Ford invests big in EVs

[begreen]

The F150 Lightning preorders have been amazing. They have exceeded all expectations. Now Ford has announced a deep investment in both vehicles and infrastructure including its own battery plants.

Ford boosts electric vehicle industry with $11.4 billion investment

"We're on the cusp of a revolution," Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford tells "NBC Nightly News."

www.nbcnews.com

 

[peakbagger]

It will be interesting if Ford makes the right bet and then GM comes looking for handouts. The GM bet on Volt is going to cost both them on LG but they havent done much on the truck front. Ford bet on the aluminum F150 and got nailed by the Trump administration canceling the next step of fuel economy standards.

Then again lots of irons in the fire for dark horse battery technologies, the companies that invest big in the current battery tech may end up regretting it.

 

[begreen]

Yes, it will be interesting. GM did come out with the Bolt, but now is dealing with the faulty LG battery issue. Ford had the electric Focus, but smartly recognized that if they took the best selling F150 and made the EV version all around better, it could be a home run. From an investment pov, GM is betting on the Ultium battery system for its trucks and cars. The first car with it, the Cadillac Lyric, sold out of presale units in minutes. This modular battery system looks much more flexible for updating and allegedly can deal with mixed battery technologies without replacing the whole pack. There will be a lot of changes happening in the next 5 yrs. It will be interesting to see what battery tech and systems dominate by 2030.

 

[walhondingnashua]

I think it's just interesting that this is happening at all. 5 years ago, an EV F150? No way. The fact that manufacturers are being hurt because green legislation was REMOVED is just awesome to me. That means it had become good business to move that direction and the consumer wanted more, and better, of those options (EV, aluminum body, hybrid, etc).