1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,800
Speaker 1: As we've been reporting today, Ford is said to be

2
00:00:02,840 --> 00:00:05,760
Speaker 1: preparing to cut as many as eight thousand jobs in

3
00:00:05,760 --> 00:00:08,440
Speaker 1: the coming weeks. We told the automakers trying to boost

4
00:00:08,440 --> 00:00:12,000
Speaker 1: profits to fund its investments in electric vehicles. Joining us

5
00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:15,080
Speaker 1: now with more is Keith Norton. He's Bloomberg Auto reported

6
00:00:15,160 --> 00:00:18,480
Speaker 1: in Detroit. So, Keith, where is the acts going to

7
00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:23,439
Speaker 1: fall for Ford? Well, it will be broadly with salaried workers,

8
00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:27,880
Speaker 1: not the factory workers, but the white color folks, and

9
00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:30,040
Speaker 1: much of it will come from this new division that

10
00:00:30,760 --> 00:00:34,160
Speaker 1: Ford created called Ford Blue, which is their internal combustion

11
00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:39,559
Speaker 1: engine vehicles, the traditional gas burners. UM CEO Jim Farley

12
00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:44,440
Speaker 1: wants to lower costs by three billion, and he wants

13
00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:48,000
Speaker 1: his traditional vehicles to make more money so they can

14
00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:52,720
Speaker 1: fund their very large electric vehicle ambitions. So, Keith, if

15
00:00:52,760 --> 00:00:54,880
Speaker 1: you look at eight thousand jobs, do we know how

16
00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:57,600
Speaker 1: that may translate into a dollar amount of me what

17
00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:00,920
Speaker 1: would the cost savings be on a job reduction of

18
00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:04,200
Speaker 1: that magnitude? You know, it'll be a big chunk of

19
00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:06,920
Speaker 1: that three billion that they're going after for sure. That

20
00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:09,800
Speaker 1: is the quickest way to you know, hit a cost

21
00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:14,520
Speaker 1: target that large is to eliminate people and just you know,

22
00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:19,399
Speaker 1: to put it in context, Ford has US salary workers.

23
00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:23,240
Speaker 1: It has over salary workers in North America. This is

24
00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:25,360
Speaker 1: where most of these cuts will be coming. That's a

25
00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:29,880
Speaker 1: big chunk of the salary workforce. So has for progressing

26
00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:33,560
Speaker 1: in this pivot from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles.

27
00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:37,399
Speaker 1: So far, its first couple of models have been very promising.

28
00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:40,080
Speaker 1: The first one that came out last year was the

29
00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:44,080
Speaker 1: electric Mustang Mache, which is kind of a crossover sport

30
00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:48,400
Speaker 1: utility vehicle that has sold very well. UM. It put

31
00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:52,520
Speaker 1: forward second a distant second behind Tesla in the United

32
00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:55,680
Speaker 1: States last year, where they remain through the first half

33
00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:58,920
Speaker 1: of this year. UM. And then the second big e

34
00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:02,880
Speaker 1: V they have is uh F one fifty lightning pickup truck,

35
00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:07,800
Speaker 1: which just debuted in May. They had two hundred thousand

36
00:02:07,880 --> 00:02:11,840
Speaker 1: pre reservations for that. UM they have very high demand.

37
00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:15,560
Speaker 1: Their their EV sales were up year over year in

38
00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:19,520
Speaker 1: June by seventy six percent. Admittedly, ak lood base, you know,

39
00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:23,600
Speaker 1: it's it's a different UM magnitude altogether than where test

40
00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:27,200
Speaker 1: was at right now. But Jim Farley, the CEO, says

41
00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:29,839
Speaker 1: he wants to catch them and surpass them. Yeah. When

42
00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:32,799
Speaker 1: I think of Ford Trucks, I think the commercial division two.

43
00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:35,040
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a pretty big part of their business.

44
00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:37,680
Speaker 1: Do you think can we see a path for Ford

45
00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:40,440
Speaker 1: to kind of move into e V trucks in the

46
00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:43,120
Speaker 1: near term, so it's not just focused on kind of

47
00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:48,359
Speaker 1: the consumer. Absolutely, that's a big part of their strategy

48
00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:53,560
Speaker 1: because Ford is a leader in commercial vehicles far and away,

49
00:02:53,639 --> 00:02:57,000
Speaker 1: leader in things like pickup trucks and vans, and that's

50
00:02:57,040 --> 00:03:00,720
Speaker 1: its third electric vehicle. It's transit van also now comes

51
00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:05,080
Speaker 1: in an electrified version. The ideas they're electrifying the vehicles

52
00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:10,040
Speaker 1: are already strong sellers for them and um and they

53
00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:11,920
Speaker 1: feel that gives them a built in market as they

54
00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:14,560
Speaker 1: roll them out. We have from a tast a little

55
00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:17,560
Speaker 1: earlier today, and one of the points that was made

56
00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:20,320
Speaker 1: on that coal was that it's done okay navigating round

57
00:03:20,360 --> 00:03:24,600
Speaker 1: supply chain difficulties. Has Ford been coping with the supply

58
00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:28,280
Speaker 1: chain issues? You know, it has waxed and wayne for them.

