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Like other car companies, Ford has expressed uneasiness about the EV market and buyers’ ability to pay up for the technology as the space becomes more crowded with competitors.
Through the first three quarters of this year, Ford has lost $3.1 billion in operating profit on its electric and software division, already
surpassing its earlier projection that it would lose $3 billion this year on the unit.
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During the Q3 2023 earnings call, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, revealed that the construction of the company’s Giga Mexico factory has been delayed. Musk stated that while Tesla is laying the groundwork and preparing for construction, the current economic environment, particularly high interest rates, has made them take a cautious approach.
Musk expressed concern about the high interest rate environment and emphasized the need to assess the global economy before proceeding with the project.
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The union said the deal includes a 25 percent increase over the course of the new contract. It raises the top wage for workers by over 30 percent to more than $40 an hour, the starting wage by 68 percent, and the wage for temp workers by over 150 percent. The agreement entails improvements for current retirees, members with pensions, and members with 401(k)s.
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Granholm's trip through the southeast, from Charlotte, N.C., to Memphis, Tenn., was intended to draw attention to the billions of dollars the White House is pouring into green energy and clean cars. The administration's ambitious energy agenda, if successful, could significantly cut U.S. emissions and reshape Americans' lives in fundamental ways, including by putting many more people in electric vehicles.......
Granholm's entourage at times had to grapple with the limitations of the present. Like when her caravan of EVs — including a luxury Cadillac Lyriq, a hefty Ford F-150 and an affordable Bolt electric utility vehicle — was planning to fast-charge in Grovetown, a suburb of Augusta, Georgia.
Her advance team realized there weren't going to be enough plugs to go around. One of the station's four chargers was broken, and others were occupied. So an Energy Department staffer tried parking a nonelectric vehicle by one of those working chargers to reserve a spot for the approaching secretary of energy.
That did not go down well: a regular gas-powered car blocking the only free spot for a charger?
In fact, a family that was boxed out — on a sweltering day, with a baby in the vehicle — was so upset they decided to get the authorities involved: They called the police.
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According to a California Energy Commission assessment, California will need more than 2.4 million public chargers to accommodate about 15.5 million electric cars, trucks, and buses by 2035. That breaks down to 2.11 million chargers (including 83,000 fast chargers) to support 15.2 million electric cars, as well as 256,000 depot chargers and 8,500 public chargers for 377,000 trucks and buses.
The 2.4 million chargers would serve only half the registered vehicles in the state. Many more will be necessary to complete the second half of the transition, from 15.5 million EVs to more than 31 million EVs by mid-century.
Those chargers will have to be installed at curbsides, parking lots, parking decks, grocery stores, restaurants, convenience stores, big box stores, office buildings, strip malls, shopping centers, movie theaters, and a host of other locations so that drivers always have ready access to plug-in.
By comparison, California now has about 11,000 gas stations, convenience stores, and other businesses that sell gasoline, which roughly converts to about 110,000 individual gas nozzles, according to an estimate by Jeff Lenard, vice president of Strategic Industry Initiatives at the National Association of Convenience Stores. That means the transition from fossil fuels to electrons will require California to install at least 20 EV charging ports for every gas nozzle by 2035.
