When Government GEVeth, Government Can TakEV Away

GM, Ford and Stellantis all jumped on the EV bandwagon in compliance with President Biden's edict to shift to electric vehicles.  The edict came with the carrot of many government subsidies for doing so, including $7,500 direct to each consumer.

The problems that then ensued is that the infrastructure for such vehicles is still not in place even after billions spent by the Biden Administration to force such to be created - only to have it bogged down in  Democrat-created red tape that basically spent the funds to create jobs for Democrat functionaries with little actual results to show for it. Even Democrat cheerleader and mouthpiece John Stewart was appalled. Nor are the vehicles themselves suitable to fully replace ICE vehicles on a one-for-one basis.

But the market for electric vehicles was pretty much created and expanded by these edicts and subsidies.  Now that President Trump's administration has ended the taxpayer give-aways and drunken spending on electric cars, economic reality has set in.

The current limits on electric cars still make them a niche vehicle that are only good for certain conditions - and not for the Democrat-Greenie-demanded total replacement of internal combustion engine vehicles.

The results are that the manufacturers that went all-in and complied with the Biden Administration's edict and promise of government subsidies while ignoring economics and the actual current use case for electric vehicles are now realizing reality:

The Detroit News: Stellantis writes down $26.5 billion from EV investments

Yahoo Finance: What Ford Motor (F)'s $19.5 Billion EV Reset and Hybrid Pivot Means For Shareholders

 GM Authority:  GM Writing Down Another $6 Billion For Cutting Back On EV Investments

 Jumping on the Biden EV bandwagon cost the automakers over $58 Billion dollars so far and the losses continue to pile up.

Again, EVs do have some niche uses and appeal, but to expect based on government edict and the promise of tax breaks and subsidies alone that they would replace ICE cars and especially work trucks was foolhardy in the extreme. 

The Henry Ford Rouge Tour With Distinguished Visitors

I traveled once again to the Henry Ford Museum yesterday.

MrGarabaldi and his heir apparent had come to town to visit the Museum.

They arrived late Friday night so we met up at the museum Saturday morning at 9 when it opened.

First thing we did was the Rouge Factory Tour. The tour takes you to where they are currently building F-150 trucks.

The historic and storied Rouge Factory Complex is huge.

 This picture taken from the observation deck of the F-150 assembly building gives you an idea of the size of the complex - every building you see in this picture is a part of it.

They've made the site more green, with living roofs on some buildings and transforming what were slag-heaps into green-spaces.

We then entered the building.  The tour begins with you traveling to two different theaters.  The first gives a short film with the history of the Factory and Henry Ford. The second is an impressive show complete with lights, lasers, and robots,  that demonstrates how an F-150 is made.  Both were impressively well-done and set the tone of the tour very nicely.

You then head up to the observation deck, and we chatted with a knowledgeable and friendly docent who was a retired Ford employee, who gave a really informative chat as we  saw what was there.

Each F-150 gets driven on a test track after assembly:

Every 58 seconds while the factory is working, a new F-150 is born.

We then walked a catwalk above the factory floor and got to see the trucks being assembled, as they were working on Saturday.  No pictures or cell phone usage was permitted.  Watching the trucks being built on the assembly line was very impressive.  MrGarabaldi, with a background in automotive, provided some very knowledgeable color commentary about the process that made it even more interesting. The catwalk tour was 1/3 of a mile long and was only a portion of a side of the factory, which gives you an idea of how big the building is. Real big is an understatement. We got to see the line shut down for the lunch break, which was interesting to see everything go from humming alone to a dead stop in an instant.

After the catwalk, we got to examine a Ford F-150 cutaway that was neat to poke around.

MrGarabaldi's heir left the tour wanting to buy an F-150, and I understand that completely.

After the tour, we left the museum grounds briefly and I took them to a coney restaurant so they could get some local flavor.  The Coney Dogs were pronounced good and the Gyros received MrGarabaldis' stamp of approval.

We then returned to the museum and toured it until it closed. Lots to see.

From Ford's Quadracylce, the first commercial vehicle he made:

 

To the first Mustang and Taurus-

We saw the sweep of automotive history.

