Ann: Quarterly Activities/Appendix 5B Cash Flow Report, page-178

All we here and see at the moment is a continuous stream of funding into the EVsector.

In the last week we have Ford GM, Nissan, Reynold, and Mitzi throw around an extra 40 billion into the race.

*Ditto Bro, Hardly a Day / Week goes by where we don't see $Billions being thrown at funding the EV Revolution, It doesn't get much bigger than ( Ford v GM ) atm, with pre-orders and demand going gangbusters, as more and more people go on waiting lists wanting an EV asap, and this is Only the Start of the EV Race, Imagine what it's going to be like in the near future as the "New Rules / Regulations" kick in, as


Ford to throw another $28 billion at electric vehicle push led by ex Tesla exec

Ford will boost its electrification strategy by up to another $US20 billion ($A28 billion), focusing on more factory conversions, and employing more engineers and staff to work on batteries and software, Bloomberg has reported.

Citing information shared by sources, Bloomberg says between $US10-20 billion over the next five to ten years will be spent on converting global factories, and upping the ante on battery research and development as well as artificial intelligence and electric vehicle software.

The push is reportedly being led by Doug Field, who formerly worked for Apple and Tesla, joining Ford in 2021 to lead its advanced technology and embedded systems department.

It is also considering spinning off a company to focus on the EV startup space.

Ford was an early investor in Rivian and owns 12% of the EV startup.

The most recent reports indicate it has been lucrative for the company, with an $US8.2 billion ($A15.5bn) gain in the last quarter of 2021.

In September, it revealed that it will sink $US11.4 billion ($16 billion) into two new EV manufacturing facilities – one at Tennessee to be called “Blue Oval City” where it will make electric F-Series trucks, and another at Kentucky called “Blue Oval SK Battery Park” at which it plans to make 86 gigawatts of cells annually.

It also said in October it will commit £230 million ($A436 million) to transforming its facility at Halewood on Merseyside in the UK to build components for electric vehicles.

In November, CEO Jim Farley said that the company will look to double production of its Mustang Mach-E, the F-150 Lightning, and the E-Transit over the next two years.

Ford published order numbers for its electric F-150 that month stating it had already taken 160,000 pre-orders.

https://thedriven.io/


Ford Is an Overnight Success Years in the Making

Seemingly quick successes often spring from seeds planted far in the past.

A lot of companies’ planning and decisions, which unfold over years, aren’t something investors can see.

The good news for investors is that even if it is tough to discern when, or exactly how, the ground is prepared, stocks can reap benefits for years after green shoots of change become apparent.

Take Ford Motor.

To some, Ford looks like an overnight success.

Its shares have exploded, gaining about 88% over the past year, crushing the comparable returns of General Motors and even electric-vehicle leader Tesla.

Since CEO Jim Farley took over in early October 2018, Ford shares have gained a total of about 205%.

It’s easy to attribute much of the success to Farley making a hard turn into electric vehicles, aggressively launching the all-electric Mustang Mach E and Ford F-150 Lightning.

Barron’s wrote positively about Ford stock in November 2020, pegging our call partly to new leadership.

But Farley can’t claim all of the credit.

The Mach E and electric pickup didn’t happen overnight.

The groundwork for those products was laid beginning in 2017, when Ford formed Team Edison, a group of six managers charged with plotting a course into a more electric future.

Edison’s leader was Ted Cannis—now the CEO of Ford Pro, the company’s commercial-vehicle and service business—who didn’t believe Ford should develop electric “compliance cars.”

He didn’t want to produce vehicles that would help Ford meet emissions standards, but that would fall short in terms of the visceral fun driving can provide.

Cannis, who has also done a stint running Ford’s U.S. advertising, told Barron’s the team decided customers, especially younger buyers, wanted higher performance, new technology, and more fun from EVs.

So Ford decided to electrify its iconic brands including the Mustang and F-150 pickup truck.

“We would not have Mach-E and F-150 battery electric without Team Edison,” CEO Farley said in 2020, when he was still the chief operating officer.

“We need to do more of that at Ford. I think that will change the culture.”

Electrifying Ford’s bestselling legacy products looks like a smart decision.

Ford sold 27,140 electric Mustangs in 2021, the car’s first full year of sales, making it the third-best-selling EV in the U.S. behind the Tesla Model Y and Model 3.

CFO John Lawler sees up to 200,000 units of annual demand for the electric Mustang.

Ford’s EV lineup gets another huge boost this year from the all-electric F-150 Lightning.

The F-150 pickup has been America’s bestselling vehicle for 40-plus years, so it is a critical source of revenue.

Maintaining truck leadership might be the most important thing for Ford—and its stock—as the world shifts toward electric vehicles over the coming decade.

The F-150 Lightning looks to be a bigger hit than the Mach E. Ford halted reservations at about 200,000 units in December as it shifted its focus from gathering interest to configuring orders and planning production.

The Lightning will arrive on roads this quarter, about a year ahead of the Tesla Cybertruck and the electric version of GM’s Chevy Silverado.

Ford is pushing its lead in electric trucks as hard as it can.

The company initially planned 40,000 units of production annually, but soon lifted that to 80,000, nearly doubling the figure once more to 150,000 in January.

For context, Ford sold about 726,000 F-series vehicles in 2021.

The production increase is “an example of us reacting much faster,” Ford’s chief product platform and operations officer, Hau Thai-Tang, told Barron’s.

In the past, Hau said, Ford would have been content to rest on its laurels and “high-five” a development team if the public liked a car.

“Now a launch isn’t the finish line. That’s the starting line.”

www.marketwatch.com


GM’s Q4 sales fall short, but renewed focus on EV growth gets investors excited

General Motors Co. reported mixed quarterly results late Tuesday, missing on sales, but the stock rose as the auto maker doubled down on its bet on EVs, promising to launch a cheaper electric car, and said it expects record or near-record profits as well as higher volumes this year, sidestepping supply constraints.

GM said it earned $1.7 billion, or $1.16 a share, in the fourth quarter, compared with earnings of $2.8 billion, or $1.93 a share, in the year-ago period.

Adjusted for one-time items, GM earned $1.35 a share.

Sales fell to $33.6 billion from $37.5 billion a year ago.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected GM to report adjusted earnings of $1.16 a share on sales of $35.8 billion.

“We can and we will keep up our aggressive pace backed by strong results,” Chief Executive Mary Barra told investors on a call after the results. “2022 is going to be an exciting year.”

GM expects to follow its “record EBIT adjusted earnings in 2021 with another year of record or near-record results in 2022 while investing significantly more year-over-year to accelerate our growth,” she said.

For the time being, however, GM is not resuming its dividend, Barra said.

GM will “consider all opportunities to return excess capital to shareholders,” but it is not reinstating the dividend just yet, she said.

“Our clear priority is to accelerate our EV plan and drive growth,” she said.

Barra said that the new electric Chevy Silverado has more than 110,000 reservations, “and the numbers keep growing every day.” GM unveiled the highly anticipated pickup last month.

And after the success of its electric Equinox compact SUV, which starts at around $30,000, GM plans an even cheaper EV, with Barra saying that “affordable EVs are part of the market that startups aren’t targeting.”

Batteries will not be a constraint for GM’s EV push, Barra said.

“We will add capacity as demand grows,” she said, and a fourth U.S. cell-plant location will be announced “shortly.”

www.marketwatch.com





Food for thought on the Road to Mining Manono

It might not happen overnight, but it will happen sooner or later

Frank