Yes, it's an ongoing theme with me, but didja see what I spelled there?
Didja? Huh? Huh?
Flameout Of Renewable Delusions = FORD
Because, boy, oh, boy - has that company's valiant effort to ride the government green grift to filthy corporate lucre heaven exploded in spectacular fashion. So much so that the flaming fall-out is going to be harder to extinguish than a semi-truckload of lithium-ion batteries in thermal runaway on the side of the interstate.
Ed hit this news when it broke Wednesday...
...How it's actually going, in Detroit:
Ford Motor is canceling plans for a large electric sport-utility vehicle and expects to take $1.9 billion in related special charges and write-downs, as automakers continue adjusting their EV plans because of softer-than-expected demand.
...but in the interim, there's been a chance for more information to come out that nosy folks like me can chew on and digest.
Maybe we can put together an even bigger picture of what's happening - maybe get a sense of, you know, just how much money's gone up in climate cult flames.
For starters, Ford is still in the process of building out its West Tennessee "Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center", aka BlueOval City. When announced in 2021, the TN campus Ford envisioned would contain not only a new electric vehicle manufacturing plant but also an adjacent battery manufacturing facility that would keep most of the EV production in-house.
Ford talked a big game about job creation and TN legislators, both local and state, bit on the deal, offering significant incentives for the company to locate its next-gen operations there.
Wednesday's news from Ford also contained program plans that impacted the TN plant, as the debut date for a super-secret electric truck (code-named: Project T3) scheduled to be built at the BlueOval City plant was delayed to the latter part of 2027, instead of the expected 2025 roll-out. Ford has been reassuring local officials and unions alike that they have every intention of building the vehicle there as agreed to...eventually.
No doubt, the thought of being on the hook defaulting on the substantial TN tax incentives they received is something Ford would like to avoid if they could.
...Production of Ford Motor Company’s electric next-generation pickup truck at its new West Tennessee plant will be delayed until 2027, the company announced Wednesday.
Construction on the new campus continues, and the Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center where the truck will be manufactured still plans to employ 3,000 workers, a Ford spokesperson confirmed. The campus’ battery plant — a joint venture between Ford and SK — will make up the remaining jobs needed to fulfill Ford’s promise that the campus would create 5,800 jobs. Tennessee lawmakers approved nearly $1 billion for the $5.6 billion project three years ago.
A spokesperson said Ford remains confident it will meet requirements set in that incentives deal.
“West Tennessee is a linchpin in our plan to create a strong and growing Ford in America. BlueOval City will be one of the most advanced manufacturing complexes anywhere in the world, and we are counting on the workforce in West Tennessee to produce advanced batteries starting next year, and then our most innovative pickup ever starting in 2027,” Ford President and CEO Jim Farley said in an emailed statement.
The TN battery operation is slated to pick up manufacturing the batteries for both the truck (when and if it starts production) as well as those for the new electric commercial van Ford is coming out with.
...The other BlueOval SK plant located at BlueOval City in Tennessee will produce cells starting in late 2025 for Ford’s new electric commercial van, which will be built at Ford’s Ohio assembly plant. Those cells will be used for the next-gen Project T3 pickup as well.
There is another Ford battery plant being constructed in Michigan, and this one has had its share of difficulties. There is an ongoing adversarial relationship with the locals, who, because Ford is in cahoots with a Chinese battery manufacturer for the project, do not want it in their backyard, period. Tohen there's Ford itself and their difficulties thanks to the continued lack of demand for EV products in general.
Once again, Ford's business bottom line is running up against handsome - well, actually overly generous - incentives handed out by the state of Michigan to build the factory.
Ford now needs to scale plans down because demand never materialized to meet their initial rosy projections. The project footprint itself has shrunk, as have their employment estimates. Those have already dropped from 2500 to 1700 workers.
The incentives Ford received and accepted to begin construction are all based on the big initial numbers.
Ford Motor Co. is rapidly shifting its strategies to enable the Dearborn-based automaker to hold onto its market share in the roiling electric vehicle market.
Amid many recent changes — like pausing a new electric truck and a three-row SUV, plus turning to more hybrid models — Ford is standing firm in its plans to build a new EV battery factory in Michigan.
