Interesting Renault/Nissan EV venture news. What seemed to be a no-go suddenly is a go-go.
Interesting Car/Truck Manufacturer News
- Thread starter Weather Man
- Start date
The EU wants to move the ICE ban up to 2028.
I'm not surprised at all. The shit's just started. I expect we'll see the timeline move here, as well.
Monmouth Real Estate buys building for $51.7M; Mercedes to assemble EVs at property
MNR +0.72%Jan. 28, 2022 4:25 PM ET- Monmouth Real Estate Investment (NYSE:MNR) acquired a 530K sq. ft. Class A distribution center in Vance, Alabama for $51.7M.
- The property is net-leased for 10 years to Mercedes Benz US International.
- The building spans across ~53.5 acres representing a land to building ratio of over 4x providing for future expansion capacity.
- The fully-airconditioned building will serve Mercedes’ new electric vehicle assembly line.
NextEra Energy, Daimler eye JV for battery, hydrogen fuel cell charging network
NEE +3.12%Jan. 31, 2022 8:55 AM ET5 CommentsNextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE), Daimler (OTCPK
DAIF) and BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) announce a memorandum of understanding to lay the foundation for a proposed joint venture to develop, install and operate a nationwide charging network for medium- and heavy-duty battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the U.S.The companies say they plan to build a network of charging sites on critical freight routes along the east and west coasts and in Texas by 2026, leveraging existing infrastructure and amenities while adding complementary greenfield sites to fulfill anticipated customer demand.
Initial funding is expected to be comprised of ~$650M divided equally among the three parties, with first phase construction expected to begin next year.
"Working with Daimler Truck North America and BlackRock, we expect to accelerate the transformation of the transportation sector and make future investments in electrification upgrades, charging stations and renewables," NextEra Energy Resources President and CEO John Ketchum said.
NextEra shares sank to six-month lows last week on news of the surprise departure of Chairman and CEO Jim Robo.
motor1.com
Ford's New Patent Could Be A Solution To An Age-Old Truck Bed Problem
Jacob Oliva - Yesterday 8:22 PM© Motor1.com Copyright
Would you like this on your next pickup?
Ford has submitted a patent application for a nifty feature that could solve an age-old problem among truck owners – and that's keeping items on your bed in place.According to the documents uploaded by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the submitted patent by the Blue Oval was for "Truck bed with selectively actuated magnetic floor sections." This patent submission was first discovered by Muscle Cars & Trucks.
The title of the patent application pretty much explains itself; Ford wants to magnetize truck bed floors. As explained in the entirety of the 10-page document, it will be used to retain cargo or attachment devices.
Of note, several aftermarket solutions have been out there to solve the mentioned cargo loading problems. However, most of them offer magnetized crates or other external devices instead of magnetizing the bed itself. Ford's patent includes up to six magnetic points on the bed, which can be turned on or off via in-cabin controls or through an app on a smartphone.
The interaction between the electromagnets to create a perfect cargo-holding solution has been explained in the patent documents. MC&T also discovered a second part of the patent wherein the magnetic tie-downs are likely to be used on Ford SUVs and vans.
Kinda sad to read this in a way. Even if sanity returned to getting rid of EV mandates, it's too late. We're deep in the rabbit hole. Mass civil unrest or collapse of grids would be the only thing to turn it around.
Vertigo3d/E+ via Getty Images
Ford (F +1.1%) is expected to spend as much as $20B to prepare for its electrification push, according to Bloomberg. That investment amount is on top of the $30B the company has previously disclosed as part of a comprehensive electric vehicle commitment through 2025.
The automaker's new plan includes a rethinking of the organizational chart at the company, as well as hiring new engineers that specialize in everything from battery chemistry to artificial intelligence and electric vehicle software.
Sources say as part of the reorganization, Ford (NYSE:F) is considering a spinoff of a small portion of its electric vehicle business to capture some of the value investors who are applying to electric startups. That same line of thinking has also been part of the investing thesis on General Motors (NYSE:GM) with its Cruise division.
