Lordstown Motors is facing a successful year, Ford’s new, low-cost batteries will soon be fitted to the Mach-E and Kia is convincing its dealers to share. All that and more in Morning shift for Monday, March 6, 2023.
First device: Now to start selling
Lordstown begins building electric Endurance pickup trucks in September. At that point, it hopes to end 2022 with 50 deliveries. Instead burn 31 before quickly halting productiononly one to recall 19 of them.
Monday morning brings the startup’s latest financials and, as you might guess, it’s not a rosy picture. The company ended the quarter with revenue of $194,000, compared with the $1.29 million analysts had expected, per year. auto news. However, Lordstown at least has a substantial amount of cash to burn and minimal debt, so the startup doesn’t have to support life. It’s just, you know, selling trucks. From Search Alpha:
Lordstown Motors Corporation has no revenue in 2020 and 2021, and only a small amount of revenue in 2022 when it starts selling trucks. Operating income and operating cash flow are negative, although this is normal because the company hasn’t sold products for the whole year. However, a growing loss is a growing loss. Full data for the last 3 years, 2019-2021, does not paint a pretty picture. Operating income is a loss of just $15 million in 2019, $100 million in 2020, and nearly $400 million in 2021. Operating cash flow losses skyrocketed from less than $8 million in 2019. to around $100 million in 2020, rising to nearly $390 million in 2021. Net income wasn’t pleasant either, with losses of $15 million, $124 million, and over 400 million, respectively. dollars for 2019, 2020 and 2021. Despite these numbers, Lordstown can see a glimmer of light: its debts are around $13 million and cash over $200 million, which means unlikely to see a debt crisis set in motion for it to fail in the near future. But cash alone doesn’t remove concerns about the company’s growing losses.
G/O Media can receive commission
20% off
Rooftop Cargo Carrier
Double your trunk space.
Weatherproof and leakproof through rain, wind, snow, and even sand, this cargo protects belongings from the elements, just as your trunk would.
Barron’s even emphasized that Lordstown’s stock price had risen upward nearly 6 percent on Monday. While things are going badly — the company is trading at just $1.12 from its all-time high of $32 at the end of 2020 — at least Endurance has been in the works for a while. and that gives a certain confidence. It is remarkable that at the time Lordstown believed it would pump out more than 30,000 trucks annually Now. A lot can change for an EV startup in the next three years, especially when one of those years is 2020. Just ask Byton.
Gear 2: The right Ford battery for you
The vast majority of batteries in cars today use the chemical nickel cobalt manganese (NCM). These batteries are ideal for their energy density, allowing them to power longer journeys on a single charge. Ford will soon be adding that technology with lithium-ion phosphate (LFP) batteries to standard versions of the Ford Mustang Mach-E And Lightning F-150. The car manufacturer talked about the benefits of LFP cells for auto news in a story published on Sunday:
Ford says that in addition to lower costs due to more readily available materials, lithium iron phosphate batteries are more durable and can be fully charged more quickly. That makes them better for customers who primarily use their vehicles for frequent trips to work or school, or those who operate fixed-route fleets.
In contrast, nickel-manganese cobalt batteries can offer longer range and are more energy-dense, making them better for customers who take long-distance trips or need towing or hauling.
Despite the addition of a new battery chemistry, Ford electric vehicle customers will only continue to choose between standard batteries or extended range batteries. Charles Poon, Ford’s global director of electrification systems engineering, said electric vehicles with standard batteries will automatically receive the lithium iron phosphate chemistry while long-range models will continue to use batteries. manganese nickel cobalt.
In terms of cost, manufactured LFP batteries are estimated to be 30 to 40% cheaper than NCM batteries, simply due to the relative abundance of the materials required. Tesla will begin adding LCP cells to its lineup in late 2021 for shorter-range models, just as Ford plans. Dearborn is expected to begin shipping LFP-equipped Mach-Es in the spring, but the F-150 Lightning probably won’t receive the technology until 2024.
