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☆ Ford to move forward with $3.5 billion EV battery plant with Chinese company
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Michael Wayland | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

DETROIT – Ford Motor said Monday it will collaborate with a Chinese supplier on a new $3.5 billion battery plant for electric vehicles in Michigan, despite tensions between the U.S. and China. Glenn Youngkin saying he was withdrawing the state from a competitive process to attract the planned Ford plant over its connection to the Chinese company. The new batteries are expected to offer different benefits at a lower cost, assisting Ford in increasing EV production and profit margins. With this $3.5 billion investment, Ford says it and its battery partners have announced $17.6 billion in investments in electric vehicle and battery production in the United States since 2019. Gretchen Whitmer called the investment a "big win" for the state, which has moved to attract more battery production after missing out on previous multibillion investments.

☆ Amazon's Zoox tests robotaxi on public road with employees as passengers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Abhirup Roy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O) self-driving vehicle unit, Zoox, said on Monday it has successfully tested a robotaxi with employees as passengers on a public road in a move to bring it closer to commercial service for the general public. Ford Motor Co (F.N) and Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) last fall announced they would shutter their Argo AI self-driving unit and focus on driver-assistance technology that provided more immediate returns. Companies still pursuing development of this technology include General Motors Co's (GM.N) Cruise unit and Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Waymo. Online retailer Amazon, which has been aggressively expanding into self-driving technology, bought Zoox for $1.3 billion in 2020. Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco Editing by Ben Klayman and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Former Wall Street darling Rivian suddenly has a lot to prove
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Alexa St. John | Nora Naughton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Another Rivian customer told Insider they placed a reservation last July. A Rivian spokesperson told Insider that timing is "based on a number of factors, including delivery location, configuration and original preorder or reservation date." The Rivian spokesperson told Insider Scaringe's language refers to "how we deliver over the long term." An employee laid off in Rivian's first round of cuts last summer told Insider it felt like growing pains many other companies have experienced. Are you a current or former Rivian employee, Rivian vehicle owner, or Rivian order-holder?

☆ Ford cuts Rivian stake to about 1% amid production woes at EV maker
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Employees works on an assembly line at startup Rivian Automotive's electric vehicle factory in Normal, Illinois, U.S. April 11, 2022. REUTERS/Kamil KrzaczynskiFeb 10 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N) has cut its stake in struggling EV maker Rivian Automotive Inc (RIVN.O) to 1.15%, a week after the Detroit automaker reported a fall in profit and predicted a tough year ahead. Ford, which wrote down the value of its Rivian investment by $7.4 billion in 2022, has been paring down its stake amid production struggles at the Irvine, California-based company. Ford held a 11.4% stake in Rivian at the end of 2021. Rivian shares also had a bleak 2022, losing about 82% of their value.

☆ Ford to announce $3.5 bln battery plant in Michigan, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 10 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N) is set to announce as soon as Monday it plans to build a new $3.5 billion lithium iron phosphate battery plant in Michigan, sources told Reuters. Ford is expected to own and operate the plant with Chinese battery company China's Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) (300750.SZ) as a technology partner to help develop the batteries, sources said. The rules were aimed at weaning the United States off the Chinese battery supply chain. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has faced some criticism for withdrawing from a competition to attract a new Ford battery plant over its connection to CATL. Reuters reported in January that Michigan was also a candidate for the Ford battery plant, sources said, and a decision could be made in the coming weeks.

☆ It's time for automakers to take EV charging seriously or risk missing out
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

They've depended on third-party charging firms like ChargePoint, EVgo, and Electrify America to provide EV buyers with public plugs. Many automakers even offer their EV customers free charging through partnerships with these networks. For EV buyers attracted to brands with free public charging deals, the promises don't always seem to live up to expectations. The argument could be made that a majority of EV charging can be done at home — but many prospective EV buyers live in multi-family buildings without access to a garage plug. Mercedes recently announced the launch of its own charging network in an attempt to catch up to Tesla.

☆ State of the portfolio: What Biden's address means for 10 Club stocks from Caterpillar to Ford
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

President Joe Biden 's State of the Union address put the spotlight on multiple tailwinds that will benefit 10 Club holdings including Caterpillar (CAT) and Ford (F). Linde Linde, a longtime Club holding, supplies industrial gases needed at semiconductor manufacturing facilities, known as fabrication plants. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB.

☆ Tesla or Ford? Analysts name their favorite stock as the EV race heats up
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Weizhen Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Ford's EV sales – currently at 3.6% of its monthly total sales – have been a major focus of Wall Street. Amid talk of an EV pricing war , who will win: Tesla, or Ford? Ford Bank of America in a Jan. 30 note called both Ford and Tesla's decision to cut prices "odd." Tesla Most analysts seem to be more optimistic on Tesla at present. For Tesla, analysts have an average price target upside of 1.8%, and 65% have a buy rating on the stock.

