Electric Vehicles

[snizzle]

Marketing folks are bored.

[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by Capricio

Still the same universal skateboard "ultium" chassis for everything, from subcompacts to full size trucks, though, right? Just different cells inside?

Correct. That’s why they have to stop calling the platform Ultium. Because some of them will have non-Ultium batteries in them. And technically, there are two platforms with a 3rd likely to come soon. There is the BEV3 platform that currently carries everything from Equinox EV to Lyriq. Next Gen Bolt might also be on this one. The other one is underpinning Hummer, Silverado EV, Sierra EV, and Escalade IQ.

[90503]

Originally Posted by snizzle

Marketing folks are bored.

I never really thought there was much to market one brand from another when it comes to EVs and especially their batteries anyhow.

To their credit, GM seemed to peddle the "Ultium" as their bread and butter selling standard for EVs, perhaps as a confidence inspiring feature of some sort of superior engineering...Not so much now, perhaps.

What an EV platform, or battery make up consists of or is called, couldn't be less interesting. Why bother?

GMs EV batteries seem like they are following the archaic, confusing and no reason to try and figure out template of the Cadillac nameplates and engine delineations....lol

Nice info if you want to get into the weeds, but trying to make it a popular topic with the car buying public seems like an exercise in futility, especially if it all changes month to month.

My $.02.

[Capricio]

Meanwhile, over in EV motorcycle land....

https://www.theautopian.com/electric...-enough-bikes/

How rough is it for LiveWire? The company sold exactly zero of its flagship LiveWire One motorcycles in 2023. LiveWire is expected to burn up to $115 million of Harley-Davidson’s money by the end of this year and still end up selling well under 1,000 motorcycles doing it.

According to LiveWire, the motorcycles aren’t even bringing in that much money. In the third quarter, LiveWire sold $3.2 million in children’s balance bikes compared to just $1.2 million made from selling 99 electric motorcycles.

[GreenZLE]

Originally Posted by Capricio

Meanwhile, over in EV motorcycle land....

https://www.theautopian.com/electric...-enough-bikes/

All this electrification and elimination of sedans and V8's is like watching a slow moving plane crash.

Wait 10 years. All the people who were touting this as "what the market wants" will be nowhere to be found just how it is with all the other marketing failures throughout the years.

[genxer]

The slow moving plane crash is an intentional farce. The Cantillon effect. It's a money-changing regime in action, that is still finding zero emmission bagholders, and probably trading into better energy choices at a discount, while seeking the next inflation grift.

[Mr_Draco]

Originally Posted by Capricio

Meanwhile, over in EV motorcycle land....

https://www.theautopian.com/electric...-enough-bikes/

And it's totally because of price and target audience.

An ev motorcycle equal to a 650-700 would be great for me. I would love to have a Zero but I'm not spending $30k for a new bike or $20k for a used one. They are great bikes but the price is out of this world for what they are. Not to mention there is only like a dozen dealers in the US where you can even buy one.

LiveWire designs and markets their bikes towards Harley owners, not to mention costs more than a Harley. A typical Harley owner does not want an ev. They mostly buy a Harley for the sound and for the community.

What I did not see mentioned in that article was how Kawasaki's new ev's and hybrids are selling like hot cakes and they can't seem to make them fast enough because they are actually affordable and can be easily gotten.

[Capricio]

Originally Posted by Mr_Draco

And it's totally because of price and target audience.

...so, nothing the government couldn't solve by throwing in some free cheddar? Maybe toss in some increasingly tight emissions regs? Get those sales numbers right up where they should be.

[GreenZLE]

Ford announced they are cutting EV Truck production for 6 weeks because apparently the public doesnt love EV enough to by em all.

Government mandates cannot will the public to accept this trash.

[olrocker]

Originally Posted by GreenZLE

Ford announced they are cutting EV Truck production for 6 weeks because apparently the public doesnt love EV enough to by em all.

Government mandates cannot will the public to accept this trash.

Those mandates may be about to be ransacked.

Could end up wrong of course, but things look cautiously optimistic.

