1364: 04 Feb | Ford Confirms F-150 Lightning Deliveries On Track - a podcast by EV News Daily

Show #1363

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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Friday 4th February. It’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story so you don't have to.

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The automaker’s fourth-quarter net income swung to a $12.3 billion profit from a $2.8 billion loss during the last three months of 2020. That included an $8.2 billion gain on its investment in electric vehicle start-up Rivian Automotive. After backing out that and other items, like taxes, Ford’s adjusted earnings came to $2.0 billion for the fourth quarter.

Ford owns about 12% of Rivian.

The automaker said it expects to spend between $7 billion and $8 billion, up from $6.2 billion in 2021, as Ford executes CEO Jim Farley’s Ford+ turnaround plan and accelerates its transition to electric vehicles. That includes launches of electric versions of the Transit cargo van and F-150 pickup.

Ford had $36.5 billion in cash and investments to end last year, including $10.6 billion in its Rivian stake. However, that valuation is based on Rivian’s stock at $103.69 per share. The stock closed Thursday at $60.36 a share.

a second-quarter launch for the electric F-150 Lightning remains on track

"Financial performance is obviously critical," CEO Jim Farley said in a statement. “We’re also proud that customers see how Ford is taking EVs mainstream, and have already ordered or reserved more than 275,000 all-electric Mustang Mach-E SUVs, F-150 Lightning pickups and E-Transit commercial vehicles — and we’re breaking constraints to deliver every one of them as fast as we can.”

Ford ended 2021 as the No. 2 seller of EVs in the U.S., behind market leader Tesla Inc., an achievement Farley described as “an important early step toward eventually being the true EV leader.”  The company has said it aims to boost EV manufacturing capacity to at least 600,000 units by 2023 and it's targeting at least 40% of its lineup being fully electric by decade's end.

“We really see the ICE (internal combustion engine) business as a strategic advantage as we go forward, and as we manage that and continue to improve that business and generate significant amounts of cash flow, we’ll leverage that and invest in the growth business with our BEVs.”

Farley noted the automaker's planned plant in Tennessee "will produce Ford's second generation of a full-size electric pickup in high volumes starting in 2025.""The velocity of change at Ford is increasing," he told analysts. "We’re not seeking half-measures. Fear of change and risk has never served legacy automakers well in the past couple decades. We’re done with incremental change. We have a clear plan, a bias for action and a whatever-it-takes mindset.”

Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -7.81% disclosed overnight that it boosted its stake in electric-vehicle maker Rivian Automotive Inc. RIVN, -6.16% to more than 18% and initiated a stake in self-driving software company Aurora Innovation Inc. AUR, -3.66% of more than 5%

That would be enough to make the ecommerce giant Rivian's largest shareholder, according to FactSet; Ford Motor Co. F, -3.59% is the fifth largest with a 10.7% stake.

Teslas are unexpectedly slamming on their brakes in response to imagined hazards — such as oncoming traffic on two-lane roads — which has prompted their terrified owners to lodge a surge of complaints with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over the past three months, according to a Washington Post analysis of federal auto safety data.

The phenomenon, known as “phantom braking,” has been a persistent issue for Tesla vehicles.

The automaker was forced to recall a version of its Full Self-Driving software in October over false positives to its automatic emergency-braking system that it said were triggered by the software update. Complaints soared after the recall and remain elevated, signaling continued owner concern.

In addition to the safety recall in late October, the timing of the complaints coincides with a period in which Tesla has stopped using radar sensors in its vehicles to supplement the suite of cameras that perceive their surroundings.

Tesla is once again grappling with large-scale software quality issues. The Associated Press reports Tesla has issued a recall for 817,143 cars over a flaw in seat belt chime functionality. All Model 3 and Model Y cars, as well as 2021 and newer Model S and Model X cars, have a “software error” that prevents the chime from sounding on startup if the chime was interrupted and the seat belt wasn’t fastened.

The automaker plans to fix the seat belt chime bug by releasing an over-the-air update sometime in early February.

South Korean testers first discovered the problem on January 6th, and Tesla decided a recall was necessary on January 25th following an investigation.

While this recall is relatively minor, its timing couldn’t be much worse for Tesla. It comes just a few days after a recall for a Full Self Driving bug, and while the NHTSA is investigating a string of incidents where cars using Autopilot crashed into emergency vehicles.

Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) on Wednesday applied for a permit to extend its existing Austin-based car factory with a building to produce cathodes for battery manufacturing, according to city filings and a spokeswoman.

An application submitted on Wednesday for an Austin building permit under the program name "Cathode" listed the Colorado River Project LLC as a co-applicant. That is the name Tesla has used throughout the permitting process for its new Texas factory on the state and local level.

According to the city filing, it would have the size of nearly 1.6 million square feet.

Hyundai reports that it sold 47,872 vehicles last month, which is 10% more than a year ago and the new highest January sales total in the company's history. Out of that, 989 Hyundai Ioniq 5 were sold last month, which is already over 2% of the total volume.

Together with 153 units sold in December (customer deliveries started on December 15), there are now more than 1,100 Ioniq 5 on the road.

Currently, Hyundai Ioniq 5 offer includes several versions in the U.S., although the entry-level version with a 58.2 kWh battery will enter the market later (Spring 2022).

Demand for new cars remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels but sales of electric models continue to buck the trend.

Sales of battery electric vehicles increased by 130.6% year-on-year

One in five new car buyers last month chose a plug-in vehicle.Battery electric vehicle registrations were up 130.6% year-on-year, while demand for plug-in hybrids grew by 47.3%.

I’m taking a break this weekend so won’t have the time on Saturday and Sunday to do this, it’s back next week.

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