☆ Here’s our February rapid-fire update on all 34 stocks in Jim Cramer’s Investing Club portfolio
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( Matthew J. Belvedere | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +12 min

Here's a rapid-fire update on all 34 stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust, the holdings we manage in the CNBC Investing Club. J & J is a good stock to get into ahead of the impending split into two companies: consumer brands and pharma/medical technology. The company reported a good quarter and guidance, while fundamentals are solid ahead of the split. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio.

☆ Ford Mustang Mach-E has a mile of wires it didn't need. That's a big deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Ford CEO Jim Farley was rather blunt about the problems that Ford experienced as it rolled out its hot EV models, the Mustang Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning pickup. While both vehicles have a long list of waiting customers, Farley admitted that Ford encountered numerous problems with their production. They resumed last year, but GM ended up with total US EV sales of just under 40,000. In 2022 Ford’s US EV sales came to just under 62,000, roughly a tenth Tesla’s US sales that year. That means about 600,000 US Tesla sales for the year.

☆ Ford's CEO needs to deliver by next quarter, or we're moving on from the stock
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Paulina Likos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Ford Motor (F) CEO Jim Farley said the automakers' messy fourth quarter was a function of its transition to a new business structure that limited production capacity, combined with poor execution. But we remain disappointed in the results and need to see an increase in profitability to stick with the stock after the next quarter. The Club take "It's inexcusable that Ford had a bad quarter," Jim Cramer said Friday. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Ford CEO Jim Farley at the company's Dearborn, Michigan, plant where it's building the electric F-150 Lightning on April 26, 2022.

☆ Jim Cramer's top 10 things to watch in the market Friday: Jobs way up, stocks down, tech tough
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Jim Cramer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Every penny gained in other tech stocks on the back of Meta Platforms ' (META) earnings surge this week needs to be given up. High growth, growth, no growth, declining growth ... which box are we in for each portfolio stock? Quarterly revenue beat. I say sell, sell, sell Nordstrom. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade.

☆ America isn’t quitting gas guzzlers yet
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Jonathan Guilford | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Ford missed its profit guidance by $1.1 billion, it said on Thursday night. It was bad enough that boss Jim Farley admitted to leaving “$2 billion in profits on the table” by mismanaging costs and supply. With EV sales under 4% of U.S. volume for both companies, the jump in profit from pricing is coming from combustion-engine sales. Detroit-based peer Ford Motor reported revenue of $44 billion for its fourth quarter on Feb. 2, 9% higher than analyst estimates. However, it recorded $10.4 billion of adjusted operating profit for the full year, below guidance of $11.5 billion.

☆ Ford CEO Jim Farley's frustration builds as he vows to transform the automaker
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Phil Lebeau | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

In this article F Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTwatch nowFord CEO Jim Farley is frustrated. In short, Farley wants Ford to become a far more efficient company, and he needs it to happen quickly. Ford workers produce the electric F-150 Lightning pickup on Dec. 13, 2022, at the automaker's Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center. Farley said the answer is not simply cutting jobs, which has historically been the way automakers have cut costs. Will this new push to cut costs hurt Ford's growth in production and sales of electric vehicles?

☆ Behind the EV price war is an all-out battle for the future of customer loyalty in the car business — and it could mean more discounts on the horizon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Nora Naughton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ceding profits to market share is an expensive game of chicken, analysts warn. This will be a 'pivotal year' for establishing customer loyalty in the EV market. Chasing market share over profitsBoth companies are opting to cede profits for market share in a pricey game of chicken, analysts said. GM – opting out of the pricing war for now – is going after customer loyalty with an EV helpline open to all electric car owners. But if history is any guide, more companies will join in the price slashing if their market share starts to slip.

Ford sold 91 million shares of the EV startup in 2022, according to the filing. Ford's sale of the shares was worth about $3 billion in total proceeds, the company said, a substantial gain on its $1.2 billion investment in Rivian. Ford, as of the end of last year, still owned about 11 million of its initial 101.9 million shares of Rivian. Ford first invested in Rivian in 2019, before the EV maker went public. But as a result of that initial investment, Ford was among the largest stakeholders in the company upon Rivian's blockbuster IPO in 2021, with a 12% stake.

☆ Tesla gets a big tax credit win as rules Elon Musk called 'messed up' get changed to include more vehicles
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The US government walked back a controversial part of the new electric-car tax credit. The rule change means that more electric SUVs from Tesla and others qualify for the $7,500 incentive. Under the new federal EV tax credit included in Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act, it matters quite a lot, actually. On Twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk called the rules "messed up" and "bizarre." The seven-seat Tesla Model Y qualified for the $80,000 price cap, while the five-seat model did not.