59
00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:30,720
Speaker 1: They were hit very hard last year and then the

60
00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:34,760
Speaker 1: first quarter of this year, particularly in their cash cow,

61
00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:37,560
Speaker 1: the F series pickup truck, which makes them most of

62
00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:41,480
Speaker 1: their money. But then they did better in the second quarter.

63
00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:44,440
Speaker 1: In the United States. They actually had a small one

64
00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:47,680
Speaker 1: point eight percent sales improvement in the second quarter and

65
00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:51,800
Speaker 1: a very strong June. So um, they seem to be

66
00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:55,240
Speaker 1: improving the situation, but like the rest of the industry,

67
00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:57,840
Speaker 1: they won't be out of this supply shortage for a

68
00:03:57,880 --> 00:03:59,840
Speaker 1: long time to come. Yeah, and that's really been showing

69
00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:02,680
Speaker 1: up mostly on the semiconductor side, but I'm curious on

70
00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:06,760
Speaker 1: the battery side. Is Forward partnering with anyone to make

71
00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:11,360
Speaker 1: lithium batteries that would be used in these evs? Yeah,

72
00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:14,000
Speaker 1: so they are. They have a partnership with sk Innovation

73
00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:18,200
Speaker 1: of South Korea. They're building three battery plants in Tennessee

74
00:04:18,200 --> 00:04:22,920
Speaker 1: and Kentucky and the new Electric Vehicle fuck factory in Tennessee,

75
00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:26,000
Speaker 1: and that's an eleven point four billion dollar project, those

76
00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:29,520
Speaker 1: four factories. So that that's the way they've been doing it.

77
00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:33,000
Speaker 1: Bloom Bigger is also reported that they might begin receiving

78
00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:38,839
Speaker 1: batteries from atl the Chinese battery suppliers, So that's a

79
00:04:38,960 --> 00:04:41,640
Speaker 1: that's a big part of the e V emerging e

80
00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:44,599
Speaker 1: V races who can lay their hands on the most

81
00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:47,960
Speaker 1: battery supply, So how's the outlook looking for forward for

82
00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:52,080
Speaker 1: the second half? You know, pretty good. As I said,

83
00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:57,000
Speaker 1: the chip supply situation is improving. They still have very

84
00:04:57,120 --> 00:05:01,719
Speaker 1: strong selling traditional U internal combustion engine vehicles like the

85
00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:05,400
Speaker 1: Bronco SUV UH and they have waiting lists for those

86
00:05:05,440 --> 00:05:08,600
Speaker 1: models so um and they have focused to their efforts

87
00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:12,279
Speaker 1: on the higher profit vehicles SUVs and trucks, and that

88
00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:14,520
Speaker 1: is turning out to be a good strategy for them.

89
00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:16,440
Speaker 1: What do we know about the way that Ford thinks

90
00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:20,200
Speaker 1: about incentive programs that may be sponsored by the government,

91
00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:23,200
Speaker 1: is that does that get baked into their projections? I mean,

92
00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:26,000
Speaker 1: are they looking at what Washington is doing to try

93
00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:30,039
Speaker 1: to encourage the adoption of more electric vehicles? For sure?

94
00:05:30,160 --> 00:05:35,600
Speaker 1: And they definitely support things like the tax credit that

95
00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:38,200
Speaker 1: you get pro buying an e V so so absolutely

96
00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:40,760
Speaker 1: they support that. They feel the government has to play

97
00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:43,640
Speaker 1: a role in trying to nurture the market and also

98
00:05:44,120 --> 00:05:48,320
Speaker 1: in trying to establish a charging infrastructure in this country.

99
00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:50,400
Speaker 1: You know, if you look at a five year chat

100
00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:55,200
Speaker 1: of folds US, it's going sideways or really it's up

101
00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:57,800
Speaker 1: eight percent in the past five years. I mean, what

102
00:05:57,920 --> 00:05:59,640
Speaker 1: needs to happen to break it out of this trading

103
00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:04,320
Speaker 1: range is e vs. The onst to this. Yeah, if

104
00:06:04,320 --> 00:06:07,680
Speaker 1: you look at a more narrow range. Since Jim Farley

105
00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:12,720
Speaker 1: became CEO in October of the stock has has been

106
00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:14,600
Speaker 1: up that more than doubled last year. It was the

107
00:06:14,640 --> 00:06:18,320
Speaker 1: biggest gainer among all automakers last year. This year it

108
00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:23,359
Speaker 1: has been down you know, almost um as, which is

109
00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:26,520
Speaker 1: more than the s course, but it's also part of

110
00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:30,560
Speaker 1: the whole sector being down, including players like Tesla, because

111
00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:35,840
Speaker 1: of concerns over inflation and the supply snarls that have really,

112
00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:39,839
Speaker 1: um you know, bedeviled the industry. So it kind of

113
00:06:39,880 --> 00:06:43,159
Speaker 1: waxes in Waynes. It certainly is down at the moment.

114
00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:46,320
Speaker 1: Keith cud stuff, thank you so much for being with us.

115
00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:49,960
Speaker 1: Keith not in Bloomberg Auto reporter in Detroit talking about

116
00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:52,400
Speaker 1: the news has broke today. Ford Motor preparing to cut

117
00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:54,600
Speaker 1: as many as eight thousand jobs in the coming week.

118
00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:58,480
Speaker 1: They're trying to raise some money, uh well, to basically

119
00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:01,160
Speaker 1: fund their investment in the electric vehicles