Ford Delays $12 Billion in EV Investments Due To UAW Strike Impact and Slow Consumer Demand

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 91 points –
Ford Delays $12 Billion in EV Investments Due To UAW Strike Impact and Slow Consumer Demand
driveteslacanada.ca

Ford Delays $12 Billion in EV Investments Due To UAW Strike Impact and Slow Consumer Demand::The 41-day United Auto Workers strike took a toll on Ford, leading to a $1.3 billion hit to its Q3 earnings, and forcing the automaker to reevaluate its electric vehicle (EV) strategy. One significant development [...]

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Oh no! Pay your workers more maybe?

And make the EVs affordable so they can be demanded?

Affordable? Are you in the market for a new Ford vehicle? What does your budget look like?

If you're in the US you can get into a Chevy Bolt for like ~$20k after the federal tax incentive, plus any state incentives that would apply in your situation.

If you're talking about Ford specifically, they're not going after the budget market because they're trying to play to their strengths - the F150 and Mustang. Neither of those brands are typically associated with being cost conscious, but the F150 has been the best selling vehicle in the country for 41 years now. The F150 Lightning is priced comparably to the gas powered option for similar features, and the Mach-E is right in line with the Mustang GT, which makes sense because let's be honest, nobody buys an ecoboost Mustang expecting to enjoy it.

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Just to put a number on it, the UAW cost increase is around $1000 per vehicle.

Ed: apologizes for the delay in the source. Here's a gift article from the nytimes Please un-downvote now, thanks

But I still can't vouch for the veracity of the claim. Mr. Lawler is Ford CFO.

"Mr. Lawler said on a conference call that the contract would raise the company’s labor costs by an average of $850 to $900 per vehicle."

Ford’s U.A.W. Deal Will Raise Costs While Easing Labor Strife https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/26/business/ford-uaw-contract.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6Ew.VpuI.7GTqA_SNwFxD

Yeah, that won't affect the cost. If Ford could increase the price of their vehicles by $1,000 and still sell them, they would be doing that right now. All this will do is eat into their profits.

Pretty much. Prices are set by supply and demand, but when you tack on a fixed cost across the board it does put upward pressure on the price.

That sounds wrong. Their factories and parts must be super cheap for labor to make up such as large portion of cost.

The UAW pres, I think, said labor was like 5% the cost of vehicles. They could double everyone's pay and still make ridiculous profits.

I would have thought it was more honestly. I know what team’s labor is and it’s north of that figure for $10K customer price.

$1,000 labor is 2% on a $50,000 vehicle. 1.5% on $75,000. Obviously I’m not looking at dealership markup, etc for ease of math. This just gives you an idea of what percentage that is.

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