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By Paul Lienert and Joseph White
September 27, 20235:09 AM CDT Updated 5 hours ago

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Sept 27 (Reuters) - Ford Motor's (F.N) decision to hit the brakes on a planned $3.5 billion battery plant in Michigan highlights a challenge for Tesla's growing crowd of rivals in the U.S. market: Tesla is pushing most of them into unprofitable, low-volume niches.

Global automakers are launching scores of new electric vehicles in the United States, and pouring billions of dollars into new EV and battery plants. But few of them besides Tesla's Model Y and Model 3 are selling at high enough volumes to support a full-scale assembly plant, according to a Reuters analysis of U.S. EV sales data for the first six months of 2023.

On a brand-by-brand basis, Tesla outsold its next 19 competitors by 10 to one or more during the first half, according to S&P Global Mobility data.

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Tesla sold 325,291 vehicles in the United States from January to June. General Motors’ (GM.N) Chevrolet brand, with its aging Bolt EV, was a distant second at 34,943, trailed by Ford, Hyundai (005380.KS) and Rivian(RIVN.O).

On a nameplate basis, all four of Tesla’s models placed in the top 12, with the Model Y and Model 3 ranked numbers one and two, with first-half sales of 200,000 and 160,000, respectively.

In comparison, the Bolt sold 35,000 and Ford’s Mustang Mach E chalked up 13,600 — nowhere near enough volume to fill a typical assembly plant, which needs to operate at 80% of capacity or more to be profitable.

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Electrified vehicle sales, including plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles, captured 8.9% of the U.S. market during the first half of 2023, up 2.6 percentage points from a year earlier, according to data compiled by the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an industry trade group.

But that market share was divided up among 103 different models, according to the Alliance's latest quarterly report on the EV market.

Ford's decision to pause work on a $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Michigan comes as some analysts question whether the U.S. EV market will grow fast enough to support all the new battery and assembly operations launched or under construction.

In July, Ford forecast a full-year loss of $4.5 billion on its EV unit - 50% higher than projected earlier this year - and said it was slowing its EV production ramp up.

The U.S. automaker, like several rivals, has committed billions to build additonal EV and battery plants in the U.S.

In a media presentation on Tuesday, Cox Automotive noted that Tesla has surrendered some share of U.S. EV sales this year as more entrants hit the market, but still commands nearly two-thirds of all EV sales. No other brand has more than 10%.

Cox estimated that EV sales will rise to 8% of total U.S. vehicle sales in the third quarter from about 6.5% a year ago.

Some of that growth likely has been driven by falling prices, a trend driven by Tesla which is using its superior profit margins to cut prices and expand sales. Cox said average EV retail prices fell to $53,376 in July 2023, from a high of nearly $70,000 a year ago.

Reporting by Joe White and Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by David Gregorio

Let the government put their finger on the scale as they get more pissed off with Musk.

All the others are gay
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Saw a clip of Ford’s ceo saying first gen Mach-E’s were built using their standard production plan; farming out each sub system to the lowest bidder. Then nothing talks to each other in the same language and they can’t modify the systems without the the third party’s authorization.

Sounds like a total cluster fuck and you’d have to be a retard to buy one.

I’ll never buy one unless I don’t have a choice.  Everything rechargeable I ever owned eventually crapped the bed. Golf cart, weed eater, tools, etc.  At least with tools, batteries are affordable.

"Niche" is what all EV sales are.

Tesla has exploited that niche. Unless EVs expand so that normal people want them, they will remain a niche product.

EV THREAD

Tesla has been around since 2003. They launched thier first car in 2008 and turned a Net profit in 2020.

One major issue for Tesla is that a lot of their income comes from selling EV credits to its competitors. Once the competition is producing EVs in volume that revenue stream goes away.

Tesla had a 5-year head start on the others. They designed the car from the ground up and they own the battery technology.  Their car is cool; not like the gay Prius.

The other companies are buying off-the-shelf parts and retrofitting them into existing frames, mimicking Tesla and foisting the shitty cars onto the public.  Then they price them out of reach of ordinarily people,  justifying the price by including the giant tax credit.

I'm sticking with ICE vehicles for the foreseeable future.

Holy shit.  Using those numbers, Ford is losing $167,000 per unit on ev sales!

I can’t give my Tesla away. It’s great to be an EV owner unless you want to get rid of it LOL.

I'm not sure I'd call 3% "a lot".

Gov went after GM in the 60's I think it was because they had a huge market share. Surprised they haven't come up with something to go after Musk with something similar. Or maybe they're still getting their lies together to get started on him.

