(DailyAnswer.org) – Ford announced in January 2024 that it would cut back on staff working on its F-150 Lightning truck and hire hundreds more to work on gas vehicles. As the demand for electric vehicles plummets, Ford is cutting 1,400 workers from the F-150 production line at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center and reducing the scale of its production down to a single shift. After initially planning to produce 3,200 F-150 Lightnings each week, the manufacturer has opted to cut production in half down to 1,600 per week. Ford announced it would create nearly 900 jobs and a third crew at its assembly plant in Michigan to produce Ranger pickup trucks and Bronco SUVs.
Ford is not the only company to shift back in favor of gas vehicles after the growth of electric vehicle sales slowed significantly over the course of 2023; car rental giant Hertz sold off over 20,000 electric vehicles and opted to replace them with gas vehicles, citing the high costs of repairing them and lack of demand as reasons. Morgan Stanley analysts agreed with Hertz’s decision, stressing the reality that electric vehicles are not that popular and arguing that expectations for the growth of the electric vehicle industry need to be significantly reduced. Over 3,700 car dealers in the US wrote to President Joe Biden at the end of 2023, stating that the goal to have two-thirds of all new cars electric by 2032 is extremely unrealistic and that even with incentives to buy them, the demand is low.
Numerous concerns persist among consumers about electric vehicles, including unfamiliarity with the product, concerns about how long the charge lasts, a limited charging network, and the high costs and interest rates of electric vehicles. The dealers stressed in their letter to Biden that no polls or think tanks knew more about automobile customers than they did and that though they are happy to provide electric cards to the customers who want them, many are not interested in changing from gas to electric.
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