F - Ford Motor Company
8.87 -0.02 (-0.22%)
After hours: 4:35PM EST
| Previous Close | 8.71 |
| Open | 8.80 |
| Bid | 8.88 x 45100 |
| Ask | 8.88 x 39400 |
| Day's Range | 8.77 - 8.90 |
| 52 Week Range | 7.41 - 10.56 |
| Volume | 28,302,130 |
| Avg. Volume | 35,098,067 |
| Market Cap | 35.248B |
| Beta (3Y Monthly) | 1.07 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 22.23 |
| EPS (TTM) | 0.40 |
| Earnings Date | Feb. 4, 2020 |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | 0.60 (6.89%) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | 2019-10-21 |
| 1y Target Est | 10.16 |
- Zacks
Tesla Pickup Unveiled, But Will It Be First to Market?
Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has finally unveiled his pet project.
- Zacks
General Motors Recalls 640,000 Pickups Over Seat Belt Issues
While General Motors (GM) reports two fires due to seat belt concerns, the issue has not resulted in any injuries.
- Bloomberg
Tesla’s Cybertruck Is Designed to Shatterproof Its Stock
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Who really needs bullet-proof glass, anyway? The president, yes, but him aside, it’s a niche market. Come to think of it, who even needs trebuchet-proof glass? Granted, the “transparent metal” windows on Tesla’s “Cybertruck” didn’t stand up to the literal slings at its unveiling in Los Angeles on Thursday night. But as long as you aren’t planning on off-roading into the middle of a medieval siege, you’re probably good.The more pertinent question, perhaps, is who really needs this truck?One way to answer that is to think of the Cybertruck as an actual truck. Its, er, radically angular design represents a departure in more ways than one (you can take in its planar splendor here). No other truck, or pretty much any other vehicle, looks like it. The specs, particularly at the high end, sound formidable, with Tesla boasting 500+ miles of range and a towing capacity that beats Ford Motor Co.’s F-150. It can also, according to Tesla’s video, outrace a Porsche. And it runs on electricity, of course.It also represents a departure from Tesla’s approach to date. The thing about the Models S and 3, and the X up to a point, is that they emulated the shape of the cars you know. Without an engine, there’s no compelling reason for the S to have that regular hood other than it getting you comfortable with the idea of driving an electric vehicle. Even the Tesla Semi, unveiled in similar fashion almost exactly two years ago, looked like a semi with some attitude. But with this pickup, CEO Elon Musk actually kicked off Thursday’s festivities by scrolling through pictures of old truck models and mocking how boring and uniform they are.There is a well-established school of thought which holds that many truck drivers prefer boring. Sure, anyone splashing out on, say, the rolling palace that is an F-150 King Ranch probably isn’t doing so purely for its drywall-carrying capabilities. But just as the boasts about the Tesla Semi’s acceleration were a bit odd — do you really want your driver gunning it with a payload of forklifts? — so the Cybertruck’s polyhedral aesthetic and features such as adjustable air suspension appear more suited to the smaller crowd not planning on hauling around a lot of drywall. Analysts at Evercore ISI estimate it would be tough for Tesla to hit 50,000 units in two years, when it is supposed to go on sale. Even at that level, at $50,000 a pop the theoretical revenue of $2.5 billion compares with an existing consensus revenue estimate for Tesla in 2022 of almost $42 billion.Strikingly, you only have to put up $100 to reserve your place in line for the Cybertruck. That’s way lower than $1,000 for the Model 3 or the $2,500 required for the forthcoming Model Y. On that point, I also couldn’t help noticing how the Cybertruck was unveiled in the full glare of the spotlight, as opposed to the chiaroscuro debut of the far more critical, from a business perspective, but relatively humdrum Model Y back in March.It all suggests the Cybertruck might better be understood at this moment as more than just a truck. The thing is, that snafu with the smashed windows will likely be laughed off by Tesla bulls. They have, after all, already laughed off multiple missed deadlines, almost laughable governance, the SolarCity debacle (which is ongoing in the form of mind-boggling court depositions from Musk and others), “funding secured,” bewildering executive turnover and multiple transfusions of capital.That