Ford gains on report of more EV investing, potential spinoff
Feb. 01, 2022 2:10 PM ETFord Motor Company (F), GMBy: Clark Schultz, SA News Editor27 Comments
Vertigo3d/E+ via Getty Images
Ford (F +1.1%) is expected to spend as much as $20B to prepare for its electrification push, according to Bloomberg. That investment amount is on top of the $30B the company has previously disclosed as part of a comprehensive electric vehicle commitment through 2025.
The automaker's new plan includes a rethinking of the organizational chart at the company, as well as hiring new engineers that specialize in everything from battery chemistry to artificial intelligence and electric vehicle software.
Sources say as part of the reorganization, Ford (NYSE:F) is considering a spinoff of a small portion of its electric vehicle business to capture some of the value investors who are applying to electric startups. That same line of thinking has also been part of the investing thesis on General Motors (NYSE:GM) with its Cruise division.
Ford electrified vehicle sales in January grew 167.2%, almost 4 times faster than the overall electrified segment
F -0.73%Feb. 02, 2022 9:57 AM ET3 Comments- Ford Motor (F +0.2%) reports U.S. sales flat Y/Y to 143,531 vehicles in January but sales drop 17.4% sequentially.
- Truck sales fell 4.3% Y/Y to 71,734 units, Cars sales down 26.3% Y/Y to 5,675 units, Electrified vehicles sales expanded 167.2% Y/Y to 13,169 units and SUVs +8.5% Y/Y to 66,122 units.
- Total retail sales +0.8%: Truck -4%, Electrified vehicles +183.1% and SUV +9.4%.
- Sales of Lincoln’s best-selling SUV, the Corsair, totaled 2,120 – up 16% over December.
- Ford pickups, including F-Series, Ranger and Maverick, totaled 62,293 sales, outselling GM’s entire pickup truck line in January.
- F-Series sales for the month totaled 50,543. Overall F-Series share increased 0.5% points over last year and begins the year as America’s best-selling pickup.
- Mustang and the all-electric Mach-E, produced sales of 8,041, up 76.3% Y/Y.
- “Ford market share increased over a year ago on strong demand for our newest products such as Bronco, Maverick and Mach-E. Ford took in a record 90,000 new vehicle orders in January. Vehicles are turning at a record pace on dealer lots, as we work to fill these orders. This year represents a turning point for Ford in electrified vehicles, as our electrified portfolio grew at nearly four times the rate of the industry segment, with E-Transit and F-150 Lightning set to hit the market.” said Andrew Frick, vice president, Ford Sales U.S. and Canada.
Bloomberg
GM Grabs $2 Billion Windfall as Used-Car Prices Hit Record
David Welch - 1h ago(Bloomberg) -- There’s a big upside to record used-car prices: Auto lenders like GM Financial are cashing in.
General Motors Co.’s lending unit booked a $2 billion gain last year reselling the vehicles that came back from expired leases and anything the company repossessed, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday. That helped GM Financial to nearly double its annual profit to $5 billion, allowing it to pay a $3.5 billion dividend back to the automaker.
Shares in GM were little changed at 9:45 a.m. in New York, erasing premarket gains, after the company detailed financial results late Tuesday and said that the semiconductor shortage is beginning to ease up. The stock fell 7.8% this year through Tuesday’s close, worse than the 4.6% decline in the S&P 500 index.
Read more: GM sees high costs, shift to budget cars capping profit
The used-car boom won’t last forever, GM said. The company expects prices to come down a bit, which will lower GM Financial’s profit for 2022 to between $3.5 billion to $4 billion, GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said on a call with analysts. That’s still a big benefit considering GM expects to make $13 billion to $15 billion in earnings before interest and taxes this year.
(Updates share performance in third paragraph)
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
That news of GM Financial's $2B gain due to rising used car prices was an interesting, but not surprising, bit of news.
Ford says its new electric F-150 can power homes during outages
Feb. 02, 2022 12:22 PM ETFord Motor Company (F)RUNBy: Clark Schultz, SA News Editor29 Comments
PierreDesrosiers/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images
Ford Motor Company (F -1.2%) said on Wednesday that it is the first automaker in the U.S. to offer the ability for customers to power their homes with an electric truck when the grid goes dark as part of a partnership with Sunrun (RUN -3.3%).
Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN) is the preferred installer of F-150 Lightning home charging solutions, including the 80-amp Ford Charge Station Pro and Home Integration System.
Ford's update: "Teaming up with Sunrun leverages their expertise to bring solar power to even more customers, giving them the chance to turn their truck into an incredible energy storage source – and future truck features can help accelerate the development of a less carbon-intensive grid."
Looking ahead, Ford (NYSE:F) plans to introduce additional F-150 Lightning features to help customers potentially save money and take pressure off the electric grid during peak usage.
The Ford-Sunrun partnership was first revealed last year.
Dig into Ford's U.S. sales report for January.
Why is the power out?
Too many electric cars charging.
How is the power on for you?
My electric car.
Too many electric cars charging.
How is the power on for you?
My electric car.
Probably powers the house for 10 minutes in winter. Clowns.
Extracted from NuStar Energy conference call. Interesting how the green mandates are driving change everywhere.
Dan Walk
This is Dan Walk on for Jeremy. I thought your comments on the ammonia system were interesting. And wondering if you could just talk about how you see the demand trending for the more traditional uses. And also, I know it's very early days, but you mentioned partnering with customers, potential customers on future opportunities around green hydrogen and just wondering if you could give us a sense of how advanced those talks are.
Daniel Oliver
Sure. This is Danny all over again. So in terms of our traditional demand, agriculture demand is very strong. Obviously, there's an ethanol driver partly behind that. We expect that to continue. What we're seeing new in terms of the green and blue ammonia is interest from particular customers who are -- have a business plan to ship the blue or green ammonia up our system into the Mid-Continent and they will use that ammonia to -- as a source of hydrogen. So they'll split the nitrogen from the hydrogen at destination and use the hydrogen to supply fleet vehicles that are being converted to hydrogen fuel cell. So those conversations are actually quite progressed in the last few months. In fact, I hope to have, in the first half of this year, hopefully some more -- be able to share with you some more details on that as they work to make sure that they have space on the line to support their new business model. So I think we'll have some definition around that sooner rather than later, even though it's probably a couple of years out from an in-service date.
Dan Walk
This is Dan Walk on for Jeremy. I thought your comments on the ammonia system were interesting. And wondering if you could just talk about how you see the demand trending for the more traditional uses. And also, I know it's very early days, but you mentioned partnering with customers, potential customers on future opportunities around green hydrogen and just wondering if you could give us a sense of how advanced those talks are.
Daniel Oliver
Sure. This is Danny all over again. So in terms of our traditional demand, agriculture demand is very strong. Obviously, there's an ethanol driver partly behind that. We expect that to continue. What we're seeing new in terms of the green and blue ammonia is interest from particular customers who are -- have a business plan to ship the blue or green ammonia up our system into the Mid-Continent and they will use that ammonia to -- as a source of hydrogen. So they'll split the nitrogen from the hydrogen at destination and use the hydrogen to supply fleet vehicles that are being converted to hydrogen fuel cell. So those conversations are actually quite progressed in the last few months. In fact, I hope to have, in the first half of this year, hopefully some more -- be able to share with you some more details on that as they work to make sure that they have space on the line to support their new business model. So I think we'll have some definition around that sooner rather than later, even though it's probably a couple of years out from an in-service date.
Ford Motor Non-GAAP EPS of $0.26 misses by $0.15, revenue of $37.7B beats by $2.08B
F -3.59%Now!- Ford Motor press release (NYSE:F): Q4 Non-GAAP EPS of $0.26 misses by $0.15.
- Revenue of $37.7B (+4.7% Y/Y) beats by $2.08B.
- Shares -2.5%.
- The company expects FY2022 adjusted EBIT to be even stronger – $11.5B to $12.5B, an increase of 15% to 25% over 2021. Adjusted free cash flow for the year is expected to be $5.5B to $6.5B.
