Ford is developing an EV platform for its next-gen vehicles, shifting away from VW’s MEB

Published

2 years ago

January 16, 2023

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As automakers race to solidify their position in the new era of electric vehicles, Ford is pulling from its past to gain an edge in the future. According to a new report, Ford expects to develop its own in-house platform, shifting from its previous alliance with Volkswagen.

Ford developing an in-house platform shifting from VW MEB

Ford partnered with Volkswagen in 2020 to use the German automaker’s Modular electric drive matric (MEB) platform to launch an electric vehicle in Europe.

Although Ford’s EV offerings consist of the F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E in the US, it wanted to take a more global approach, partnering with VW to produce “at least one, probably two passenger vehicles built off the MEB platform, and they will be at a lower price point than the Mustang Mach-E” according to the president of Ford Europe, Stuart Rowley.

To enter the evolving European market with maximum speed and profitability, it made sense at the time for Ford to partner with VW. The partnership is expected to double its planned volume to 1.2 million units over the next six years.

GM of Ford Model e Europe, Martin Sander, gave us a glimpse of what we can expect, teasing a photo of the EV under wraps with a comment, “can’t wait for 2023 to arrive when we will pull the cover off our first electric passenger vehicle coming from Cologne.”

Ford-VW-platform-EV — Ford EV on VW MEB (Source: Ford)

However, it seems the collaboration will be short-lived. According to a new report from Financial Times, Ford is looking to move away from VW’s MEB platform as it’s developing its own in-house system.

Martin Sander, head of electric vehicles in Europe, says the new system has:

No kind of integration [with VW], it is very versatile, very capable. We are exploring all kinds of opportunities, how far we can gom what kind of segments we can cover with this.

Meanwhile, Sanders says a final decision has yet to be made, and Ford is open to developing EVs with VW or other automakers.

Ford announced in October it would scrap Fiesta production as it works to trim its portfolio and focus on electric vehicles. Sanders also claims Ford may end gas-powered sales before the 2030 deadline if demand in the market moves faster than expected (like it always has).

Electrek’s Take

To enter the EU market as fast and profitably as possible, Ford likely made the right decision to partner with VW in the first place to use the automaker’s MEB platform.

However, Ford building its own EV platform makes a lot more sense to remain competitive in the future. The company can scale the technology and use it for a variety of models rather than limiting itself to using a rival’s architecture.

Although nothing is set in stone yet, Sanders mentioning Ford expects to launch EVs on its own “in-house system,” which Ford is engineering in the US, seems like that’s the direction the company is taking.

To compete with Tesla and General Motors, both of which have their own EV systems, Ford is likely to trend in that direction. In November, Ford CEO Jim Farley told reporters Ford is “going back to our Model A” in reference to building its own components and bringing production back.

What do you guys think? Should Ford go in its own direction or stick with VW? We’ll update you when we hear more about Ford’s EV platform plans.

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Environment

Oil giant Saudi Aramco posts 15% drop in third-quarter profit but maintains dividend

Published

3 hours ago

November 5, 2024

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Oil giant Saudi Aramco posts 15% drop in third-quarter profit but maintains dividend

Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura oil refinery and oil terminal

Ahmed Jadallah | Reuters

Saudi state oil giant Aramco reported a 15.4% drop in net profit in the third-quarter on the back of “lower crude oil prices and weakening refining margins,” but maintained a 31.05 billion dividend.

The company reported net income of $27.56 billion in the July-September period, topping a company-provided estimate of $26.9 billion. The print is also a 5% drop from the previous quarter, which came in at $29.1 billion, as lower global oil prices, weaker demand and prolonged OPEC+ production cuts led by Saudi Arabia continue to impact crude prices.

The average selling price of oil for the second quarter of 2024 stood at $85 per barrel, but dropped to $78.7 per barrel during the third quarter, according to Saudi-based bank Al Rajhi capital, as non-OPEC supply volumes grew.

The oil firm said its year-on-year decline was partly offset by a “reduction in selling, administrative and general expenses primarily driven by a gain from derivative instruments, and a decrease in production royalties largely reflecting lower crude oil prices and a lower average effective royalty rate compared to the same quarter last year.”

Aramco’s dividend includes a base payout of $20.3 billion and an atypical performance-linked one of $10.8 billion. The Saudi government and the kingdom’s sovereign wealth vehicle, the Public Investment Fund, are the main beneficiaries of the dividend, holding stakes of roughly 81.5% and 16% in the company.

The remaining shareholding trades freely on Saudi Arabia’s Tadāwul stock exchange, with the company having finalized its second public share offering back in June.

Aramco’s earnings before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) came in at $51.45 billion in the third quarter, down 17% year-on-year. Aramco’s capital expenditure guidance was brought up 20% to $13.23 billion.