3rd gear: It’s about Sports Car
By now you may have heard that Germany and Italy have block the European Union’s plan to ban internal combustion engines by 2035 that there is no exemption for synthetic fuel engines. Germany and Italy are also home to two of the world’s most iconic fast car brands, Porsche and Ferrari. This is clearly not coincidental, because Bloomberg remind us:
Porsche holds a 12.5% stake in HIF Global, an e-fuel maker that operates a global pilot plant in Haru Oni, Chile.
Ferrari says its innovation program will focus not only on electric transitions but also on e-fuels, lubricants and coolants, “which will allow us to reduce emissions while continue to use the internal combustion engine to preserve our heritage.”
Ferrari sentiment is echoing throughout German politics, where leaders of the pro-business party FDP were once the driving force behind opposition to the internal combustion engine ban. Its leader, Christian Lindner, is a Porsche 911 fan, who has been criticized for frequently texting Porsche AG CEO Oliver Blume during alliance negotiations.
The FDP, the grassroots partner in Scholz’s three-party coalition, has been trying to bolster its position in government in recent months after a series of poor performances in regional elections and amid a growing political crisis. Support is declining in the polls.
Transport Minister Lindner and FDP Volker Wissing – who issued Germany’s threat this week to block EU legislation – are exploiting strong opinions in the country. About three-quarters of Germans want their next car to have an internal combustion engine, according to a November 2022 survey by Nordlight Research.
Wissing, Transport Minister for the Liberal Democrats, also said that “overly ambitious regulation” would make it “more difficult” for the European Commission to achieve its “high climate protection target”. . But the value of synthetic fuels to achieve those goals is at best unremarkable after you factor in the cost, the challenges of scaling up production and the fact that it will still contribute to pollution in cities. This is not about achieving the decarbonization goals; This is about protecting six-figure sports cars, because of tradition.
4th gear: UK’s automotive industry is recovering
February saw the number of new vehicle registrations in the UK increase by 26% year-on-year. Reuters:
New car sales spiked to 74,441 units in February, the seventh consecutive month of growth. [Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders] data, as easing supply chain shortages has brought the market closer to pre-COVID levels.
Plug-in vehicles account for about a quarter of registrations, with 488,000 set to hit UK roads this year, the industry body said.
The number of registrations decreased in only two segments last month – luxury and luxury vehicles – with sales falling by more than 15% and 6.3%, respectively, SMMT said.
This is the supply chain healing we’ve been promised for so long. guard adds that the numbers for February 2023 are only 6.5% worse than February 2020, the weak days of the previous period.
Gear 5: Kia dealers have learned to share
Speaking of supply chains, it turns out that when parts are hard to reach, tapping into the franchise network does a lot of good. Last summer, Kia started an initiative called D2D Express to move inventory between dealers as needed. Over the past seven months, it has helped dealers get the 10,000 parts they (and their customers) should have been waiting for. From auto news:
Chad Huffman, division manager for Luther Kia in Bloomington, Minnesota, is a fan of the new system.
“The D2D program works very well. I was able to get some parts ordered from other dealers that I couldn’t get from Kia,” Huffman said. “It helps relieve stress for some vehicles and customers here and vice versa. We can also help other dealers in other states because we have a decent stock of parts.”
This program allows dealers to review Kia’s national parts ordering system to find out where a part might exist. Kia handles the shipping costs and sends the supplier dealer a bonus for their support worth 15% of the part’s price.
car news goes on to say that D2D Express isn’t the first of its kind in the industry, although such programs have probably never been more useful than they are now. Teamwork — it makes your Kia work, among other things.
Reverse: The Forbidden 480
On this day in 1986 — 37 years ago — for the first time in public volvo 480 at the Geneva Motor Show, according to 365 Days of Driving. Another perfect wedge we’ve been denied in the US, with Design handling of Lotus to sweeten the deal.
Neutral: Why does it look like that?
Don’t kick Lordstown when it’s Lords-down but the dangerous thing looks silly. Why is it covered in solid weather? It’s like the free “electric truck” model you see on Blender, and I can’t help but think that this would lead to some demand problems if it hadn’t already.