Not neglecting aviation, we also saw the Ford Tri-Motor and many other flying machines in the museum.

To complete the Planes, Trains, and Automobiles set, we of course, had to checkout the railroad section.

Once the museum closed, we exited and then headed off to Buddy's Pizza so the intrepid travelers could experience some Detroit Pizza, which was excellent as always at Buddy's.

It was a great short trip and great to see MrGarabaldi and his heir in person again.

A Huntsville Car For Keads

I was up in Toronto and Huntsville Ontario last week for some family things.

While walking along main street in Huntsville I passed by a Ford Mustang and remembering Keads' affection for the beasts, I took a couple pictures.

The owner saw me admiring the car and snapping some pictures and offered to pop the hood so I could snap one of the engine.

The car was in darn nice shape and looks like a nice example of Equus Caballus Fordae.

Union Members don't think Ford first

The Detroit News: UAW won't renegotiate after Ford deal fails

The United Auto Workers said Monday it will not return to the bargaining table with Ford Motor Co. to renegotiate concessions that were soundly rejected by a majority of 41,000 Ford workers.

The official tally released Monday by the UAW: 70 percent of production workers and 75 percent of skilled trades workers voted against the proposed changes.

. . .

Ford issued a statement saying it was "disappointed."

"The additional modifications we sought recently were designed to honor pattern bargaining and provide Ford with similar additional efficiencies as those ratified this year for our domestic competitors," said the statement by Joe Hinrichs, group vice president of global manufacturing and labor affairs.

Now the UAW-owned (partially) GM and Chrysler have a tremendous competitive advantage over the non-beholden Ford. Each of the Big Three having the UAW as its workers but two with a set of friendly terms for the government aid recipients GM and Chrysler ,and a not-so-favorable deal to Ford.

Expect Ford to have to ship work to non-union plants and overseas to keep competitive as it can't afford to do otherwise. Not good in the end for Michigan or the union workers themselves, but shortsightedness is what we've come to expect from all parts of the Big Three from management to workers.

Ford's UAW workers start to wake up to what their no vote really means

The Detroit News: Sterling Heights Ford UAW local may ask for revote -
Workers fear 'no' vote will lose axle work for site

Ford Motor Co. could shift work promised to its Sterling Heights axle factory as part of a tentative agreement with the United Auto Workers to a German supplier after the local union voted overwhelmingly against the deal, according to a union source.

Now, some workers there are organizing a petition urging UAW President Ron Gettelfinger to call for a revote.

Spurred on by union dissidents who say the time for concessions is over, rank-and-file members at plants across the country have cast their ballots against the proposed contract changes, which were negotiated by Ford and UAW leaders earlier this month. While the union has not released any numbers, people familiar with the situation said about 3,000 more workers have so far voted against ratification than have voted in favor of it.

Ooops,They just learned that when you vote to make yourself uncompetitive, you can't be surprised when management moves the work to where the company can be competitive.

As always, elections have consequences:

Under the terms of the agreement, Sterling Axle was supposed to get new rear-wheel drive work that would have added about 100 jobs. Now, union sources fear that work will be given to Getrag Corp., a German supplier with a nonunion factory in North Carolina. Local union leaders also were told Ford is considering outsourcing other components made at the plant, where 80 percent of workers voted against ratification.

Some workers are waking up to reality:

"I don't think people here really understood that the work we had been promised was contingent on ratification," said Sterling Axle UAW member Brian Pannebecker, who voted in favor of the agreement and is now helping to organize a petition in support of revote.

Hopefully the UAW Workers start to realize that shafting Ford with an uncompetitive agreement means a whole lot of drive-shafts will be built without them.

UAW set to kill the Blue Oval that laid the Golden Egg

Of course, it doesn't help matters that the UAW is now a major shareholder in Ford's two top American competitors - GM and Chrysler. So its no surprise they're not willing to give Ford the same breaks they gave themselves as co-owners.

The UAW seems to be arguing that since Ford isn't in as bad a shape as GM or Chrysler it shouldn't get the same deal they received from the UAW.

