pass the vehicle. The problem being that I put new pads and rotors on myself less than a month prior. When I asked them to take me back in the garage so we could look together, they refused. This is after 20 years of fantastic service and professionalism. I pulled the floor manager into the conversation and told them straight out that I wouldn’t be back. Since then I’ve gotten a number of calls on my phone (unanswered) from the the guy whose name is on the sign out in front of that dealer.
A brand new quick lube place opened some time ago in our town. They had a special oil change for about $40 so my wife went in to have it done. They showed her an air filter and a cabin air filter that were filthy and suggested they be changed. $150 bucks later I got to tell my wife that I had changed the filters for $10 each a week before and had told her. They would have made a lot more money over the last 15-20 years by being honest plus I get to tell my story to everyone I meet.
Reply to Orson
I had the same experience with the Nissan dealer in London, Ontario 20 years ago. Been going to independent mechanics ever since. Amazing how much less maintenance a car actually needs and how much less it costs. Once it’s off warranty, adios amigo!
It takes a unique skill set to sell vehicles at a loss of $60,000 each, and the existing Ford staff just couldn’t cut it. They should really change the name of the company to Government Motors 2.0.
roaddog…..I have a friend who is a used car dealer, in business for 45 years. These days he is telling me that at auctions he is now paying, instead of a wholesale price, now it is what would have been retail for vehicles he hopes to sell.
Governments insanity with covid is where you can lay all of these manufacturing deficits, every damn one of them.
Shrug. It started with Tesla, and now they’re all sucking for government money. Subsidy whores, the lot of them.
This is not an accident or unforeseen circumstances. They have a plan for the destruction of ICE cars and that does mean shutting down assembly lines and models. We will have no choose but to by our Tesla spy wagon.
In that case, why not just close gas refineries?
That’s coming.
First you squeeze the gas stations by outlawing them in city limits , them you continue the slaughter, tiny 1000 cuts.
Only those that cater to EVs will be allowed to stay.
Meh…18 month waiting list my ass. Put my name in at a few dealers in March. Drove off the lot at the beginning of June and paid less than MSRP. Lots of deals blowing up, for various reasons, and dealers would rather get them gone. Especially so since the $100k e-cars are sitting in the lot, unwanted, at 6% floor plan interest.
I think we are rapidly coming to a time when repair parts and mechanics that know how to improvise repairs are going to be in high demand fixing gasoline/diesel vehicles.
bverwey
You mean Government gas/diesel vehicles, no Soup for you in the brave world.
You’ll be lucky to get chain lube for your beater bicycle.
You make less cars, charge more for them, need less workers, what’s the downside?