- Global production capacity of iconic, high-volume BEVs to be at least 600,000 by 2023 and fully electric vehicles to represent at least 40% of its product mix by 2030.
A major deal with automaker General Motors (GM) sparked a substantial rally in Lightning eMotors (ZEV). While the gains moderated later in the session, the stock still finished higher by about 5%.
Under the agreement, ZEV will help electrify GM's Class 3 through Class 6 commercial vehicles.
Under the agreement, ZEV will help electrify GM's Class 3 through Class 6 commercial vehicles.
The Drive
Ford Patents Manual Transmission That Doesn’t Need a Clutch Pedal
By James Gilboy, The Drive - 1h agoThe manual transmission's gradual disappearance from road cars makes it look like the end of the road for the third pedal. Some modern manuals, like a novel one offered by Hyundai, don't even have a clutch pedal. Ford could soon go down that path too, as patent filings show Ford has conceived of a new style of manual box that only requires hand inputs to shift--but could still include a foot pedal for those that want to use it.
Such was revealed in a patent application filed by Ford with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in December 2018, though the document's contents were only published last November, and discovered by Muscle Cars & Trucks this month. The patent is stated to be for a "manual transmission with [an] electric clutch," one where the clutch release hydraulics are pressurized by a master cylinder operated by an electronic actuator. This actuator receives signals to disengage either from a pressure sensor on the H-pattern shifter or from an "override" attached to the clutch pedal, which would be connected to the clutch only electronically.
MC&T speculates the mechanism could find use in the S650 Mustang, though it could just as easily be used in something like the Bronco. That requires it to make production, though, and a patent filing is no indication that it will. It's a far more complex mechanism than a traditional, hydraulic-only clutch system, which would drive up cost, complicate service, and possibly decrease reliability.
Its advantages lie mainly in making manual transmission operation more approachable, or more compatible with a hybrid system, such as that rumored for the next-gen 'Stang. If used in the hybrid Mustang, this electro-hydraulic clutch mechanism could automate engagement while the front-axle motors assist with takeoff. That'd be especially useful if the next Mustang has a stop-start system.
More than a few recent Ford patents suggest such could be in the works, but they only amount to circumstantial evidence. In the end, we'll have to wait for Ford to officially detail the next Mustang--that is, unless, an engineer accidentally leaks details via LinkedIn again. Or, y'know, one of you sweethearts blows up Ford's spot in my inbox. C'mon man, just do it, all the cool kids are.
Ford CEO Farley cracking down hard on $3.6 billion dealer markups
Won't send dealers cars if they charge too much
By Gary Gastelu FOXBusiness
FOX Business’ Grady Trimble and Ford CEO Jim Farley discuss electric vehicle production and the chip shortage impacting the auto industry.
Ford CEO Jim Farley doesn't want dealers overcharging for the company's electric vehicles. During the automaker's earnings call Thursday night, the Ford CEO reiterated his commitment to eliminate the "unreasonable markups" some dealers have been charging amid the shortage of new vehicles.
Ford's head of sales, Andrew Frick, had previously sent a letter to dealers in January warning they could lose their F-150 Lighting allocations if they tried to get reservation holders to pay additional fees to place final orders for the upcoming electric pickup.
But Farley said about 10% of the dealer network has been charging above MSRP on their existing models.
"We have very good knowledge of who they are, and their future allocation of product will be directly impacted," Farley said.
Barclays analyst Brian Johnson estimated the value of the markups at $3.6 billion, or roughly half the increased revenue per unit Ford reported last year.
Ford is particularly concerned about its electric vehicle sales, which compete with brands like Tesla and Rivian that don't used franchised dealers and are in direct control of their pricing. "This is quite an important topic because the margins that we want to build to in BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) are gonna be heavily dependent on a different go-to-market and customer experience," Farley said.
"I won't go into any more than that, but this is a quite important lesson for us of the franchise system and the way we will manage going forward."
General Motors President Steve Carlisle also sent a letter to dealers last month informing them that they may lose their allocations of overbooked EVs and the upcoming Corvette Z06 if they are "tempted to profit" off the current shortage, The Detroit Free Press reported.
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