last point is linked to why, as I wrote here, Tesla’s stock price appears to drive strategy and operations, rather than the other way around. The Cybertruck’s futuristic look and vaunted specs and pricing — which aren’t due to prove out for a couple of years at least — come just as Tesla’s sales growth has stalled. Meanwhile, consistent underspending on capex, even as bigger rivals are launching competing electric models, ought to raise concerns about the company’s ability to stay at the cutting edge. The stock has jumped recently nonetheless, in response to a surprise profit in the third quarter. But, as I wrote here and here, it was a mouse-sized swing on which to balance Tesla’s elephantine valuation. While Tesla expects the Model Y and Chinese Model 3 sales to help re-accelerate things soon, that’s already priced in (and then some) when your stock trades at 208 times GAAP earnings for next year. In that context, the Cybertruck is perhaps best understood as Tesla’s latest effort to bulletproof its own multiple(1).(1) Judging by Friday morning's sell-off, that effortcould probably use some "fixing in post", as they say.To contact the author of this story: Liam Denning at ldenning1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy, mining and commodities. He previously was editor of the Wall Street Journal's Heard on the Street column and wrote for the Financial Times' Lex column. He was also an investment banker.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Tesla Truck Demo Gets Awkward as Shatterproof Windows Shatter
(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk took to the stage late Thursday to reprise a familiar role: pitching a future vehicle to a throng of adoring fans. This time, it was the “Cybertruck” -- his name for Tesla’s new electric pickup.The angular vehicle, which has a stainless-steel skin, starts at $39,900 and will come in three variants, Musk told a packed audience in Hawthorne, California. Customers can order the truck with a deposit of just $100, though production “nears in late 2021,” Tesla said on its website.After a “Blade Runner”-inspired introduction, Musk had Tesla’s long time chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, smash the truck’s steel exterior with a sledgehammer, showing that it did not dent.But it was the second demonstration, of “Tesla armor glass,” that was the real show stopper: von Holzhausen unintentionally shattered two of the truck’s windows with a metallic ball, causing Musk to say “Oh my f---ing god.” Given how product launches are usually scripted and rehearsed, the broken windows were the evening’s big surprise.Tesla shares fell 5.5% to $335.32 as of 9:47 a.m. in New York, the sharpest decline in almost two months.The evening began with a slide show of standard pickup trucks throughout the years, and Musk’s vow to make something different that runs on sustainable energy.“You want a truck that’s really tough, not fake tough,” Musk said, in what seemed to be a veiled swipe at Ford Motor Co.’s slogan. “A truck you can take a sledgehammer to that doesn’t dent.”Tesla fans in the audience liked what they saw.“It’s like something out of a movie set,” said Elizabeth Lepek of Marina del Rey, California, a current Tesla Model X owner who placed a $100 deposit for the Cybertruck. “It’s so futuristic. I like the design of it. There’s nothing quite like it on the road.”But traditional truck buyers are a tougher audience and less likely to be impressed by Silicon Valley sizzle.“It misses the core truck buyer,” said Gene Munster, a managing partner at venture capital firm Loup Ventures. “A contractor is not going to show up to a work site in this truck. That said, Tesla will still sell some of them.”The hashtag cybertruck quickly began trending on Twitter as potential customers started sharing their views about the futuristic design -- and the window snafu.And though it will take a long time before the Cybertruck hits the streets, that’s something Tesla customers are used to. Musk unveiled a Semi truck two years ago, but that vehicle has yet to enter volume production.Musk tweeted Friday the truck also will offer an optional two-person all-terrain vehicle, signaling Tesla’s plan to enter the off-road vehicle market. The lucrative full-size pickup market in the U.S. is dominated by the Detroit 3: Ford Motor Co.’s F-150, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s Ram 1500 and General Motors Co.’s Chevy Silverado. Japanese automakers have spent two decades and billions of dollars to get in on the gravy train, but U.S. brands still control almost 92% of the half-ton segment, according to IHS Markit.