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Ford Pro just launched the pilot program for their new 2022 E-Transit. This is a 100% electric cargo van tailored for commercial use. Penske Truck Leasing and National Grid are among the first companies to participate in the program. Ford has not disclosed any other companies involved or given much info on how many vehicles are in the program. This program is not only giving access to the vehicles early it is also letting them try out Ford Pro connected software, the BlueOval charge network, as well as special EV chargers designed for the Ford Pro line of vehicles. Keep in mind that these are some of the first real world implementations of completely electric vehicles for commercial use. It is easy to forget that when everyone is already discussing timeframes to change 100% of vehicles sold to this new technology. I know every time I try to implement a huge change in my life or my business there are unforeseen problems and sometimes these issues are big enough to require a complete rethink how to make the change or in some cases even revert back and start over with a new idea. I am worried that there has been too much money invested at this point for there to be an objective evaluation of current EV technology in business and commercial use. Considering that countless billions of dollars have been spent to get to this point, the odds of getting an unbiased evaluation from these companies that were hand selected by the manufacturer to test this product is basically zero. I have a feeling that the major issues and any downside to EV ownership will rear its head long after the auto manufacturers have cashed in and individuals and businesses will be left to deal with the consequences.
GM announces that the Chevy Bolt plant in Orion Township Michigan will take 3 more weeks of downtime this month as GM struggles to work through all of the recalls on the Bolt’s battery. These batteries have caused a ton of damage and are prone to catching fire. GM has been selling the Bolt in the US since 2017 and are still experiencing major issues with trying to implement EV technology into a tiny subcompact commuter vehicle. GM is also working on their first pre production batch Brightdrop EV600 EV delivery vehicles. We are supposed to believe that these companies are ready to take on a commercial work van that weighs 10,000 lbs loaded with equipment with huge batteries, much larger than the ones in the Bolt.
A company that is kicking all sorts of butt over the last year is Toyota. They are up almost all tracked metrics over last year even with some output cutback and closures due to the pandemic. I am still trying to find out how they have managed this when Ford and GM seem to be swirling the bottom of the toilet bowl when it comes to sales and profit numbers. As far as I can tell Ford and GM are either incredibly mismanaged or they are tanking numbers on purpose. Although they seem to be playing the PR game much better than Toyota as Ford’s stock ticker is up almost %150, GM is up almost 60% and Toyota has only managed a 30% stock increase in the last 12 months. Although both Ford and GM are struggling to get products in the hands of their customers they have both taken a strong EVs only moving forward stance where Toyota said it is not going to pigeon hole themselves into one new technology. Toyota has continued to be on the cutting edge of new propulsion systems and they are still making progress on hydrogen fuel cell technology as well as electric alternatives. Heads of these companies have a very different tone as Toyota is claiming the worst is behind them while GM and Ford saying they expect this to continue well into next year. I have a feeling that GM and Ford are going to use these continued dilemmas to their advantage, most likely renegotiating their union labor forces’ contracts.
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