☆ Ford is getting back into Formula 1 racing to help sell EVs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —America’s major automakers are getting back into Formula 1 racing. The new power units will rely much more on electric power and will burn renewable fuels in less powerful V6 engines. Formula 1 racing is very popular in Europe and has recently found increasing popularity in the United States. Ford currently competes in a variety of motorsports, including endurance sports car racing, drag racing and off-road races. Ford and Red Bull already work together in rally racing.

☆ Here's a rapid-fire update on six Club stocks moving Friday on earnings
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

AAPL YTD mountain Apple's stock performance year-to-date. AMZN YTD mountain Amazon's year-to-date stock performance. SBUX YTD mountain Starbucks' year-to-date stock performance. F YTD mountain Ford's year-to-date stock performance. QCOM YTD mountain Qualcomm's year-to-date stock performance.

Here's the Club's condensed earnings reaction for Starbucks, Ford Motor and Qualcomm. Guidance Starbucks' fiscal 2023 guidance remains unchanged, CFO Rachel Ruggeri said on the company's earnings call, despite continued headwinds related to China's Covid recovery. Ford Motor Quarterly commentary Ford Motor (F) reported a messy fourth quarter Thursday, with adjusted earnings per share coming in well below Street expectations and overshadowing a topline revenue beat. F 5D mountain Ford (F) 5-day performance Guidance Ford said Thursday it expects full-year adjusted earnings before interest and taxes to total between $9 billion and $11 billion. Qualcomm Quarterly commentary Qualcomm 's (QCOM) fiscal 2023 first-quarter earnings topped analysts' estimates Thursday, despite lighter-than-projected revenues in the three months ended Dec. 25.

Ford blamed chip shortages and other supply chain issues and production "instabilities" that raised costs, along with lower-than-expected volumes. Ford shares dropped more than 6% in after-market trading. Lawler said Ford faces $5 billion in higher costs this year, but has kept the mid-range of its profit guidance flat with 2022. Ford expects full-year adjusted pretax earnings of $9 billion to $11 billion. Adjusted pretax earnings were $2.6 billion, compared with $2.0 billion last year.

REUTERS/Phil NobleCOVENTRY, England, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Developing fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) that can go everywhere has proven harder and more expensive than expected, but investors are continuing to fund startups that target simpler self-driving vehicle solutions far removed from pedestrians and other vehicles operated by unpredictable humans. Earlier promises made by robotaxi companies of operating fleets of vehicles by the early 2020s have fallen well short. BMW iVentures has also invested in AV truck technology firm Kodiak Robotics, which managing partner Sage said has adopted a simpler approach to areas like mapping. Construction and agricultural equipment - used off-road in low-traffic environments - has been another growth area for AV startups. U.S. agricultural equipment maker AGCO Corp (AGCO.N), for instance, is using the Palo Alto, California-based startup's software for an experimental automated electric planter.

Suppliers familiar with GM's production plans through 2025 support the notion the automaker continues to slow-walk electric vehicle investment and output while it continues to bank money from its big combustion-engine pickups and SUVs. GM on Tuesday stuck to its plan to produce a total of 400,000 electric vehicles for North America from 2022 through the first half of 2024. GM said it has secured all the battery materials it will need to build 1 million EVs a year in North America by 2025. In the short run, GM's go-slow approach could allow it to side-step the price war that Tesla launched earlier this month. The division has 90,000 reservations for the high-performance Hummer EVs and is sold out into next year, he said.

☆ General Motors doesn’t expect significant U.S. production of EVs until second half of year
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Michael Wayland | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Barring any supply chain problems, Betts said electric vehicles should be easier and faster to build than traditional vehicles with internal combustion engines for an experienced automaker. Photo by Steve Fecht for General MotorsBut others such as Hyundai Motor and Ford Motor have been ratcheting up production of EVs. Industry leader Tesla also targets to produce 2 million electric vehicles globally this year. Ford, which ranked second in EV sales in the U.S. last year, expects to increase production of its electric Ford F-150 Lightning. GM expects to ramp-up production of the Bolt models, which use older battery technology, to 70,000 vehicles this year, GM has said.

☆ Ford Cuts Prices of EV Mustang Mach-E
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Will Feuer | Nora Eckert | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Ford Motor Co. said it is boosting production and cutting prices of its electric Mustang Mach-E crossover up to 8.8% on some versions. The move comes weeks after Tesla Inc. slashed prices on a number of its models. The Dearborn, Mich., auto maker said its supply chain for its electric vehicles is coming online and it is seizing on streamlined costs to lower prices. Ford also said the price cuts are a part of the company’s plan to keep the vehicle competitive in a “rapidly changing market.”

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