“The design will be questioned, but over time the specs will help win over pickup loyalists,” said analyst Ben Kallo of Robert W. Baird. “But the volumes are expected to be low, and the Model 3 and Model Y continue to be the focus.”(Updates with shares trading after market opening Friday in fifth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Thuy Ong, Natnicha Chuwiruch and Derek Wallbank.To contact the reporters on this story: Dana Hull in San Francisco at dhull12@bloomberg.net;Ed Ludlow in San Francisco at eludlow2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chester Dawson at cdawson54@bloomberg.net, Ville HeiskanenFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters
UPDATE 4-Tesla's electric pickup breaks the mould with angular design and armored glass
Tesla Inc on Thursday unveiled its electric pickup, a truck with a futuristic angular body in gunmetal gray that resembled an armored vehicle and takes aim at the heart of Detroit automakers' profits. At a launch event in Los Angeles, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said other versions will be priced at $49,900 and $69,900 with the most expensive offering a range of more than 500 miles (800 km). By comparison, the current maximum range of a Tesla car is 370 miles for its long-range Model S sedan.
- Reuters
Ford's China JV with Changan to return to sales growth in 2020 - president
GUANGZHOU, China/Beijing (Reuters) - Auto sales at Ford Motor Co's China venture with Chongqing-based carmaker Changan are likely to turn positive next year, Changan’s president said on Friday. The slide in Ford's sales has been unprecedented for a major global automaker in China. "There are good signs that Changan Ford's sales will get better," Changan president Zhu Huarong told Reuters on the sidelines of Guangzhou Autoshow.
- Oilprice.com
Musk: Tesla Truck Will Crush The Competition
Elon Musk is making outrageous claims once again — this time about Tesla pickups that he says will be far better and more powerful than anything on the market
- Bloomberg
Selling a Truck to Detroit’s Loyal Owners May Be Tesla’s Toughest Challenge Yet
(Bloomberg) -- A year before Elon Musk was ready to unveil Tesla’s first pickup model, the chief executive officer was setting a low bar for the amount of demand it will draw. Dig into the dynamics of the fiercely competitive and tough-to-crack U.S. truck market, and it’s easy to see why.Japanese automakers have spent two decades and billions of dollars trying to get in on the big pickup gravy train. But 20 years after Toyota first started making the Tundra, Detroit brands continue to crush the competition, controlling almost 92% of the half-ton truck segment, according to IHS Markit. Customers who own Ram pickups are more loyal than owners of any other model line in the U.S., the researcher says, and brand loyalty to Ford Motor Co. or General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet isn’t far behind.Late Thursday, Musk will start his ascent up arguably the toughest hill Tesla has tried to climb yet with the debut of Cybertruck. He cautioned in November of last year that he wasn’t sure if a lot of people will buy the pickup and in June said the design won’t be for everyone. The comments contrast starkly with the bold predictions the billionaire has made about how many Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossovers his company will manage to sell in the coming years.“An electric pickup truck needs to meet the needs and capabilities of current pickup trucks and deliver a little bit more,” Stephanie Brinley, an IHS Markit analyst, said by phone. “A traditional pickup-truck buyer may consider electric, but they are not going to give up on capability.”Detroit automakers aren’t waiting for Musk to take the wraps off his truck before starting to talk a little trash. Thirteen months after the Tesla boss tweeted that his pickup will boast 300,000 pounds of towing capacity, Ford released a video of an electric F-150 prototype dragging 1 million pounds of double-decker rail cars.GM CEO Mary Barra told investors at an event in New York on Thursday her company’s first electric pickup will debut in showrooms in late 2021, and it will have a leg up on the competition. “General Motors understands truck buyers,” she said. Other GM executives also are confident that Tesla’s pickup won’t be in the same league as their electric truck.