Another automaker not named Tesla

So now we have 100% tariff on Chinese EVs.

What’s next?

The Chinese have lots of money. What if they tried to buy Ford Motor? Offer Farley a $1B bonus, and an extra sweetener to the Ford heirs that control much of the stock. I realize that, post-Musk, $1B is barely walking around money for a “JC”, but having it is better than not having it. :slight_smile:

That would be fun. GM and Strabismus howling about having to compete with Chinese technology, trying to line up pols to block the deal on “national security” grounds, but the heirs and Farley wanting all that lovely money.

Steve

2 Likes

I don’t see this happening.
The ICE infrastructure, the surrounding ICE supply web, the UAW/ey al… Put the “legacy” in Legacy Auto Company.

The DRAG of the “legacy stuff” on their margins are gonna kill the legacy companies as much as the EVs economic efficiencies to consumers.
Oh. And the “legacy way of doing business” too.

:traffic_light:
ralph

1 Like

Decades ago, there was a documentary on TV, something like “Quality, Or Else”. One of the segments was about Firestone. They interviewed a guy who had worked at Firestone for decades. He said that, if you had an idea that could improve product quality, or productivity, and took it to the old management, management would say “some are paid to think, and some are paid to work. you are paid to work”. About the same attitude I ran into when I had an idea “shut up and work”, as if management felt their manhood challenged by an underling thinking of something that they didn’t. The Firestone guy said that, when Bridgestone took over, the attitude changed 180 degrees. Bridgestone management welcomes employee input at all levels, because it helps everyone do better. If someone other than the ossified, Welchian, management took over at Ford, it would probably be a good thing for everyone, except the ossified, Welchists, at the top.

Ford bet heavily on EVs. So heavily that, with several states suing the government claiming a de facto EV mandate, Ford has filed a brief supporting the government, lest their EV investment go poof in a cloud of irrelevance.

Steve

1 Like

Pols (both state and fed) would find a way to stop it or otherwise make it very distasteful to complete such a deal.

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This is where it gets interesting. GM and Stabismus lobbyists bribing pols in DC, vs the Ford heirs and Farley, wanting all that lovely money.

Steve

Ford split it’s EV company off…

https://www.ford.com/ford-blue-ford-model-e/

That might make a China buyout easier?
Sino-ize the gains, socialize the Legacy?

LOLOL

:traffic_light:
ralph