2y ago

Ford lays off 700 who were building electric version of F-150 | CNN Business

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Ford lays off 700 who were building electric version of F-150 | CNN Business::Ford is laying off about 700 workers who build the F-150 Lightning, the electric version of its best-selling pickup truck, and unlike other recent layoffs this one has nothing to do with the ongoing strike by the United Auto Workers union.

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Wow. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like Ford's future is going to be a struggle.
You can't simultaneously be late to a growing market, back out of a growing market, and refuse to invest in a growing market and hope to succeed...can you?
- Well you can if you trust the government to bail you out .
  
  Ford never took a bailout
- I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like Ford's future is going to be a struggle.
  They completely killed making any cars smaller then Trucks or SUV's in North America and I really hope it comes back to fuck them.
  I'm not crying that they won't make Ford Focuses anymore or whatever, but pretty much only people left to buy affordable, small cars from anymore is the Japanese and Koreans.
  Good riddance to Ford. They long outlived their usefulness.
  
  but pretty much only people left to buy affordable, small cars from anymore is the Japanese and Koreans.
  A big reason for that was that American car makers never figured out how to make decent small cars and were getting murdered by their Japanese and Korean competition.
  
  You should blame the EPA for that as well. Their policies incentivize the making of large ass trucks. So the US car manufacturers push them and abandon small cars.
  
  All the domestic manufacturers had to cut their losses on
- Ford? More like the whole Western auto industry.
- They do pretty gangbusters in the pickup market. They also have a hybrid power-train available. If you look at the current year list of Q1 sales they're top of the heap.
  Honestly if you want to use the vehicle for hauling it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The only reason Teslas and other cars do so well it by being a slippery and efficient as possible so they can get 100+MPGe. It doesn't work so well with a trailer on, or the shape required to carry things in the back.
I don't understand the sales argument. It's my understanding that there is still a huge waiting list for these vehicles. It's not like they're sitting on lots.. or are they?
- It’s my understanding that there is still a huge waiting list for these vehicles. It’s not like they’re sitting on lots… or are they?
  From what I've seen from folks that follow new car/truck sales it goes like this:
  Ford announces great product for reasonable price of lets say $45k
  Lots of folks sign up on waiting lists at the advertised price.
  Because of the dealership model, Ford has to sell/ship the product to a dealership.
  Dealership marks up the product $10k-$40k as a "Special Market Adjustment" then installs lots of non-optional options which raises the price by another $10k-$20k.
  Buyer on the waiting list comes in to pick up their order and sees what they were expecting to pay $45k now would cost them $85k.
  Buyer balks and dealership says "take it or leave it, we'll sell it to someone else".
  Buyer leaves.
  Buyer cancels their spot on the wait list.
  Dealership tries to sell it on the lot at $85k.
  Dealership does this to dozens of these vehicles.
  Dealership lot is full of these highly desired vehicles now NOT desirable because of the increased expense.
  Dealership cancels orders for additional units.
  Ford concludes "No one wants to buyers want our product even at $45k. We need to sell more gas vehicles. Thats what the buyers are telling us".
  Ford lays off workers making the product that was formerly in high demand.
  
  Yes, but Ford is also culpable. My understanding is they mostly made the higher end models to try to get profitable more quickly. Great, but no one can afford them. Part of the expected demand was for models people could afford to buy
  “We had all these people on the waiting list for a $45k truck and we don’t understand why they’re not buying the $85k truck we’re mostly building”
- Could be the striking workers have disrupted component flow enough that these workers were running out of things to do.
  
  Ford lays off 700 who were building electric version of F-150 | CNN Business::Ford is laying off about 700 workers who build the F-150 Lightning, the electric version of its best-selling pickup truck, and unlike other recent layoffs this one has nothing to do with the ongoing strike by the United Auto Workers union.
  Not due to the strike, apparently.
- Why produce more if you can stagnate production and just charge more per unit? It's not like you can go buy an electric truck from anyone else so your demand isn't going to decrease much. This is how OPEC operates when setting fuel prices.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Ford had temporarily closed the plant this summer to upgrade its production capability, and the company said this latest layoff is related to “multiple constraints, including the supply chain and working through processing and delivering vehicles held for quality checks after restarting production in August.”
Sales of the Lightning fell 45% in the third quarter compared to a year earlier, the company reported earlier this month, though Ford said it expected to post an increase in sales during the final three months of the year as capacity increases at the plant take effect.
The UAW’s targeted strike at a total of five assembly factories at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis have prompted all three companies to lay off workers.
On Thursday, company executives said there could be a total of 4,600 layoffs by the end of this week at its various plants due to the expansion of the strike to Kentucky Truck.
GM has laid off 2,300 workers that it attributes to the impact of the strike, although no additional layoffs have been announced in recent days.
But the F-150 Lightning workers who are laid off will be eligible for both unemployment and sub pay, according to Ford spokesperson Jessica Enoch.
The original article contains 510 words, the summary contains 201 words. Saved 61%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
- “I hate the new thing because it’s not the old thing”
  
  While your parent also looks like trolling to me, and I also downvoted it for hatred without a reason … this could go in a more constructive direction if we’re considering truck buyers may be more conservative. Truck buyers do seem to be the last bastion of excessive brand loyalty, regardless of their own best interests
- Electric trucks were a mistake from the beginning, glad they're finally realizing it.
  How so?
  
  It's probably not what they were thinking but a Van can do most anything a truck can do except when it comes to off-road capabilities. For hauling and towing, a Van can usually do the same job without being a machine designed to kill pedestrians.
  
  I mean I very much want an electric truck just not for $70,000+, I need a a vehicle that can do the following:
  Carry a 4 person family
  Is reliable/newer/won't break down
  Can do trips to the hardware store/hold lumber/drywall/etc on occasion
  Can move furniture/appliances on occasion
  Can move hay/straw on a semi regular basis
  Bonus points if I can take off road/on mountain trails
  If there was an affordable electric truck that could do this I would buy it, but I bought my (used) Tacoma for about $25k 4 years ago and I really can't justify anything more expensive then that.
  So if they can bring electric trucks down in price, I will buy one, and I want it to look like a truck, I would never consider a cyber truck, thats beyond ugly.
  
  No real towing or load hauling capability. Edison is the only company that seems to be honest about that and is working to overcome the problem.
- Sales orders say differently. Since the majority of truck owners nowadays aren't people who use them for work, they are popular, and nothing is wrong with them. They have more power than a gas truck as well.
  
  Nothing is wrong with them?
  https://youtu.be/jN7mSXMruEo?si=exiaP8HtNYs4au3z

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