“I suspect price-wise there might be some similarities, but I think in terms of size and capabilities, there might be a difference,” Phil Brook, the vice president of marketing for GM’s GMC brand, said in an interview. “People who buy our trucks, they are very proud of the fact that they’ll take their trucks anywhere, they’ll get them dirty, then they’ll wash them out and go to a five-star restaurant for dinner. So they’re not people who just drive them around and want to look good.”On a RollMusk told a Tesla enthusiast podcast earlier this year that he wants his truck to start at less than $50,000. Not all of his comments about the pickup have moderated expectations: During an October earnings call, he declared it will be the company’s “best product ever.”Tesla shares have been on a roll since that quarterly report, surging 42% on optimism the company can produce profits on a more sustainable basis. But it’s unclear how soon the new truck will contribute to those efforts. The Model Y crossover is scheduled to launch next summer, and limited production of the Semi truck is planned for next year. Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, expects Tesla to begin building the pickup in late 2020 or early 2021.Tesla shares rose 1.2% to $356.58 as of 2:04 p.m. Thursday in New York.Tesla probably won’t have the electric-truck market to itself for long, if at all. Amazon-backed Rivian Automotive plans to launch its R1T pickup late next year. Ford has vowed to start selling hybrid-electric and battery-electric versions of the F-150 starting in 2020, and GM has committed to producing plug-in pickups at a plant it had been planning to shutter in the Detroit area.Battery prices will have to drop significantly for electric trucks to reach parity with combustion engine-powered pickups, according to Dan Levy, an analyst at Credit Suisse.“Given electrification cost constraints and customer preferences, we expect the large-truck segment will be among the last segments to see an inflection in volumes toward electrification,” Levy wrote in a report this week. He assumes Tesla will be selling about 50,000 pickups by 2025, compared with roughly 300,000 Model 3 and 400,000 Model Y.One obstacle that shouldn’t be overlooked is the tough time Tesla has had operating in truck country. Texas, which bars manufacturers from selling vehicles direct to consumers, is the top state for U.S. registrations of half-ton pickups, according to IHS. The state’s share of the nationwide total this year through September -- 14% -- is more than double the runner-up, Michigan, which also has a ban.‘Blade Runner’Tesla’s Thursday night event bookends the press days for the Los Angeles Auto Show, where Ford generated buzz with the debut of the Mustang Mach-E electric SUV. But seeking attention of his own wasn’t the only motivation for Musk to stage his truck reveal now and near the show. When announcing the date and locale, he joked on Twitter they were “strangely familiar” and shared a link to the opening credits and scene of the 1982 film “Blade Runner,” which was set in November 2019. He had referenced the movie before as inspiration for the pickup’s futuristic design.“Musk has indicated it ‘looks like an armored personnel carrier from the future,’ from the set of Blade Runner, and is ‘unrecognizable from the trucks from the past 20-40 years,’ which we think could carry the risk of not attracting traditional pickup buyers, leaving it a lower-volume niche product,” Emmanuel Rosner, a Deutsche Bank analyst, wrote in a report this week. Investors will want to know more about production timing, increased capital-spending requirements and where Tesla will build the truck, he said.Musk is scheduled to begin making remarks around 8 p.m. local time at Tesla’s design center in Hawthorne, California.(Updates with GM CEO comments from sixth paragraph)\--With assistance from Keith Naughton and Chester Dawson.To contact the reporter on this story: Dana Hull in San Francisco at dhull12@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chester Dawson at cdawson54@bloomberg.net, Craig Trudell, Melinda GrenierFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
Auto Stock Roundup: Volkswagen and Daimler's Financial Plans & More
While Volkswagen (VWAGY) plans to rev up spending on EVs in the coming years, its rival Daimler (DDAIF) intends to limit capital outlay to revive profit margins.
