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May I ask why? I just still have a hard time believing Ford is a serious player in the electric vehicle space.

danans 4y ago
You don't turn your two most iconic brands/vehicles into EVs and reorganize the company into a separate EV company and a non EV company if you aren't serious about EVs. That's what Ford did. The companies that aren't serious about them today are Toyota, Honda, and Stellantis.
- cellis 4y ago
  Also invested 500 million into Rivian.
  - chrisjc 4y ago
    but dwindling... https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2022/05/16/ford-unloads-another-7-million-shares-ev-startup-rivian/9794147002/ https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2022/0...
- thawaya3113 4y ago
  And Toyota and Honda are interesting because they are Japanese companies who were pushed by the government to ignore EVs in favor of hydrogen vehicles. The reason was simple. Most of the politically powerful Japanese companies are huge conglomerates who make a lot of money in heavy industry areas where until a few years ago hydrogen was an obviously better choice than electric powered motors, which meant that there was a lot of pressure on the Japanese govt to put pressure on the car industry to align in the same direction.
  - danans 4y ago
    > The reason was simple. Most of the politically powerful Japanese companies are huge conglomerates who make a lot of money in heavy industry areas There is also the fact that both companies were early innovators in making gasoline engines much more efficient with things like (non plug-in) hybrid drivetrains, so they have an interest in pushing gas focused technology.
jfim 4y ago
They've taken the popular F-150, made it electric, added a couple of convenience features (outlets and the ability to use the battery as a power source in case of a power outage), and didn't make it look different from a gas one.
- clouddrover 4y ago
  And the F-150 Lightning has a front trunk which is a useful, practical feature that the ICE versions won't get because they have an engine in the way.
- joezydeco 4y ago
  I like that saying: "I don't want an electric car, I just want a car that's electric"
edmundsauto 4y ago
For me, it’s because Ford has a long history that demonstrates they take care of owners for years after the purchase. Everything about Tesla and Musk especially tells me that they have no interest in anything after my initial sale, and will leverage hype to put me in a bad decision making context before that sale.
- thawaya3113 4y ago
  What, you think having no car to drive for a couple of days every few months as a Tesla salesperson takes a few days to come and repair your broken Model X that you paid 120k for is not a way to brilliant customer satisfaction? The fact that the Tesla forums blame my cousin for this (it’s still not clear what they are blaming him for, considering they don’t offer any suggestions about what he should do…maybe they’re blaming him for posting about it and therefore being anti Tesla?) makes it hard to believe that Tesla actually has any incentive to improve. And with the abuse my cousin received online for being horrible enough to ask folks for suggestion would indicate that many simply don’t talk about the BS a they face with their Teslas. A large part of it is a cult. It remains to be seen how much the cultish behavior can overcome the poor quality once real competitors come into play.
  - angulardragon03 4y ago
    Two camps of people. People who spend 120k on a car, and have high expectations for what that gets them, and people who spend 120k on a car, and aren't willing to accept that they may have made backed the wrong horse as it were. I definitely wouldn't consider it normal to be left without a car if your car needs repair (at least with most established car companies). In the EU, Model S orders have simply been halted, with the delivery dates constantly being pushed back (orders from end of 2020 have a ship date now of some time in 2022H2, but nothing firm). I know a few people who have since cancelled their orders and gotten other high-end EVs (think Porsche, Audi). Tesla absolutely will continue to lose hearts and minds over this.
    - BizarroLand 4y ago
ryathal 4y ago
There is only the vehicle space. Any sort of electric vehicle space is just a niche hobby space like drag cars or classic cars. we are just seeing the most likely scenario play out, once tesla gets serious competition from big manufacturers they start to fade. Hopefully the U.S. gets a standard charging law to force super chargers to be more open like in Europe.

You don't turn your two most iconic brands/vehicles into EVs and reorganize the company into a separate EV company and a non EV company if you aren't serious about EVs. That's what Ford did. The companies that aren't serious about them today are Toyota, Honda, and Stellantis.

cellis 4y ago
Also invested 500 million into Rivian.
- chrisjc 4y ago
  but dwindling... https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2022/05/16/ford-unloads-another-7-million-shares-ev-startup-rivian/9794147002/ https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2022/0...
thawaya3113 4y ago
And Toyota and Honda are interesting because they are Japanese companies who were pushed by the government to ignore EVs in favor of hydrogen vehicles. The reason was simple. Most of the politically powerful Japanese companies are huge conglomerates who make a lot of money in heavy industry areas where until a few years ago hydrogen was an obviously better choice than electric powered motors, which meant that there was a lot of pressure on the Japanese govt to put pressure on the car industry to align in the same direction.
- danans 4y ago
  > The reason was simple. Most of the politically powerful Japanese companies are huge conglomerates who make a lot of money in heavy industry areas There is also the fact that both companies were early innovators in making gasoline engines much more efficient with things like (non plug-in) hybrid drivetrains, so they have an interest in pushing gas focused technology.

jfim 4y ago

They've taken the popular F-150, made it electric, added a couple of convenience features (outlets and the ability to use the battery as a power source in case of a power outage), and didn't make it look different from a gas one.

clouddrover 4y ago
And the F-150 Lightning has a front trunk which is a useful, practical feature that the ICE versions won't get because they have an engine in the way.
joezydeco 4y ago
I like that saying: "I don't want an electric car, I just want a car that's electric"

edmundsauto 4y ago

For me, it’s because Ford has a long history that demonstrates they take care of owners for years after the purchase. Everything about Tesla and Musk especially tells me that they have no interest in anything after my initial sale, and will leverage hype to put me in a bad decision making context before that sale.

thawaya3113 4y ago
What, you think having no car to drive for a couple of days every few months as a Tesla salesperson takes a few days to come and repair your broken Model X that you paid 120k for is not a way to brilliant customer satisfaction? The fact that the Tesla forums blame my cousin for this (it’s still not clear what they are blaming him for, considering they don’t offer any suggestions about what he should do…maybe they’re blaming him for posting about it and therefore being anti Tesla?) makes it hard to believe that Tesla actually has any incentive to improve. And with the abuse my cousin received online for being horrible enough to ask folks for suggestion would indicate that many simply don’t talk about the BS a they face with their Teslas. A large part of it is a cult. It remains to be seen how much the cultish behavior can overcome the poor quality once real competitors come into play.
- angulardragon03 4y ago
  Two camps of people. People who spend 120k on a car, and have high expectations for what that gets them, and people who spend 120k on a car, and aren't willing to accept that they may have made backed the wrong horse as it were. I definitely wouldn't consider it normal to be left without a car if your car needs repair (at least with most established car companies). In the EU, Model S orders have simply been halted, with the delivery dates constantly being pushed back (orders from end of 2020 have a ship date now of some time in 2022H2, but nothing firm). I know a few people who have since cancelled their orders and gotten other high-end EVs (think Porsche, Audi). Tesla absolutely will continue to lose hearts and minds over this.
  - BizarroLand 4y ago

ryathal 4y ago

There is only the vehicle space. Any sort of electric vehicle space is just a niche hobby space like drag cars or classic cars. we are just seeing the most likely scenario play out, once tesla gets serious competition from big manufacturers they start to fade. Hopefully the U.S. gets a standard charging law to force super chargers to be more open like in Europe.