Show Notes with links:
Ohio based Electric truck manufacturer Lordstown Motors has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and is now taking legal action against Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn, accusing them of fraudulent conduct and a series of broken promises, including not abiding by an agreement to invest up to $170 million.
The Chevy Silverado EV is about to begin commercial production, promising a 450-mile range backed by a whopping 200+kWh battery. However, due to recent supply chain and economic pressures, Chevy is set to increase the initial $39,900 price point of the base model upon its 2024 launch.
In the ongoing positioning of EV manufacturing, Ford Motor Co. is preparing to lay off hundreds of salaried engineers across all three of its divisions; EVs, ICE, and commercial vehicles to boost profitability and cut costs amid its $50 billion transition to electric vehicles.
Paul Daly: 0:28It's Tuesday. We're happy to be here. We're happy to be here. We have all kinds of things I don't even know. I feel like there's some like downers,but there's always a bright side. So, you know, we talk about everything all the time.And we keep it happy.
Kyle Mountsier: 0:41
The people young, lots of bright side.Right side. We're talking all about trucks today.
Unknown: 0:51
Have you ever owned a truck that did you put that in that in all about truck? I did.I did. Have you ever owned a truck? Like a pickup truck? But me neither and I was this close.I mean this close once. And then you know what got me. I was like, I don't want to park a pickup truck at the airport.That garage is tight enough. You are literally that was what made me I ain't got the first comment. We got to put it up Chicago. Adrian coming in.Brian's letting Jordan know he's awake. But their business up in the comments.
Kyle Mountsier: 1:30
On the truck side of things, I legit so often want to truck and then I look at my garage. And I'm like, There's no way on God's green earth.There's a truck fitting in that garage doesn't want to truck. My garage doesn't want to truck and I just I cannot. I'm just I'm it this is maybe bad. But I can't fathom not parking my car in a garage that
Paul Daly: 1:52
oh, that's BuJo Oh,yeah. It's you parked both both cars in the garage. Yep. It's like, look, once you do, I mean,you don't even have snow. In upstate New York when I got a garage. It changed my life. I spent a decade more than a decade in like us, New York to get some a lot more snow than Syracuse and just like shoveling and I pulled out of the garage.And I was like, so this is why I see cars on the road with no snow in them. It's amazing. It is
Kyle Mountsier: 2:19
unbelievably really hard to go back super hot or super cold or anything rainy,rainy, or
Paul Daly: 2:25
you got kids, right.You can deploy the kids into the garage to get in the car and know they're at least contained.Right. And once they're big enough to like, open the garage door. You can trust them by that point with a lot of things.
Kyle Mountsier: 2:36
I speak in a Bougie trucks. Oh, you
Paul Daly: 2:38
saw one yesterday?