- Reuters
Tesla picks a fight with Detroit by going after the pickup market
Analysts expect the Tesla pickup, which Musk has said would combine the performance of a Porsche 911 sports car with the functionality of Ford Motor Co's industry-leading F-150 full-size truck, to debut in late 2021 or early 2022 with a starting price of under $50,000. "Making an electric pickup truck that sells in the same price range as an F-150 and making it profitable will be tough," said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at Auto Forecast Solutions. As Musk pushes to take a bite of Detroit's profits, Ford and larger rival General Motors Co are gearing up to challenge Tesla more directly with new offerings like the Ford Mustang Mach E electric SUV as well as electric pickups.
- Bloomberg
FCC Spectrum Proposal Spotlights Automaker Technological Divide
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai proposed reallocating to mobile devices airwaves long assigned to vehicle safety while preserving some of the spectrum for carmakers planning to deploy new technology.“We want to move on from something we’ve tried for a long time that wasn’t working, and open the door to new and exciting opportunities,” Pai said in a speech at a Washington event. “After 20 years of seeing these prime airwaves go largely unused, the time has come for the FCC to take a fresh look.”Auto industry reaction highlighted a division between companies such as Toyota Motor Corp. that have already invested in the old technology and a growing number of others, including Ford Motor Co., that back the newer system that they say performs better.Pai set a Dec. 12 vote on his proposal, which would commence a months-long comment period on giving Wi-Fi gadgets access to 60% of the airwaves reserved for auto safety in 1999. Automakers would retain use of the remainder.The change wouldn’t be final until another vote by the FCC, which under Pai has worked to free airwaves bands for new uses. Because Pai leads a Republican majority, his proposals usually pass.In 1999, the frequencies were reserved by the FCC to link cars, roadside beacons and traffic lights into a seamless wireless communication web to help avoid collisions and alert drivers to road hazards, among other uses.In a concession to carmakers, Pai’s plan would devote most of their remaining portion of the spectrum to the new cellular-based safety technology that several have recently embraced. A thin remaining slice would be used for either the new system or for an older accident-avoidance technology foreseen two decades ago but is little used today.Ford announced earlier this year that it would outfit all its new U.S. models starting in 2022 with newer cellular vehicle-to-everything technology. Toyota, meanwhile, halted in April plans to deploy the older systems in 2021 citing dwindling support from regulators and other carmakers.However, Toyota said in a statement on Wednesday that it remains committed to the older technology and that the entire spectrum band currently allocated for auto safety should remain available to them.General Motors Co. deferred comment to the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which, along with several groups, including the American Automobile Association, urged caution.‘Harmful Interference’The groups issued a joint statement asking the FCC to refrain from sharing the frequencies with non-safety devices “until test results clearly indicate that sharing with unlicensed devices can occur without harmful interference.”The U.S. Transportation Department said it hadn’t changed its position that the entire airwaves swath needs to be retained for auto safety. The government has spent hundreds of millions on the older, competing technology called dedicated short-range communications.“We’re hoping to preserve that 75 megahertz because it is now time, the technology is now there, that we can start deploying this potentially life-saving technology,” James Owens, acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said in a Senate hearing.The 5G Automotive Association, a group that backs the new cellular safety system, applauded Pai’s proposal.Public Safety“Extensive crash avoidance testing continues to demonstrate that C-V2X technology will deliver safety benefits to the American public,” said the group. It represents most major automakers including Ford Motor Co., Volkswagen AG and Honda Motor Co., in addition to wireless companies such as Verizon Communications Inc. and gear makers Samsung Electronics Co. and Qualcomm Inc.“This visionary FCC proposal will enable us to bring the tremendous, unmatched safety benefits from C-V2X to US drivers, passengers, and pedestrians,” Dean Brenner, Qualcomm’s senior vice president of spectrum strategy and technology, said in a statement.The Intelligent Transportation Society of America, an advocacy group with members including GM and several states that have deployed safety equipment that works off the older technology said the “FCC is prepared to trade safer roads for more connectivity.”“In a country that reels from nearly 36,000 roadway deaths every year, it is unfathomable that the United States would literally give away our top safety tool -- and with it, our best chance to save tens of thousands of lives,” ITS America president Shailen Bhatt said in the group’s emailed statement.Cable providers that offer Wi-Fi for customers’ wireless use welcomed Pai’s move. Charter Communications Inc. said it was “thrilled” and Comcast Corp. said the “spectrum is too valuable a national resource to lie fallow any longer.”The airwaves could be used for fast communications including machine-to-machine links, and smart city applications such as smart cameras, traffic monitoring and security sensors, NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, a trade group for companies including Comcast and Charter the FCC in a Sept. 25 filing.\--With assistance from Keith Naughton.To contact the reporters on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.net;Ryan Beene in Washington at rbeene@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, John Harney, Todd ShieldsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
Ford (F) Expands Mustang Muscle Car Range, Launch in 2020
Ford's (F) next SUV, Mustang Mach-E, will be available in standard and extended-range battery variants with either a rear-wheel or an all-wheel drive.