The company was trading at 27.45 riyals following the announcement, down 0.18% on the previous day.

The earnings align with a broader trend across oil majors, whose third-quarter profits have also suffered from declines in crude prices and refining margins. Aramco said it achieved average realized crude price of $79.3 per barrel in the third quarter, compared with $89.3 per barrel in the same period of last year.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter who produces roughly 9 million barrels per day of crude at present, serves as the de facto leader of the OPEC+ oil producers’ alliance, a subset of whom agreed over the weekend to delay a planned December output hike by one month.

OPEC chief says delayed December output hike is 'nothing unusual'

“Aramco delivered robust net income and generated strong free cash flow during the third quarter, despite a lower oil price environment,” CEO Amin Nasser said in a statement. “We also progressed our upstream developments, strengthened our downstream value chain, and advanced our new energies program as we continue to invest through cycles.”

The revenues will be a boon to the Saudi economy, which is currently undergoing a diversification process under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s legacy Vision 2030 scheme spanning a slew of high-cost infrastructure “gigaprojects.”

Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance cut the kingdom’s growth forecast to 0.8% in 2024, in a steep decline from a previous projection of 4.4%, and raised the outlook for the national budgetary shortfall to roughly 2.9% of GDP, from a prior indication of 1.9%.

Environment

Cybertruck backlog runs out, Model S gets stuck, GM hits a sales milestone

Published

9 hours ago

November 5, 2024

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Cybertruck backlog runs out, Model S gets stuck, GM hits a sales milestone

On today’s episode of Quick Charge, Tesla’s Cybertruck is now available in Canada – and, like in the US, there’s no waiting! Plus, we’ve got an “actually” smart summon Tesla that’s actually stuck, GM reaches a sales milestone, and we get a brand-new title sponsor!

Today’s episode is the first with our new title sponsor, BLUETTI – a leading provider of portable power stations, solar generators, and energy storage systems.

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New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonusLucid proves than an EV company can keep its promises while Xiaomi teams up with Chevrolet and Honda to prove – at least conceptually – that records are made to be broken. audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news!

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Environment

This ‘supercharger on wheels’ brings fast charging to you [update]

Published

10 hours ago

November 4, 2024

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This 'supercharger on wheels' brings fast charging to you [update]

Mobile car care company Yoshi Mobility launched a DC fast charging EV mobile unit that it likens to “a supercharger on wheels.”

November 4, 2024 update: Yoshi Mobility will only be charging EVs on the side of the road now – it announced today that it’s selling its fleet fueling operation to EZFill Holdings (Nasdaq: EZFL).

It was originally founded as a direct-to-consumer, mobile fueling business in 2016, but now it’s going to focus on mobile EV charging, virtual vehicle inspections for partners like Uber and Turo, and onsite preventative maintenance.

Bryan Frist, Yoshi Mobility’s CEO & cofounder, said, “By spinning off our fuel business and focusing all of our energy on solving hair-on-fire problems that fleet owners face, we are meeting the changing needs of enterprise customers while making the future of transportation safer, cleaner, and more sustainable.”

May 22, 2024: Yoshi Mobility saw that its existing customers needed mobile EV charging in places where infrastructure has yet to be installed, so the Nashville-based company decided to bring the mountain to Moses.

“We recognized a demand among our customers for convenient daily charging, reliable private charging networks, and proper charging infrastructure to support their fleet vehicles as they transition to electric,” said Dan Hunter, Yoshi Mobility’s chief EV officer and cofounder.

The company says its 240 kW mobile DC fast charger, which can turn “any EV” into a mobile charging unit, is the first fully electric mobile charger available. It can provide multiple charges in a single trip but doesn’t detail how they charge the DC fast charger or who manufactured it. (I asked for more details, and they replied that they won’t disclose client names or the manufacturer of its DC fast charger yet.)

Yoshi is launching its mobile charger on two GM BrightDrop Zevo 600s and will introduce additional vehicles throughout 2024. It aims for full commercialization by Q1 2025. (I wonder if the Zevo 600 ever charges itself? Yes, I asked that too.)

Yoshi Mobility says it’s already deployed its EV charging solutions to service “major OEMs, autonomous vehicle companies, and rideshare operators” across the US. Its initial customers are made up of large EV operators managing “hundreds” of light-duty vehicles requiring up to 1 megawatt of energy per day that don’t yet have grid-connected EV chargers. I’ve asked Yoshi for details of who it’s working with, and will update if they share that info.

The company says pricing is based on location and enterprise charging needs. Once under contract for service, the service will be deployed to US-based customers within 10 days.

To date, Yoshi Mobility has raised more than $60 million, with investments from GM Ventures, Bridgestone, ExxonMobil, and Y-Combinator in Silicon Valley.

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