The Ford F-150 Lightning was speculated to be the Blue Oval’s massive EV win. I imply, you are taking the best-selling automobile within the U.S., convert it to electrical, and unleash it on the plenty. Certainly that is a recipe for fulfillment, proper? And in some ways, it has been—simply with gross sales, however not a lot income.
Now, Ford is now idling manufacturing of the Lightning all through the top of the yr to “regulate manufacturing for an optimum mixture of gross sales progress and profitability.” In different phrases, Ford appears to be ready for sellers to promote extra of what is on tons earlier than it cranks out extra.
Welcome again to Crucial Supplies, your every day roundup for all issues EV and automotive tech. In the present day, we’re chatting about Ford plans to idle F-150 Lightning manufacturing all through the top of 2024, Scout’s use of Rivian’s software program, and BYD overtaking Tesla’s income. Let’s bounce in.
30%: Ford Is Idling F-150 Lightning Manufacturing For The Relaxation Of The 12 months
Ford is hitting the brakes—figuratively and actually—on manufacturing of the Ford F-150 Lightning all through the top of the yr. The transfer alerts one other sudden bump within the street for the electrified model of America’s best-selling truck, sparking questions on whether or not or not the Lightning hype practice has formally left the station. In a press release to Automotive Information, Ford confirmed that the manufacturing pause will begin in mid-November and is deliberate to final seven weeks (inclusive of an ordinary pre-planned, one-week vacation trip). Meeting will resume in January.
The F-150 Lightning is an extremely essential EV for Ford. In Truth, Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, and Government Chair, Invoice Ford, in contrast the pickup to the Twenty first-century Mannequin T. It was heralded because the gateway for Ford’s EV transition, although adoption has confirmed slower than anticipated. In truth, the automaker has already scaled again manufacturing targets to half of what was initially anticipated for 2024 and slashed two-thirds of the workforce on the Rouge Electrical Car Middle the place the Lightning is assembled.
One other slap within the face has come instantly from Tesla. The F-150 Lightning, regardless of gross sales being up 86%, misplaced its title of best-selling EV pickup to the Cybertruck and the F-Sequence pickup as a complete is vulnerable to dropping its 42-year crown as best-selling automobile in America to the Tesla Mannequin Y. Granted, these Cybertruck gross sales have largely been the achievement of years of orders, so will probably be a number of months earlier than we see if it has long-term juice or not.
In accordance with information from Cox Automotive cited by Automotive Information, Ford has a 100-day provide of F-150s on-hand on the finish of September. Typically, sellers need automobiles on tons for 30-60 days at most. The agency did not specify a selected estimate for the Lightning, particularly, however did point out a 128-day provide of the Ford E-Transit and a 130-day provide of Mustang Mach-Es. This fall is traditionally an incredible quarter for automakers, so Ford possible has a big surplus of Lightnings that it is hoping to filter out throughout this time. However irrespective of the way you form it, that extra provide is not precisely an incredible search for Ford’s EV program.
The automaker can be going through some moderately giant losses in its EV division. It revealed that it is greater than $5 billion within the gap, together with a greater than $1 billion loss on a canceled three-row SUV that was realized final quarter. Ford says that it has since slashed EV-related prices by $500 million.
Nonetheless, Farley stays optimistic about the way forward for Ford’s EV program. Through the firm’s third-quarter earnings name, Farley stated that he “wouldn’t commerce” the model’s EV technique for any of the Blue Oval’s opponents. And, regardless of the “gradual uptake of EVs,” Ford believes that their strikes will assist to create a stable long-term foothold in the marketplace.
60%: Scout Will Use Rivian’s Zonal Structure, Too
Photograph by: Scout Motors
Volkswagen’s newest sub-brand, Scout Motors, appears to be like prefer it’s about to drag off one of many largest wins for VW’s U.S. operations in a very very long time. Its secret? Effectively, apart from re-using a traditional American nameplate with some very customer-focused autos, is a brand new high-tech partnership that it is borrowing from its mum or dad firm.
We’re speaking about that fancy-pants new “zonal structure” method that is all the fad in up-and-coming EVs. In case you missed it, Volkswagen introduced it is shacking up with Rivian in a $5 billion software program deal that features improvement, licensing, and use of Rivian’s zonal structure.
Scout’s CEO advised InsideEVs that their autos are possible to make use of the zonal structure developed in that three way partnership—however not something present from Rivian. That was confirmed this week by Rivian’s Chief Software program Officer, Wassym Bensaid, revealed that Scout would, the truth is, reap the benefits of this tech sharing throughout a dialogue at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024:
The working system will probably be a part of the Scout product[s] just like different merchandise from VW manufacturers, whether or not it is Porsche, whether or not it is Bentley, Lamborghini, or VW. Once more every model will proceed to have its personal identification [and] options.
So what precisely is zonal structure, and why do you have to care? It is the subsequent massive factor within the automotive world—altering the fundamental manner {that a} automotive thinks and talks to parts.