Kyle Mountsier: 2:39
I did. I saw a rivian Yesterday, buddy of mine came by to pick up some stuff that was stored in my house. And that whole nine yards. See?Well,
Paul Daly: 2:47
no, no. Hold on before you continue. Yeah,that's the best way. Right? You have a friend with a truck.Exactly. Like having a friend with a boat. That's a
Kyle Mountsier: 2:56
friend with the thing that you wish you had.Exactly. But first of all, the truck is super clean. He ordered it on March 1. Got it on April1, because we've talked about this but they he got one of the quad motors which is the ones they have kind of sitting on the shelf right now. But the coolest thing about the truck and you can see it if you're if you're watching the video, the photo,the back trailer or the or the chair is on is on hinges. And they're spring. They're like they're tied to the frame. So actually, it is a weight bearing part of the tailgate. So even though the tailgates only like four, four and a half feet, you get that additional space and he's like yeah, it's like totally weight bearing, you can put a full ATV and have to have the tire sitting on that thing and not a problem. And it's like lay flat so you can put you know the it all slides out all nice and
Paul Daly: 3:51
it looks like it's never It looks cool, but it looks like it's never gonna have an ATV on it. It's probably
Kyle Mountsier: 3:58
because speaking of bougie trucks
Paul Daly: 4:06
Ohio based electric truck manufacturer and Lordstown motors is filed for Chapter 11.bankruptcy protection is now taking legal action against Taiwanese manufacturer, Foxconn,accusing them of fraudulent conduct and a series of broken promises, including not abiding by an agreement to invest up to170 million in the company. So you know, Foxconn right they assemble the iPhones. They previously invested 52 plus million dollars in Lordstown motors, and they have about an8.4% stake. They said Lordstown breached their investment contract when the share price went under $1 per share. So basically Lordstown Ohio is where the company is founded really great, you know, like red blooded American town they were this was going to be kind of the Savior of the town auto manufacturing EVs. It was a big deal. And their product, the pickup called the endurance, it just had a lot of issues right and all the challenges of a new startup and And then on top of it, the CEO Steven burns resigned in 2021, after acknowledging overstatements will call that of pre orders for its trucks. So now Lordstown just didn't have enough cash to continue stock price under $1.And, you know, there are some questions around what Fox Khan's actual plan is to let the company go under because they obviously have a lot of other contracts and partnerships with some growing Evie partners to manufacture evey trucks. So some overseas manufacturers might be moving into Lordstown, Ohio, I mean, hopefully the factory stays running people stay employed that be a win but I mean, hey, this is one of those examples of a lot of exciting Ronnie V's a lot of vision around EVs really, really hard to make a vehicle we're gonna
Kyle Mountsier: 5:46
see this is not the first time that we've seen a manufacturer really struggled to enter the market and and, you know, there are people that have called back to like, the early1900s where like, there were 200OEMs attempting to take advantage of the market and we're still left you know, with under 30 and mass market OEMs at this point,
Paul Daly: 6:05
there's one answer actually there's more than one in Syracuse buildings like they used to make cars in that building.
Kyle Mountsier: 6:09
Exactly. So you know, the prime opportunity here is new real estate well done manufacturing process can another Evie manufacturer or historical like legacy manufacturer come in, take a take the real estate opportunity, especially with,you know, having Foxconn already on the bill for that thing and Fox on being a known technology provider. I you know, I think that there's opportunity here it's sad to see like, you know,like hometown
Paul Daly: 6:43
American companies
Kyle Mountsier: 6:44
good like not just a good story and and it just looks like it's not going to cut it so we'll see what happens there. It's you know,you just hate to see like good company, good potential companies go down I don't care whether it's a small big business, big business auto or anything else so hopeful that jobs keep rolling. The market
Paul Daly: 7:05
always gets to choose. Speaking of the market choosing this that really good sales speaking of heavy things,heavy things everything
Kyle Mountsier: 7:14
heavy, heavy in a different way,
Paul Daly: 7:16
you know heavy the Chevy Silverado, Evie is about to begin commercial production,promising a 450 mile range backed by a gigantic 200kilowatt battery. However, due to recent supply chain and economic pressure, Chevy is set to increase the initial starting price point. Be surprised no way from the initial price of a very reasonable $39,900. So basically, GM closed orders for the truck, you can no longer order one because they have185,000 existing commercial orders. So they started production on the commercial trucks. Deliveries are expected to begin soon, and then they'll open back up consumer orders and then they'll announce the new starting price. But let me give you some stats on this truck right. This is ridiculous. First of all, it weighs 8500 pounds. A base level Silverado weighs just about 4400 pounds. So do the math there. You know, big, big super heavy duty ones can get up in that 7000 pound range, but8500 the tires 61 psi, just in case you didn't know like your car that you drive is like 35
Kyle Mountsier: 8:26
Right? 35 To 37Something like that. I just don't even know if like the gas station tire pump thing. Does that
Paul Daly: 8:33
go to 60? Does that go to 60? I don't know I've never dial is never set past 30something. So get this to 200kilowatt battery is actually 50%larger than the battery that's in the F 150 Lightning. Right.So a Chevy Bolt, as example has a 65 kilowatt battery. My goodness, so so it's super heavy tires, high psi, the battery itself is heavier than most sedans, right. And CarPlay still works for now. But when you try to sync up CarPlay it actually gives you a notification saying in future software updates it will no longer be available.We'll see about that. We'll see about that. I do
Kyle Mountsier: 9:11
not see it coming. I can't see it coming.
