Electric cars are expensive to make, and most companies are losing money on them right now. Ford is one such company, and they’re asking their parts suppliers for help in cutting costs.
This is despite strong sales of their electric Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning. The problem is that making electric cars is expensive, and Ford is losing billions. They’re asking suppliers to find ways to cut costs across the board, from design to manufacturing.
This could mean delays in releasing new affordable electric cars or even production cuts for existing models. It’s a tough situation for everyone involved, especially smaller suppliers who might not be able to handle the financial strain.
This isn’t just a Ford problem. Other big automakers like GM are also struggling to make money on electric cars. They recently settled a lawsuit with owners of their Chevy Bolt EV after battery problems caused fires.
There’s some good news for Chevy Bolt EV owners who had to deal with those scary battery fires. GM agreed to pay up to $1,400 to those who got the software fix and at least $700 to others who were impacted.
This comes after they recalled half of their Bolt EVs from 2017-2021 to replace faulty batteries. Hopefully, GM learned a lot from this experience, especially considering the problems they’ve had with the Blazer EV’s software, too. Everyone’s hoping the next Bolt generation will be a much smoother ride.
Meanwhile, things are looking up for Tesla in China. After a rough start to the year with low sales and layoffs, they struck a deal with Chinese tech giant Baidu. This lets Tesla use Baidu’s maps and navigation system, plus they agreed to follow China’s data privacy rules.
This is a big win for Tesla’s self-driving car ambitions because it gives them access to a ton of valuable data to train their systems. Reports say Elon Musk is pushing ahead with this plan, possibly setting up a data center right in China.