Most automobiles at present run a mesh of sophisticated wiring and harnesses from particular person controllers to parts (assume: a powertrain ECU, a Physique Management Module to manage window switches, and ones for HVAC, ABS, HVAC, Airbags, and the record goes on). Consider it like an organized mess of spaghetti that is type of tying the entire electrical parts beneath the hood to their brains.
Rivian Zonal Structure
A automobile with a zonal structure community as a substitute hyperlinks actuators to native controllers that speak on a central community. That is extra like organizing parts into particular person rooms inside a home and helps to chop down on wiring by an element of miles in some automobiles and vastly reduces {the electrical} complexity in alternate for extra software program—however, hey, Software program Outlined Automobiles are the long run, in spite of everything.
Rivian and VW formally solidified their joint effort on software program earlier this yr with an preliminary $1 billion in up-front funding provided by the Germans and a pledge for an additional $4 billion in a while. Collectively, the three way partnership will assist Volkswagen do one thing that it hasn’t been in a position to do for fairly a while—get the software program proper. It has been one of many firm’s largest burdens regardless of the automaker having a close-knit software program staff, Cariad, at its fingertips. Maybe with Rivian dealing with the underlying OS and electrical structure, the automaker can dig itself out of its digital gap.
As for Rivian, properly, they appear enamored with the concept of Scout (and the possibly profitable income the three way partnership will get from the licensing deal.) The partnership won’t finish with Volkswagen, as Bensaid hinted that Rivian might already be in talks with one other automaker to make use of its zonal structure as properly, and will drop extra information as early as “subsequent yr.”
90%: BYD Simply Made Extra Cash Than Tesla For The First Time Ever
Photograph by: BYD
Chinese language automaker BYD has been butting up towards Tesla’s crown for a while now. The 2 EV giants have duked it out for the higher a part of a yr with Tesla adamant on holding its main place. Nevertheless, it appears to be like like BYD is placing some main strain on Tesla as its quarterly earnings leapfrogged Tesla’s for the primary time ever in Q3 2024.
BYD’s quarterly income shot up by 24% in Q3, hitting a large $28.2 billion over the course of simply three months. Surprisingly, this quantity was truly much less than analysts anticipated, but it surely nonetheless managed to beat out Tesla’s nonetheless spectacular $25.2 billion in international gross sales over the identical interval.
In complete, BYD offered 1,129,256 automobiles—443,426 of which had been battery-electric. Tesla offered 462,890 over the identical interval, or 4.4% extra EVs than BYD, however 59% fewer autos general. Tesla’s market cap is 698% greater than BYD’s, bolstered primarily by its guarantees of AI and full self-driving. That being stated, regardless of BYD’s income being greater than Tesla’s, the Chinese language automaker’s web revenue truly fell brief. BYD posted $1.6 billion in income, which, whereas spectacular, was lower than Tesla’s $2.2 billion.
Do not get it twisted, BYD is not completed but. In truth, its greatest quarter of the yr could possibly be underway proper now. Bloomberg has the inside track:
Earnings prospects for BYD within the closing quarter look even stronger because it advantages from its main gross sales place in China, the world’s largest automotive market. The final three months of any yr are normally the peak buying season, and on high of subsidies, central authorities companies have been ordered to spice up EV purchases.
BYD can be on monitor to satisfy its revised annual gross sales goal of 4 million autos, having offered round 2.74 million autos by way of September. Citibank Inc. estimates BYD might promote as many as 500,000 models per 30 days by November.
One factor that would throw a wrench BYD’s plans for EV domination are the worldwide tariffs being enacted to cease its growth of automobiles funded by way of “unfair subsidization.” The U.S. and Canada have each enacted 100% obligation charges on Chinese language EVs (BYD does not at the moment promote passenger automobiles in both market) and Europe will quickly start to impose tariffs totaling 27% on BYD’s imports. The model additionally plans to develop its market share in Mexico into 2025 with a projected output of 100,000 automobiles.
100%: The place Did VW’s EV Program Go Flawed?
Photograph by: Volkswagen
I’ve stated it earlier than: I am an enormous fan of what Scout is doing. The VW spin-off is constructing a truck catered to its superb viewers, and all indicators are pointing to the model actually understanding its prospects. However its mum or dad firm? Possibly not a lot.
Volkswagen is hurting. Like, dangerous. Crops are closing and its manufacturers aren’t incomes the cash they should keep afloat long-term. Its future hinges on the success of its EV applications. There’s only one drawback: shoppers aren’t biting.
Positive, driving the ID household of autos feels extra like working a microwave than a automotive, and there are software program bugs. Oh, and the ID Buzz is priced unreasonably for many shoppers. VW clearly misplaced its manner someplace whereas growing its EV technique. The place precisely did issues go mistaken? Let me know your ideas within the feedback.