That the UAW is now having two sets of bargaining patterns, one with their co-owned, government run GM and Chrysler that is favorable to these automakers and now a separate deal with Ford that will put it at a disadvantage doesn't bode well -UAW, Ford deal is in jeopardy

If the proposed agreement is ratified, Ford workers -- like their counterparts at GM and Chrysler -- would not be able to take to the picket lines if they are unable to reach an agreement on any increase to wages and benefits during the next round of national contract talks in 2011.

As The Detroit News first reported Saturday, this was demanded by the Obama administration as a condition of its bailout of GM and Chrysler. The White House did not want to invest billions in taxpayer dollars to make those companies competitive only to see the gains reversed in the next round of negotiations.

If Ford does not receive a similar commitment from the UAW, it will be at a clear disadvantage once bargaining begins.

As ably noted in the Detroit News - UAW workers may derail Ford's success

Here, in the week before Ford Motor Co. hopes to maybe, sorta' report encouraging third-quarter earnings, a faction of its United Auto Workers membership is on course to torpedo a revised labor agreement -- proving, yet again, that bankruptcies and painful retrenchments aren't enough to shake some real-world sense into a deeply engrained sense of entitlement.

I mean, who'd have thought that the Blue Oval, still controlled by its founding family, had unwittingly become a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation masquerading as a struggling titan of Wall Street? Or that some in the UAW mistakenly believe they're "co-determined," in the German corporate sense, to steer Ford's corporate strategy?

Deep into voting on contract terms that include a qualified "no-strike" clause, it's not looking good for FoMoCo right about now. Nor is it looking good for UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and the head of his Ford Department, Bob King, both of whom have their fairly significant credibility strapped to a deal that could go down to defeat.

If it does, what it says about a chunk of the union's rank-and-file will extend far beyond what it means for their employer, now beset with the heaviest debt load and least competitive work rules of Detroit's three automakers. Let me repeat that: Ford, the darling of Motown, now is carrying more debt and less competitive work rules than its rivals.

Rejecting Ford's proposed deal would keep it that way for two more years -- at least. What that says is that too many around here still don't get how precarious Ford's comparatively promising future really is.

They don't get that you can't force unequal terms on competing entities -- in this case, breaking the "pattern" that has bound UAW members together since the days of Walter Reuther -- and expect Ford to compete fairly with rivals from General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC to Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.
. . . .
And it bolsters the anti-Detroit argument, aired so effectively during last year's auto bailout hearings in Congress, that too many of this town's auto folks still operate in a parallel universe unhinged from the real world inhabited by the rest of us.

It is a very good editorial, so go forth and read the whole thing.

The UAW shortsightedly seems determined to kill the last surviving non-government owned American car manufacturer.

Ford Going back to Soybeans

An interesting article in the Detroit Free Press today, that Ford will be using a new foam made from 40-50% soybeans in its Mustang Seat Cushions.

The benefits seem clear - reduced use of petroleum and it apparently uses less energy to produce, making it an economically viable choice.

As a historical aside, this is not the first time Ford has used soybeans in its vehicles. Around the time of the Great Depression, Ford began using soy as a way to get money to farmers so they could afford his vehcles. Some of the products Ford made from soy at the time were:

SOY BEAN OIL

o Enamels used on Ford Bodies
o House Paints
o Varnishes
o Linoleum and Oil Cloth
o Printers Ink
o Glycerin
o Fatty Acids
o Soap
o Foundry Sand Cores
o Vegetable Shortening
o Oleomargarine
o Diesel Fuel

OIL–FREE SOY MEAL

o Molded Parts
o Horn Buttons
o Gear Shift Knobs
o Distributor Parts
o Light Switch Assembly
o Timing Gears
o Glues and Adhesives
o Water Paints
o Core Bonds
o Plywood Glues

SOY BEAN STALKS

o Mbers–Pressed Boards
o Furfural

Source Copy of a publication of The Edison Institute of Technology Dearborn, Michigan at www.hbci.com/~wenonah/new/soybean.htm

Nice to see Ford going back to its roots.