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In a continuing theme, auto manufacturers are still cutting output as the microchip shortage rages on. Toyota, who was the least affected automaker at the beginning of the shortage seems to have run out of the stock they had to keep them afloat. Over the last several weeks they have been announcing major cuts and they just announced a 40% reduction in global production for October which equates to another 330,000 units. Toyota is also saying that their September production will be worse than they thought by another 70,000 or so units than the previously announced loss of 360,000. Earlier this year the US auto manufacturers were quick to give predictions on when production will start to look normal again. Of course those predictions were for things to start looking a lot better by now, but it looks like they never really had a plan and it was mostly wishful thinking.
Malaysian semiconductor manufacturer, Unisem, shut some of their plants down until the 15th of this month as reportedly 3 employees have recently died of Covid-19. Although only 12% of their business is auto manufacturers, events like this are continually putting already backlogged parts even further out. Unisem’s main auto customers are Tesla and Toyota which would explain the additional delays being announced from these companies.
Ford is going to temporarily halt scheduling of their new Maverick Hybrid truck. I pretty much saw this coming when they announced the vehicle. It looks like an inexpensive low profit margin vehicle with a lot of technology. I am not sure this would be my first choice of vehicle to produce in the middle of the worst microchip shortage in history compared to other vehicles with much higher profit margins. Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley tweeted in August that they had over 100,000 reservations for the new truck. Although Ford has not clarified how many of these were converted into actual orders. Ford did say that they were going to fill all sold orders for the vehicle, but with hundreds of thousands of vehicles already cancelled this year I would not hold my breath.
Solid Power, a Ford backed battery company will be expanding its solid state battery production facility outside of Denver to scale production up. Sold Power is planning on delivering test cells to Ford and BMW by early 2022. Solid state batteries could be a huge step in solving some of the adoption of EVs especially in the commercial, fleet and government sectors. My understanding of this technology is that it uses solid electrolytes instead of liquid. This should greatly increase the amount of charges a battery can handle before it starts to face degradation and should allow for batteries to be built smaller and lighter as well. This technology will not only be great for vehicles but almost all electronics.
Ford Pro, Ford’s new commercial and fleet division has filled out their leadership team. These 6 individuals lead by Ted Cannis will be in charge of leading innovation and sales of business vehicles. The team will be rolling out Ford’s new E-Transit, an all electric cargo van, in the next fews months and the Silverado Lightning all electric truck next year.
Tim Baughman, general manager, North America
Muffi Ghadiali, head, Ford Pro charging
Navin Kumar, chief financial officer
Tracey Pass, chief human resources officer
Rahul Singh, chief technology officer
Wanda Young, chief marketing officer
Hans Schep, general manager Europe
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