Ford to announce $3.5 billion EV battery plant in Michigan

[GDN]

The gas truck is being totally redesigned the year after the next gen Lightning goes into production. Ford, from what I'm told, doesn't want to spend the time or money electrifying it because they will have a platform specifically for electric trucks.

This makes sense. Ford has to stop and reexamine everything they do. While Tesla may not have a truck today and while the trucks may never compete when they do, the legacy builders have to examine Tesla. Tesla is eating their lunch on per vehicle profits, etc.

While comparing trucks last week with @TexasGardeningGirl and @LUXMAN - we had a Pro, an XLT and a Lariat side by side.

In one fairly significant piece - the tailgate, we noticed how there are two very different tailgates and sets of tail lights. Yeah they truly look similar, but there is different sheet metal on the outside of the Pro/XLT vs the Lariat and I'm guessing the Platinum. This also means different tail lights. Very very similar, but requires two different molds and untilmately two different part numbers, assembly lines, stock, etc. Those two items alone likely ran into the millions for multi-engineering, design, different machining and ultimately stock, assembly and now for the life of the trucks even duplicate ongoing parts for replacement.

That kind of stuff is what will put major pressure on Ford to streamline their lineups.

Some may dismiss Tesla because all the Model 3's or Y's look alike and there may only be 2 or 3 variants mainly in the battery and motor, but they work the assembly line hard and keep it streamlined and that drives major profit to the bottom line.

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