- Zacks
What You Need to Know About Ford's All-Electric Mustang Mach-E
Dubbed the Mustang Mach-E, Ford's car is an all-electric performance SUV expected to get 210 miles and roughly 300 miles per charge.
- Yahoo Finance
Stock Market Live Updates: S&P 500, Nasdaq, Dow post record closing highs
Headlines moving the stock market in real time.
- Yahoo Finance
What Tesla taught Ford
The new Mustang Mach-E electric performance vehicle owes a debt to Tesla and its iconoclastic CEO, Elon Musk.
- Business Wire
Mustang Mach-E Reservation Site Now Live – Reserve the Newest Member of the Mustang Family Now
Ford customers can now visit the Mustang Mach-E reservation site to reserve their spot in line for the latest addition to the Mustang family.
- Yahoo Finance
Ford Mustang Mach-E: The first all-electric Ford is here
Ford unveils the Mustang Mach-E, the automaker's first all-electric vehicle.
- Bloomberg
Ford Unveils Electric Mustang SUV to Challenge Tesla Dominance
(Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co. is reinventing one of its marquee models -- the Mustang muscle car -- as a battery-powered crossover to become a player in the electric-vehicle market that is expected to take off in the coming decade.In a splashy ceremony Sunday ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show, the carmaker unveiled the Mustang Mach-E, a swoopy hatchback with distinctive pony-car haunches and familiar shark nose that it claims has the power to take on Porsche. When it goes on sale next fall, Ford hopes to convince mainstream buyers its electrified Mustang is an alternative to the Tesla models dominating the EV market.And Ford, which exited the battery-car business last year when it pulled the plug on its slow-selling Focus EV, is betting it’s cracked the code on turning a profit on plug-ins. By building the Mach-E in Mexico, where labor costs are low, and with a price starting at $43,895, the automaker says it will avoid the losses automakers typically suffer selling high-cost EVs.The company is even considering making the car in China, depending on how the trade war plays out, Ford Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett told Bloomberg News. Read more: Ford May Make New Electric Mustang Mach-E in China (1)The Mach-E will make a profit “on vehicle one,” he said in a Bloomberg TV interview. “That’s surprising a lot of people because electrics have not had a history of making money. This will.”Hackett said it will turn a profit because the vehicle “creates the passion that follows with Mustang” and prices start in the mid-$30,000 when U.S. subsides on electric cars are factored in. “So it’s attractive to customers.”Ford is building it in Mexico because it had an open factory there and it needed to be overhauled to build an electric vehicle, Hackett said. “As we start to adopt more electric vehicles — we had capacity down there, we had no capacity in the United States — we’re going to have electric capacity here in the United States. They’ll be building other electric platforms.”Still, it’s a high-risk gambit. The Mustang is Ford’s signature sports car, having sold more than 10 million units since it debuted in 1964 with simultaneous cover stories in Time and Newsweek. When Ford decided to abandon the traditional passenger-car business last year, it spared only one model: The Mustang.New ConfigurationFor more than half a century, the Mustang has embodied high-octane power and unbridled strength. And Ford will continue to make gasoline-fueled versions of the classic muscle car.The Mach-E is not only the first electric version of the Mustang, it’s also the first time it has been configured into a sport utility vehicle. That will test the elasticity of a brand built on low-slung speedsters.“Calling this a true sports car would be stretching it,” said Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting for researcher LMC Automotive. “The market obviously has gone in the direction of the SUV body type, that’s what’s selling. But the Mustang is not an SUV. It’s been a sports car.”Ford, having struggled to sell more mundane electric cars, is embarking on a strategy to electrify its icons, starting with the Mustang and following quickly thereafter with a plug-in version of its top-selling F-150 pickup. It is part of $11.5 billion the automaker is investing to roll out 40 electric and hybrid vehicles by 2022. The idea is to show that Ford’s EVs can be fast and tough and are not just “compliance cars” intended to meet more stringent environmental regulations around the world.