cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/42676060
Ford has been too busy selling $80,000 trucks to worry about cars and EVs.
I’ve never understood why so many people in the US buy pickups. City dwellers? Why? People in most trades? Panel van > pickup. Farmers or ranchers? Makes sense.
My employer just swapped me from a pickup with a covered rollout bed to a van. I absolutely love it! Slightly less comfortable ride, but carries more parts and it’s all more accessible, especially if it’s raining or snowing. So this is why many companies have been using vans for so long…
An assessment of the global electric vehicle market and Ford merited one lukewarm, brief sentence. At the time, Farley was the Executive Vice President and President of Global Markets. If that sounds like a job that would require paying close attention to China’s reality and increasing competitiveness, it is. If that sounds like a job that should understand disruptive innovation’s death knell for firms like Ford, it is. If that sounds like a job that should have been creating strategy to deal with the reality of China’s emerging electric vehicle juggernaut, it is.
Auto industry mismanagement is redundant.
Oh my that damage control speech from Ford the article was forced to include does not work in the direction they hope it does.
There is actual fear to be perceived as Incompetent in there.
The reporters did very little to sugarcoat that they got told to edit it. Basically a copyPaste of fords demands of what needed to be talked about
What’s this thing where when you need to italicize something that is already italicized, you change it to a sans-serif font? Looks bad
They still build the only real EV truck though
I get the criticism of the cyber truck, and the hummer EV is ridiculous, but why do the R1T and Silverado EV not count as trucks? R1T is an expensive but great midsize go anywhere truck. Silverado EV is a range king and a little flat looking, but still 100% “truck”. Lightning is just the all around best value of a truck. I say this as a lightning owner, there are options in this market.
They almost made a truck with the Silverado EV but then they had to turn it into whatever the Avalanche is supposed to be with fins coming off the cab that get in the way of things. Anyways, not to sound bitter but some people like to be able to put camper shells, tool boxes, or other accoutrement on the back.
R1T is decent, just really expensive.
Trucks are for every tradesperson that does the things you lack the time, training or tools to do when something breaks at your residence. Trucks help you move.
Trucks don’t do that, vans do.
In Europe every tradesperson drives a van because it is a lot more efficient and can haul way more than trucks ever can.
And if said tradesperson doesn’t want their equipment to get wet in the rain they get a van instead.
Vans, you’re thinking of vans. Becuase you can lock up all your expensive tools in a van, it keeps rain off your supplies, it gives you a mobile workspace with AC, and you can take out the seats or reconfigure it for the job at hand. All the tradesmen I know drive vans. All the idiots I know who want an expensive mall crawling pavement princess so they look like they could do actual work, buy trucks.
- The arrogance of seeing only established manufacturers.
- The self-centeredness of assuming US and European are the only markets that matter, and product mix in US is more profitable.
- The instant gratification of not thinking beyond quarterly financials.
- The lack of knowledge of his own business and how to fit engineering timelines into marketing timelines