BlueOval Battery Park Michigan, based in Calhoun County’s Marshall, is under construction now. It is among the most expensive EV-related projects announced for the state.
The original price tag was $3.5 billion before Ford said in late 2023 it would downshift its plans. The move was expected to trim at least $1 billion from the investment. At the same time, Michigan’s stake in the Marshall deal totals $2.2 billion in incentives.
...The automaker’s footprint in Marshall is just over 500 acres, the site plan shows, compared to the 730 acres originally planned.
This MI BlueOval Park is supposed to roll out those first batteries in 2026.
Gov Gretchen Whitmer said in November that the state would look into reductions in the project and make the appropriate adjustments in incentives, and in July, MI "slashed" $600M in state incentives due to the reduced workforce numbers for a factory that is only a shade over 20% complete at the moment.
I'm not sure that 2026 production will happen nor do I think that Gov Whitmer will stop writing tax-payer checks for climate cult boondoggles any time soon. They do seem to love burning through the cash up there without any real worry concerning the concept of "return on investment."
So far, it's been over a billion bucks for *checks notes* 200 jobs.
Michigan has spent $1 billion in corporate incentives and pledged hundreds of millions more for major electric-vehicle and battery projects that so far have created about 200 jobs, a Bridge Michigan analysis has found.
The payouts are a key plank in Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s platform to make Michigan a leader as the auto industry transitions from combustible engines. But as EV sales underperform and the industry faces an uncertain future, Michigan has few guarantees the projects will follow through on job-creation promises.
...The spending so far is roughly half of the $2 billion-plus Michigan has pledged since 2022 to five companies: Ford Motor Co., Gotion Inc., LG Energy Solution and Our Next Energy for battery factories, and General Motors Corp. for a battery factory and expanded EV production.
Whitmer announced the companies would invest $16 billion total and create 12,000 jobs. But all the projects are behind schedule and two have downsized, reducing best-case job expectations by 13%.
Gov Andy Beshear of Kentucky has his own Ford battery plant chugging along, one for which his state taxpayers have forked over $410M in incentives.
BlueOval SK, a joint venture between Korean battery maker SK On and US automaker Ford, will begin mass production of batteries at its first plant in Glendale, Kentucky, in the first half of next year, a company official said Wednesday.
“We are very excited about Kentucky 1 going online, the first of our three plants,” said Keli McAlister, external affairs director at BlueOval SK in an interview with The Korea Herald in Seoul.
None of these battery plants are operational yet. None of these officials in the States or, say, in Korea, will give anyone a hard date for opening.
...McAlister’s comments marked the first time for a company official to give a more specific timeline for the beginning of production at Kentucky 1.
Anyone nervous yet? Investors in these facilities should be sweating bullets, which includes you and me. Because we, the American taxpayer, are part not-so-proud owners of two uncompleted Ford EV battery plants and an EV truck assembly plant.
Massive battery plants planned in Tennessee and Kentucky for Ford’s electric vehicles are on track to receive up to a $9.2 billion federal loan in what would be the biggest award under the U.S. Department of Energy’s loan program since President Joe Biden took office.
The money for construction would secure a sizable chunk of funding for Ford’s big electric vehicle swing in the two states.
Ford’s plans include two battery plants in Kentucky and one in Tennessee, each through a joint venture with battery partner SK On, of South Korea. Additionally, there will be a Ford assembly plant in Tennessee able to build up to 500,000 electric pickup trucks a year. The companies are planning an $11.4 billion investment in the projects.
NINE POINT TWO BILLIONS OF DOLLARS
The American taxpayer is footing the bill for almost half of Ford's thrilling "big electric swing."
How 'bout them apples?
If you deduct the state incentives from what Ford was set to invest, we probably do come damn near half the money.
Foot on the scale, anyone?
And this company still loses $5.5B a year and over $44K on every swinging EV they roll off an assembly line.
The first mass market EV's in the UK were around 2010.
— Steve Loftus (@LoftusSteve) August 23, 2024
14 years later only 5% of the cars on the road are EV's.
The market has decided. https://t.co/lJxupUnLxt
As for Ford paying back the "loan" if things continue to nosedive...pfft.
If you buy that, I've got a battery plant in one of three states to sell you.
Yeah, I know - I'm a green grifting mogul.
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