“We changed our whole strategy two years ago,” Ted Cannis, Ford’s global head of electrification, said at a briefing on the Mach-E at the company’s design studios in Dearborn, Michigan. “We said, ‘Let’s play to our strengths -- performance vehicles, pickups, vans, SUVs, the things Ford knows how to do.’”EV GrowthRegulations to curb emissions will drive demand for electric vehicles over the next decade, especially in China, the world’s largest auto market. In the U.S., where President Donald Trump has eased fuel economy rules, EV growth will be slower, but still strong. Sales of battery-powered vehicles will quadruple by 2025 to 809,537 models, accounting for 4.8% of the U.S. auto market, up from 1.3% now, according to LMC Automotive.New electric offerings will mushroom to 110 choices in the U.S. by the middle of next decade, from just 19 now, LMC predicts. Standing out in such a crowded field will be difficult, especially for Ford, which ranked fifth behind Toyota, Tesla, Honda and Nissan among consumers surveyed recently by CarGurus on which brand of electric vehicle they would consider buying.That’s a key reason Ford decided to affix the Mustang pony to the front of the Mach-E, which originally was conceived in 2017 as merely inspired by the sports car. But as Ford executives were shown design concepts by the small team working on the project, they kept asking for more Mustang influence. By early last year, the decision was made to call it a Mustang.Design Pressures“This had massive implications,” said Jason Castriota, brand director of battery-electric vehicles for Ford. “You can only imagine the amount of tension and strife this brought through the company.”That pressure was most acute on the engineers, who had to come up with a way to translate fossil-fuel fury into clean-running power from lithium-ion batteries.“When we realized we weren’t really doing a Mustang-inspired thing, we were doing a Mustang, the pressure ratcheted up,” said Ron Heiser, the Mach-E’s chief engineer. “We’ve got a lot of people in this company that are staking their engineering reputations that we’re delivering a Mustang.”Electric motors have some inherent advantages, such as immediate thrust. Heiser’s engineers placed them between the wheels fore and aft, which, combined with batteries configured like a skateboard beneath the car, create an even weight distribution. That allows the car to ride low and hug the road like a Mustang.Heiser says the base all-wheel-drive Mach-E can beat a Porsche Macan SUV from zero to 60 miles per hour, and he claims the 450-horsepower GT version comes “very, very close” to a Porsche 911 GTS. For those who miss the roar of a big V8, he says the Mach-E will have tunable technology to create an “authentic” sound.‘Back in the Game’The focus on performance should make the Mach-E “a more compelling alternative” to Tesla’s similarly priced Model 3 sedan, Dan Levy, a Credit Suisse analyst, wrote in a Nov. 14 report. “The ultimate proof point of its success will be if it can truly take battery electric vehicle share from the Model 3 -- far from guaranteed.”Ford won’t say how many Mach-Es it expects to sell annually, but it will be the only model built at the 4.3 million square foot factory in Cuautitlan, Mexico, that most recently was cranking out more than 100,000 Fiesta subcompacts a year.LMC Automotive predicts the Mustang Mach-E will top out around 50,000 sales annually by 2021.“This is the first step in getting back in the game for Ford, after being viewed as behind in this space,” Schuster said. “They need to have a solid launch with no quality issues and, from a driving standpoint, it has to live up to the name.”(Updates with detail on possible China production in third paragraph.)\--With assistance from Ed Ludlow and Will Davies.To contact the reporter on this story: Keith Naughton in Southfield, Michigan at knaughton3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Trudell at ctrudell1@bloomberg.net, Kevin MillerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Investing.com
Stocks - Ford, Uber, Coty Rise Premarket; Qudian, HP Slump
Investing.com - Stocks in focus in premarket trading on Monday:
- Investing.com
Stocks - U.S. Futures Rise, Trade Optimism Continues
Investing.com - U.S. futures pointed to a higher opening Monday, as positive chatter on the trade front helped boost investor confidence.
