So I was led to believe that EVs were doing poorly a few headlines ago, but maybe its specific to Tesla?
The Detroit automaker Monday reported sales of 174,192 cars and trucks for February. The results included an 81% jump in EV sales and roughly 32% uptick in hybrid models. Sales of traditional internal combustion engines also increased, up 7.5% from the same month a year earlier.
+81% EV sales, mostly Mach-E and F150 Lightning. Hybrids are still doing great at +32% growth.
That’s interesting, they are making the Mach-E in Mexico where they previously built the Fiesta so the production capacity is there. It is a $50K+ vehicle and electrics are not practical for everyone yet due to infrastructure.
My understanding is that the Mach-E wasn’t designed to be efficiently manufactured. It was quick response to the rising popularity of the Model Y, and the high margins Tesla was getting for the car. Lots of off-the-shelf parts used which may not be the best fit, but were quickly available. I imagine Ford also has quite a few pollution issues with most of its line up being big trucks, so any EVs it puts on the roads means fewer emissions credits they have to buy.
A future refresh would likely cost much less to manufacture increasing Ford’s margin per unit.