102.5% US Tarriffs on BEV's

[Mart]

Very much related I'd say.
I read yesterday that Ford is making an average loss of $100,000 per EV it makes which if true is insane. I know their sales of the F150 Lighting aren't exactly setting the world on fire, but are they really that far off making them at least break even? No wonder they keep going back to ICE-powered SUVs!

So a bit of a false claim to be losing £X when the investment is technically spread and to be used over many cars / years into the future.

Yes, you are absolutely correct, and much of the info is a bit tongue-in-cheek. The same was said about Tesla each quarter that they are 'losing' X$'s, whereas most of that expenditure was in building out production facilities/lines, and ramping up.

But, Ford and Lucid have been building and ramping for years now, and production actually seems to be going down. Unless they reach high enough production numbers for the COGS (cost of goods sold) to be covered, then profits aren't possible. Tesla did go profitable for one qtr when production of the model S had ramped, then negative again as they ramped up the X, before one positive qtr again, before the big 'losses' as they built out the large lines for the model 3. Once production of the 3 was large enough, they went positive again (Q3 2019 I think?)

So Ford and Lucid can't, I believe, become profitable on their current costs, and production/sales numbers, they can only manage it by increasing production/sales and bringing down their unit costs. Or to put it another way, Ford and Lucid have a negative gross margin on each vehicle, even before other investment costs are considered. Ford is currently reducing their battery orders.