[snizzle]

Originally Posted by GreenZLE

Ford announced they are cutting EV Truck production for 6 weeks because apparently the public doesnt love EV enough to by em all.

Government mandates cannot will the public to accept this trash.

Except when nothing else is left for sale, at least new. That's the goal.

Originally Posted by olrocker

Those mandates may be about to be ransacked.

Could end up wrong of course, but things look cautiously optimistic.

I don't know. I think this would be a softball for Rs if they had nominated anyone else. I'm all for limited gov, especially in this case, less regulation and smaller scope/influence. The reality is that the automakers are going to continue down this path no matter who is in the WH. They may pull back the reins a little if the economic and regulatory policy is friendly but look at all the new ICE vehicles introduced, they are all on revised existing platforms, we know where the money is being spent.

[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by GreenZLE

Ford announced they are cutting EV Truck production for 6 weeks because apparently the public doesnt love EV enough to by em all.

Government mandates cannot will the public to accept this trash.

Ford’s inability to sell more Lightning is not an indication that “the public doesn’t love EV enough…”

The last quarter ended as the highest quarter ever for EV sales in the US. Up 18% from the same quarter in 2023 and up 5.3% from 2nd quarter 2024. Ford’s problem is that the CyberTruck is outselling it. Even at an average transaction price of $116k. GM has seen EV sales increase 60% year over year. This is not as big a deal as it sounds because last year this time the only GM EVs that were available were Hummer EV and Cadillac Lyriq. Adding Blazer EV and Equinox EV brought most of the increase and Silverado EV even helped a bit. GM is now in the process of launching the rest of the EVs that they’ve delayed over the past two years, so expect their sales to continue to grow. In the meantime, Ford only has Mach E and Lightning in their EV portfolio.

[olrocker]

Originally Posted by snizzle

Except when nothing else is left for sale, at least new. That's the goal.



I don't know. I think this would be a softball for Rs if they had nominated anyone else. I'm all for limited gov, especially in this case, less regulation and smaller scope/influence. The reality is that the automakers are going to continue down this path no matter who is in the WH. They may pull back the reins a little if the economic and regulatory policy is friendly but look at all the new ICE vehicles introduced, they are all on revised existing platforms, we know where the money is being spent.

The money has already been earmarked for EVs but:

1. The market is saturated now, all the people who actually sought them out have them.

2. The rest of the general buying public just want simple, easy to own and refuel ICE.

If car companies can’t be profitable on low low sales/low production of EV they’re just going to have to go back to putting their investments all in ICE or simply go out of business.

[GreenZLE]

Originally Posted by Martinjlm

Ford’s inability to sell more Lightning is not an indication that “the public doesn’t love EV enough…”

The last quarter ended as the highest quarter ever for EV sales in the US. Up 18% from the same quarter in 2023 and up 5.3% from 2nd quarter 2024. Ford’s problem is that the CyberTruck is outselling it. Even at an average transaction price of $116k. GM has seen EV sales increase 60% year over year. This is not as big a deal as it sounds because last year this time the only GM EVs that were available were Hummer EV and Cadillac Lyriq. Adding Blazer EV and Equinox EV brought most of the increase and Silverado EV even helped a bit. GM is now in the process of launching the rest of the EVs that they’ve delayed over the past two years, so expect their sales to continue to grow. In the meantime, Ford only has Mach E and Lightning in their EV portfolio.

Sure it is. Companies make sales predictions and if they were close, Ford wouldnt be shutting down production. Car companies are switching back to more hybrids in an effort to improve sales of what the public doesnt have the appetite for, 100% EV's. The continued strong sales of foreign ICE powered vehicles, including sedans that we've been told nobody wants is even more proof. Lightning got a huge black eye from the account of a guy trying to make a cross country trip in one and not being able to charge it. I've even heard a certain future government official say the government mandates for EV's will go away, which will further decrease sales. Really, that right there probably has as much do do with Ford shuttering production as current lack of demand. I suppose we'll know if Ford's timeline for producing these again arrives.

Do people want to buy EV's? Sure, but they dont want to buy on the scale thats being ram rodded into inventory.