Just as a follow up, Ford's issue with electric vehicles is not sales, but profitability. Ford had a 53 percent increase in sales in 2023 from 2022. The Mach-E for example is a hot selling car, but Ford loses money on each and every one sold. So at this point, Tesla's price cuts are slowly bleeding other automakers, because they can't afford to cut prices, as they are already selling every vehicle at a loss.

I drove @swajames F-150 Lightning a few months back, and let me tell you, I'm not a truck guy but I absolutely loved it. I've driven a Chevy Silverado 1500 and a traditional F-150, and the Lightning is the best driving truck I've driven. Smooth instant torque, power that feels like it goes on forever, great road feel, and I believe it's the only F-150 with independent rear suspension. It has a Frunk the size of a regular trunk, and a ton of storage. I would never buy one simply because I would never utilize it properly, and it would never see any action other than Costco runs. A minivan is more in line for what we would ever need.

I would suggest critics of the F-150 Lightning at least take one for a test drive. Not to buy, but to get an idea of how good they drive, comfort,and road feel. You can't review a car (or truck) fairly without experiencing the drive for yourself, which is why I take time and drive other vehicles before making judgment on them

 

This is such smart management wish my country would pull their head out and do the same.

 

Cali's getting there 😀 EV'S are now 25 percent of new car sales

https://insideevs.com/news/688779/ca...sales-h1-2023/

 

I'm actually shocked. I thought Cali would easily already be over 50%.

 

It was around 8 percent in 2020, so that jump is pretty significant. It's going to be some years before it reaches 50 percent. Current infrastructure would not be able to support 50 percent adoption

 

Thank Toyota for that. They are huge in Cali but less than 1% of their cars are EVs.

 

a few key points:
- 90% of norway's energy comes from hydroelectric turbines saving them trillions.
- norway is a huge fossil fuel producer, not for domestic consumption, but to sell to neighboring countries (hypocrisy much?), and they've made a bundle once russia chose to cut off natural gas to much of europe
- the incentive they gave to consumers was eliminating their 25% sales (value added) tax on ev's making buying fossil car stupid unless you're loaded or have a unique need.

so it's a very unique situation unlikely to be replicated anywhere else.

 

A country with a sugar tax, yeah ok pass.

 

Not really unique, Canada is 60%+ electricity from hydro and 15% nuclear. We have probably 100x more oil than Norway. You can call it hypocrisy if you want but that hypocrite is in fact you and me the consumer. Don't start calling countries hypocrites for moving to cleaner transport when you're using oil yourself. What's better, consuming oil and doing nothing to move away from oil, or producing oil as cleanly as possible while moving to sustainable energy. Guess what country produces the most oil ? Last I checked USA is what, 10% electricity from renewable energy? Might want to ease up on the hypocrisy accusations.

Leveraging natural resources to transition to sustainable energy is about the smartest thing ever. And it's a blueprint for other locations to model.

 

If I had a natural resource like oil, heck, I would sell it. I would than use it fund clean energy projects like Nuclear, wind and solar

 

But Norway brags that they are already 100% renewable. Why are they still selling oil, and a LOT of it? And drilling for more?

 

Getting into debate content territory folks.

 

This is one of the unintended consequences of market intervention with the artificial carbon credit market. ICE manufacturers literally funded Tesla's dominance. The thumb was put too heavily on Tesla's side of the scale, and now ICE manufacturers can't be profitable and compete.

Dealers trying to mark them up $20K didn't help either.

 

LOL, no…….

 

Maybe not that dealership, but deals are out there on Lightnings. Last month I passed on a new '23 XLT with the 312A package (MSRP $62,490) at a $46,490 net price after an $8500 dealer discount and a $7500 point of sale Federal tax credit.