Ek: $F EV Sales Soar 307% in AUG yoy

Investment Analysis Clubs Destiny Solutions Corporation
1

Ford EV sales soar 307% in August as automaker clinches second place in US market
Peter Johnson

- Sep. 2nd 2022 3:06 pm PT

https://electrek.co/2022/09/02/ford-ev-sales-soar-307-august…

Ford has poured significant effort into converting its fleet to electric, and it’s paying off big time. America’s best-selling automaker continues seeing strong demand for its EV models as sales grew another 307% in August.

Henry Ford revolutionized the industry, introducing the first moving assembly line in 1913 to boost production. After that, the company made the first-ever truck, the Ford Motel TT, in 1915. Now the company is moving to a new frontier, an all-electric one.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->

To dig deeper into the EV market, Ford introduced the F-150 Lightning, an all-electric pickup, to join its most-popular-in-US-by-a-longshot F-series lineup. Deliveries began in May 2022, and by August, Ford had delivered its EV truck to all 50 US states. The company is now struggling to keep up with demand as more and more orders are pouring in.

$F daily chart

https://schrts.co/MUKSCUzw

1 Like
2

If $F does begin to sell all EVs online, the dealers will be hopping mad. What to do for Ford? Buy out every dealership in America and then vertically integrate “service” into their structure just like Tesla?

This is going to get very interesting, very quickly.

By the way, that highlighted sentence below tells you about how “hot” the take up is of physical F-150 Lightnings which actually land on dealer lots. One must wonder what kind of deal Farley (the CEO) is swinging with dealers? “No obscene markups on MSRP and we’ll send you Lightnings?”

I have to travel into downtown Key West next week. I’ll stop and chat with my friend who sells for one of the major badges in Key West and see what he says about inventory. They’re still parking all cars diagonally on his lot to make it look like they have more inventory. My guess is they cannot get enough inventory due to shortages of everything, used cars, chips, parts, you name it.

https://electrek.co/2022/09/02/ford-ev-sales-soar-307-august…

After selling out initially, Ford reopened orders for the F-150 Lightning in early August with new pricing and updated colors. And then last week, Ford opened orders for the Mustang Mach-e, also featuring a price raise and two new colors.

The F-150 Lightning had its best month (again), selling on dealer lots in just eight days, its fastest turning vehicle. The EV truck sold 2,373 in August, 200 more than in July.

The Mustang Mach-e, on the other hand, is in heavy demand despite being on the market for over a year now. Mach-e sales reached 3,120, up 115% from August 2021. Yet, orders for the new Mach-e hit record levels of over 7,800 in the month.

1 Like
3

I see in the news that Buick is going to buy out a bunch of THEIR dealers and that Cadillace EV requirement is driving a lot of dealers out. And, of course, Ford has split their IC and EV businesses, which could be a first step toward leaving the dealer network with large trucks and not much else.

Tough time to be a dealer!

I don’t think the motoring public feels any sympathy though.

Rob

2 Likes
4

You got a link on that one, Rob? Holy hell, that’s exactly what I’m getting at. I’m busy charting for another 30 minutes. Otherwise, I’ll go off and see if I can find a link for this. You have to wonder why this isn’t blasted all over the tops of WSJ, Barron’s and Bloomberg. (Maybe this was big headline news during the past week or so and I missed it because I’m so busy taking care of health stuff.)

$GM beat $F to the draw on this? Oh mama, now we’re turning up the heat. You got to wonder how dealership friendly states (like Texas) are going to like this. They won’t even allow Tesla with its Austin factory to sell Teslas online in Texas (and this may have changed recently and I did not catch it.) So, Rob, let me get this right, Buick is going to deliver cars via online orders and maybe keep the dealerships as perhaps service centers or something like that?

Thanks for the heads up, Rob. I did not see $GM being first to try this.

5

Buick: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/gm-off…

Cadillac: https://insideevs.com/news/546467/cadillac-losing-30percent-…

I didn’t search to see if there is more recent info on Cadillac or any other dealer network, but I’d say the handwriting is on the wall at GM.

Rob

1 Like
6

Will GM get rid of ALL dealers?

That may be difficult. But they can make it difficult for dealers.

Will they move to a Tesla model in the sense of cutting out dealers entirely for at least SOME sales?

Unclear.

Rob

1 Like
7

Wow! From one of the links which Rob supplied, we also find out that Cadillac has reduced the number of its dealers by 40% since 2018 in its prep for the EV Revolution.

This is the beginning of a major sea change at dealerships.

Yeah, I could see Cadillac and Buick dealers (franchises) selling out to corporate early without a guidebook for how this might all play out.

This is very big news. Thank you, Rob!

My first hunch is the “vertical” integration by $GM will pay off big down the road as EVs become laden with subscription type services (even leasing) where the newly owned corporate dealership is taking care of minor repairs (tires, washer fluids, hepa filter changes, repairs to electronics, etc) and then upselling customers on in car subscriptions which corporate banks monthly.

I’m not sure my friend at the car dealers down in Key West is aware of any of this.

September 2, 2022
4:41 PM UTC
Last Updated 25 min ago
Autos & Transportation

GM to offer U.S. Buick dealers buyouts
By David Shepardson

https://archive.ph/6voHd

Sept 2 (Reuters) - General Motors Co (GM.N) said Friday it will offer all of its estimated 2,000 U.S. Buick franchise dealers buyouts as it moves to make the brand all-electric by 2030 in the United States.

The Wall Street Journal reported the news earlier, quoting Global Buick chief Duncan Aldred who is set to discuss the plans with dealers Friday in a virtual meeting. He noted shifting to EVs will require significant investments by Buick dealers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->

Further down in the article:

GM booked a total of $274 million in costs during 2020 and 2021 related to the effort to buy out Cadillac dealers who were not prepared to invest $200,000 to $500,000 per store in the equipment and training to support the brand’s shift to an all-electric vehicle lineup, planned by 2030.

1 Like
8

How cool is this tucked away sentence? Buick Electras from the 60s were like the size of a small battleships. Smooth rides down paved highways. Like floating along in a Lay-Z-Boy armchair with windows and a roof as you traveled America. Fond memories of these giants. Nothing electric about those old Electras. They drank petrol like a hard core gasoholic. Some of the carburetors on these monsters were so big you could only cover them with two hands, not one.

Future Buick electric vehicles in the United States and China will carry the Electra name, which dates back more than 60 years, along with an alphanumeric designator.