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Ford will be naming their new Electric truck the F-150 lightning. They will be launching the new truck on Wednesday the 19th. The truck will be revealed live across social media and also on display in time square and the Las Vegas Strip. The truck will go on sale in the middle of next year. Ford is expected to showcase an all electric vehicle capable of more than 300 mile per change. It will have a dual motor setup providing all wheel drive and will accelerate faster than the supercharged V8 lightning model from the 90s. The trucks’ batteries will be made at Ford’s new electric vehicle facility currently under construction in Dearborn Michigan.
Nissan recorded a record annual operating losses this year after taking a huge hit from the CoronaVirus pandemic. The loss is reported at 1.4B for their fiscal year that ended on March 31st. The previous year there were losses over $375 million and Nissan says it expects to break even over the next fiscal year. This seems to be a pretty desperate goal for a company of Nissan’s size.
The chip shortage is now estimated to have cost the automotive industry over $110B. Experts seem to disagree as to the length of the continued shortage with many saying that they expect this to be mostly sorted out by the end of Q3 but some saying it may be years before the market is back to normal.
Self driving truck company Plus is developing AI driving technology for semi trucks. In 2019 they made an autonomous commercial vehicle run from coast to coast and this year Plus is going public through a combination with Hennessy Capital Corporation. The company has been valued at $3.3B.
Ex United Auto Workers Union president, Dennis Williams, was sentenced this week as part of an ongoing 4 year old investigation that has found 15 convictions and revealed mass fraud. Several high-ranking officials at the UAW were found taking bribes breaking labor laws and stealing union funds for personal gains. Mr Williams who was the UAW present from 2014-2018 received 21 months in federal prison after pleading guilty. Steven Cares, Assistant U.S. Attorney said “Abuses of power created a stain on the union that will take years to wash away.”
Toyota is near record levels of sales and hugely profitable. They are reporting $6.3B in profit for Q1 for this year. They attribute this to reducing costs and introducing a better mix of more profitable vehicles. COO of Toyota Kenta Kon said the company has been able to keep the impact of the microchip shortage in check by careful supply chain management and that they will experience little serious disruption going forward.
Ford is bringing Alexa into 700,000 vehicles in the US and Canada. This is the result of a 6 year deal between amazon and Ford and will be done with an over air update. This update will allow you to make calls with Alexa voice and even control your smart home from your vehicle.
Fisker stock has jumped after announcing a deal with Foxconn to produce electric vehicles. The company wants to produce an inexpensive electric vehicle with a plant in the US. Not much is known about the details but they are shooting for a target of under $30,000 per vehicle.
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