Also Tesla won the charging station standards war and will be raking in money licensing that to competitors.

You must not even be trying.  They sell like hotcakes.

Remember when Joe invited all the EV car makers to the White House and didn't include Tesla. What a smack in the face.

In blue states you won't have a choice. If an EV is unsuitable or unavailable that will just be tough shit for you.

Related thought: Has anyone seen a Tesla commercial on TV?  I haven't.
Did they dominate the EV market without any advertising?

Everything on that slide is gay.

Not really.

My buddy had to have the fastest.  He got the P100D with ludacris mode.  Then the plaid came out and he had to have that.  He bought the plaid intending to sell the P100D.  Too bad elon dropped the price on new ones and the bottom fell out on the used market.  Resale value on the P100D is less than my buddy owes elon.  So now he has both payments.  He'd be losing money selling the first car.

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Gen X thank you very much.  All those ev’s are gay.  You can put 5000 horsepower in one and rule the street races and it will still be gay.

I looked at one. Slower, more expensive, and worse build quality than my Tesla 3 performance. No brainer

If you want to buy an American-made car, buy a Tesla or a Honda or a Acura.

Yep.  Yes, and you are correct.  Gay

Tesla is slaughtering the competition because Tesla built an infrastructure that supports their vehicles.  With the other brands you can get screwed when the chargers are not functioning leaving your stranded whereas Tesla maintains and has a charging infrastructure.  That is why I would buy a Tesla if I had to get an EV and not any other brand because you are basically risking painting yourself into a corner.

While I’ll agree the older Prius cars are super gay, the new ones look pretty nice

Didn't read, but I wonder if they (non Tesla) gladly take the EV loss because of the CAFE benefits provided to the high profit models.

A salesman for a local Chevy dealer and I were talking about EV's several weeks ago.

I mentioned the severe lack of charging stations in our area. He said the tier one chargers require 480V/3PH power and cost around $50,000 each.

He sells EV's, too, not just ICE vehicles.

They're going to put one of those chargers in a town near me in the near future, but that will be the first one in the area.

I don't know if his figures are accurate, and we bought an ICE vehicle anyway.

That's a lot of batteries manufactured out of American made Lithium, right ?

Not sure where your "area" is but there are 50 Tesla Supercharger Locations in Illinois alone.

Here is a look at the Non-Tesla Fast charging options in Illinois:
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The Bolt is the second-best selling EV, and it is the model best known for burning down people's garages. To the point that they had to cease production of it for a while.

And this is the model people favor over the other junk?

It has to be GM fleet sales.

They can't compete with Tesla. Why go to a stealership and get fucked over in order to purchase an EV from vehicle manufacturers that have a long history of fucking your over, when you can just order a Tesla online and pick it up when it's ready with no games and your asshole still intact?  

Unless the big three gets the government to somehow hobble Tesla they are doomed in the EV market.

If I bought a EV it would only be a Tesla.

This is why they are all screwed.  Tesla keeps driving down the costs.  


A more interesting chart would be EV profits.  In that chart, Tesla is getting it all.

Lol that isn't happening in the next ten years.

Maybe even the next 20-30yrs.

Look at EV production numbers, they can't make enough EVs.

My Tesla is more fun to drive than my Z06 with a manual.  Call me gay.  Also fun wasting the Porsches and M3s.  Cheaper to own as well.   heh.

Tesla is adding more Superdock systems to allow non-Tesla vehicles to use a Tesla  supercharger.

To qualify for the full tax credits the batteries have to be assembled here, or the lithium must be sourced from a friendly country like Australia.

Tesla makes 4680 cells here in the U.S. and also uses Panasonic 2170 cells made here.

They use primarily China made cells in their Shanghai or Berlin factories.

Tesla just broke ground on a lithium refinery in Texas.

I was a Musk basher, but once he started reusing boosters at SpaceX, and started making a profit on EVs, I decided my thinking needed a correction.

There’s a lot to applaud in Musk’s U.S. companies employing tens of thousands of Americans.

You’ll be able to buy an ICE car or truck for years, but they’ll be made of a lot of  foreign and Chinese parts in Mexico or Canada for the most part. They’ll cost more and more, and worse yet, you’ll have to do it through a dealer. What joy!

They are mandating in in 2035 in CA and by the feds. Other states as well.

At what point does Tesla become a power company?

More fun?  Bullshit unless launching from stop signs is the only spirited driving you do.  Maybe one day Tesla will make something that actually looks cool as well.  So far they have an ugly ass truck nobody can have yet and boring looking SUV’s and sedans.  Most of the other EV manufacturers are even worse in that department.