Ford writes off $20 billion EV venture. Vin-Fast, with $65 billion of investor money, fails completely.

Photo Above - the quaint Merry Oaks Baptist Church is being blamed for the failure of a $65 billion EV company. But the facts are more complicated, as usual. And taxpayers may have saved a bundle . . .

Ford’s value (market cap) was $54 Billion yesterday. Today it wrote off $20B on its failed EV ventures. Does that mean Ford’s actual market value is now $34 billion, and their stock should also fall 40% - from $13 to $8? I'm not holding my breath, although I do have a longstanding alert at Merrill if Ford returns to it's 52 week low ($8.12, in April).

Evidently Ford is killing off more than one EV. But the model dominating the headlines is the electrified F150 Lightnin' pickup. Turns out there’s NOT actually unlimited demand for battery trucks costing nearly $100,000. Who would have predicted THAT?

“Trump’s policies” gets the blame from Democrats for Ford's decision. But that’s BS. You can’t call an EV car or truck successful if people only buy it with a $7,500 bribe. Only 6,000 Lightnings were sold since the start of the year. Consumer demand was going to be unlimited, right? Owners would be desperate for bragging rights at the Home Depot parking lot on Saturday mornings.

Ford is also halting construction on its Kentucky Battery Plant (thank you again, taxpayer subsidies) as part of the write-off. Evidently those batteries are not only too expensive for vehicles, there’s no also demand for them as home “power wall” systems to store solar energy for use after sundown.

The culprit here is EV technology itself. It's still not affordable. Planet earth is still stuck with liquid sodium ion EV batteries. Which cost a fortune to assemble, weigh a ton, and catch fire when you least want it. The long promised (cheaper, better, lighter) solid state batteries are still nowhere on the horizon, despite dozens of announcements in the past 2 years about amazing breakthroughs.

In case you think I’m picking on Ford, you’re wrong. The biggest EV collapse this week was not Ford, or the continued cratering of Tesla sales. It was "Vin Fast", a company you never heard of. InVietnam. For a couple of months this EV maker was the “most valuable car company on earth”, because investors rushed to pour $65 billion into it. Headquarters in Hai Phong. $65 billion! To be fair to Vin Fast, they WERE talking up a possible North Carolina factory. But ran into opposition when their plan involved bulldozing a 2 room Baptist church built in 1888.

Or maybe the Vin Fast factory killed was because they were losing $3 billion a year on their cars. Politicians in North Carolina promised to shower $300 million in taxpayer money on Vin Fast for it’s proposed factory after seeing the artist's renderings. Taxpayers dodged a bullet this time. Vin Fast’s failure certainly has nothing to do with Trump’s policies either. They failed because of crappy design, lackadaisical assembly, and overambitious pricing. Let’s see if someone uncovers embezzlement and fraud too, okay?

I’m just sayin’ . . .

Ford retreats from EVs, takes $19.5 billion charge as Trump policies take hold

The electric Hummer is almost outselling the F-150 Lightning | TechCrunch

Is VinFast Going Out Of Business? - CarsDirect

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swirlie · 31-35

What you're talking about here are the effects of EV on the North American marketplace. In Sweden and other Scandinavian countries including central Europe, Swedish and Chinese-made EVs are highly successful and are considered by the CEO of Ford Motor Company to be the best EVs money can buy, of which Ford, GM and Stellantis cannot even attempt to compete with. This is why he is shitte-scared of Chinese EVs being allowed into North America. If that happens, the American auto industry is done.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@swirlie @SusanInFlorida Interesting... I'd not known of that.

It seems very strange for a country that likes to think itself so technically advanced, that its own motor industry has slipped behind an obviously growing and future part of the industry.

Could it be too little interest among American buyers though, for the manufacturers or (perhaps more likely the Wall Street shower) to risk investing in much EV development and production? Despite export potential?

swirlie · 31-35

@ArishMell
The problem is Mell, that somebody has to pay for the infrastructure to charge all these EVs that suddenly came rolling down the assembly line, so who should foot the bill for the installation of chargers? Should it be the auto industry or should it be the government?

As it stands now, the government wants to come out looking like the hero, but it doesn't want to spend any money for the infrastructure because after all, the government is not in the auto business!

At the same time, the auto industry currently gets no kick-back from each charge that is done to an EV at a charging station, so what's the incentive to forge ahead with EV technology in North America?

In Sweden when I was last there visiting some relatives (the same ones I introduced to turkey dinner!), the EV charging stations in Sweden are located 20 kms apart ..and are solar powered ..and were installed by the Swedish government ..and all charging fees generated from each EV charge go directly back to the government electronically.

Keep in mind, Americans are not innovators, they are consumers who are wholly dependent on the rest of the world to feed America's appetite for 'stuff'. It was not an American mind that put Neil Armstrong on the moon, it was a collective of German minds mated with German technology that was originally intended for Hitler's missile program in the 1940's that put US into space after Hitler's German scientists were given US citizenship after WWII if they'd come and work for the US government. And so off to America they went, since nothing was worth staying for in Germany after the war.

The only way that EV ground travel will be successful in America is if the US government stops pretending that they know what they're doing and they allow foreign masterminds to come into the US to set things up for them. If that doesn't happen, Americans will still be driving around in petrol-powered pickup trucks 40 years from now.