Turns out building SDVs profitably isn't nearly as easy as everyone predicted (though those of us who actually know something about this topic have been saying this all along of course). I LOL'd at all of the articles over the past few years saying how GM would take over the BEV space within a few years. How long until GM makes the same move Ford just did?
The Tesla moat indeed remains strong, again, as those of us who follow this segment closely have been saying all along. The legacy manufacturers cannot do it, at least here in the US, they gave it the old college try using the same tired old supplier based approaches for vehicle assembly, spending tens of billions in the process, only to come to the same inevitable conclusion that I've been saying on here for years now - they won't be able to do it using the same tired old engineering processes used for the past 50+ years. Building electrified vehicles using a core ICE design simply doesn't work. What Ford just announced is living proof of this fact.
IMHO the long-term impacts of these decisions will eventually result in the demise of legacy big auto here in the US, and no I'm not exaggerating, at least in their current form as those who build ever better BEVs continue to eat away at legacy auto market share. It won't happen tomorrow, but five years out from today, let's check back in and see where things stand - think back five years ago and see just how different things were in 2020 as but one real world example. Tesla is pushing ahead faster than ever now, with FSD Unsupervised in testing in Austin as we speak (several robotaxis are actively on the roads now with no safety monitor in the vehicle). Driverless vehicles are on the horizon, and the world will never be the same, not if but when they take hold. Those who argue that legacy autos can do the same thing, nope, they cannot, because of their lack of vertical integration that prevents all systems within the vehicle being homogenized and all controlled via one centralized computer via CPU/software - hence the term SDV. Ford gave up. Is GM next? Only time will tell.
- a more mainstream design would likely sell better - though the high price is also a big part of why the current version doesn’t sell. Same reason the F150L is being discontinued, price is too high. Likely the same reason GM will eventually cut their EV pickups. - a more mainstream design would likely sell better - though the high price is also a big part of why the current version doesn’t sell. Same reason the F150L is being discontinued, price is too high. Likely the same reason GM will eventually cut their EV pickups.