- Reuters
FOCUS-Ford bets on an electric Mustang to charge its turnaround
The Mustang Mach E electric sport utility vehicle Ford Motor Co unveiled in Los Angeles on Sunday is more than another car for the storied automaker. The Mach E has become within Ford a high-profile test for a restructuring that has been marred by profit warnings, costly quality problems and the troubled launch this year of another important vehicle, the Ford Explorer sport utility. For Chief Executive Jim Hackett, the Mach E's aggressive design and futuristic interior represent a long-awaited, visible sign of the overhaul of the company's product creation process he has tried to explain to skeptical Wall Street analysts for the past two years.
- Bloomberg
Ford Unveils the Mustang Mach-E
Nov.19 -- Ford unveils the Mustang Mach-E, a battery-powered crossover designed as an alternative to Tesla models dominating the EV market. The car was revealed Sunday ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show.
Reuters VideosFord bets on electric Mustang to charge turnaround
It will be sacrilege to traditionalists. There wasn't a rumbling V8 engine in sight when Ford unveiled a new electric version of its Mustang late Sunday (November 17). The new version is also an SUV, not a sportscar. Dubbed the Mustang Mach E, it's a big test for Ford. Its turnaround efforts have been marred by profit warnings and quality problems. Asked if the company could make money with the new car, Chairman Bill Ford was bullish: (SOUNDBITE) (English) BILL FORD, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN OF FORD MOTOR COMPANY: "This vehicle will be profitable from the start. And so yes we can. Now the customers over time will tell us what they prefer. And we will let them lead us to ultimately what they desire." The Mustang brand has a long association with the movies. Think Steve McQueen tearing round San Francisco in Bullitt. On Sunday a new-generation star was on hand. But British actor Idris Elba said it was more than just another corporate gig for him: (SOUNDBITE) (English) IDRIS ELBA, ACTOR, ON HIS PARTNERSHIP WITH FORD, SAYING: "Listen, I used to work for Ford. My dad worked for Ford as employees. I did two years on the night shift. When they were launching this car, the legacy of a Mustang, the fact that it's an all electric car, it felt like a natural place for me to jump into the endorsement area of working with a car." The Mach E will start at about 43 thousand dollars. That's likely to put it in direct competition with Tesla's upcoming compact SUV - the Model Y. As for any customers missing an engine growl, Ford has a solution. The Mach E can generate noise in three modes - Whisper, Engage and Unbridled.
- Bloomberg
Ford Unveils Electric Mustang SUV to Challenge Tesla
Nov.18 -- Ford has unveiled the Mustang Mach E, an all-electric SUV and next generation of the iconic mustang brand. Bloomberg’s Ed Ludlow reports from Los Angeles.
- Bloomberg
Ford CEO Says Electric Mustang Will Bring Instant Profit
Nov.18 -- Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett says the Mustang Mach E, an all electric sports utility vehicle, will be profitable from the first car. Hackett spoke to Bloomberg’s Ed Ludlow at the Mach E unveil event in Los Angeles.