Paul Daly: 9:14
But it's gonna be fun to watch this truck that f150lightning hit first. The Silverado is like, at least you can tell this one's different from the front. Yeah, like about the lightning. You're like well,it's funny
Kyle Mountsier: 9:25
because I don't know I saw you know, following Jim Farley on on LinkedIn and the other day he was like, we make trucks that look like trucks. Oh, cuz he
Paul Daly: 9:35
was like the cyber.Yeah, said the cyber truck isn't for real people, I
Kyle Mountsier: 9:38
believe.Exactly. He was like we're still making trucks that look like trucks. You know the Silverado is akin to the current Silverado but definitely has a different look and feel on the front and even the rear tailgate. It blows my mind that it's at 500 pounds.Now, Paul, right before the show we were talking about the fact that just maybe five or six, six months ago So we were talking about how the trucks carrying these trucks on our poor highways at 500 pounds
Paul Daly: 10:10
times how many cars fit on a carrier?
Kyle Mountsier: 10:13
What nine nine cars at night is nine or
Paul Daly: 10:17
we were talking before the show the big punch line is no one's ever seen nine in the same place anyway,
Kyle Mountsier: 10:21
so I haven't had had that issue but really how do you do that right 72,000 pounds is that right? Yeah, because like 70 80,000 pounds plus the weight of the carrier Yeah, the original like the poundage that was this was like a 55,000 pound max limit on Highway trucking and so to put 8500 pounds of these things on these trucks is just that's going to be an unbelievable proposition and just like what it's going to do to roads what it's going to do to driveways like can can our current standards for
Paul Daly: 10:53
the truck even pull it all right I have a look it up Alright submit I was like what is a concrete truck? Why you see those things going down? Oh yes tires. almost flat. Nothing's just making all the noise getting up. A full cement truck is only 66,000 pounds. Golly,yeah, I don't know who's gonna solve that well, but somebody's on it.
Kyle Mountsier: 11:14
I'm sure it's a good good thing is 61 psi, you know if that thing blows don't even don't get in its way.
Paul Daly: 11:23
Speaking things getting in things way of profit.Yeah, before segue. We told you today. There's some
Kyle Mountsier: 11:31
hard take it up at the end and the ongoing positioning of evey manufacturing Ford Motor Company is preparing to layoff hundreds of salaried engineers across all three of its divisions. That's EVs, ice and commercial vehicles to boost profitability and cut costs amid its 50 billion transition to a $50 billion transition to electric vehicles.Earlier this year, Jim Farley did say that the company didn't need as many as 25% more engineers. So kind of like,where are we headed with this thing? Dr. Reid, a spokesperson for Ford stated, We're not cost competitive. We have specific priorities and ambitions that have implications for skills,assignments and staffing needs.These changes are consistent with that they'll make us cost effective. You know, Ford has already been talking and a lot of the Evie manufacturers and legacy manufacturers have been talking about when they get to price parity, in EVs with their ice vehicles and their commercial vehicle sets. So I'm sure this is like a continue stockholder, you know, a peaceful push to try and get closer to price parity. But it does, it does stand to reason that as your production changes,and your product changes your engineering requirements, we need to change as well. So that's gonna ramp back
Paul Daly: 12:51
up, I think this is kind of almost like a reshuffling if they need. That's what
Kyle Mountsier: 12:55
it is, you know,it's like, Hey, this is just,you know, the, these are the team members, or the people that maybe we don't need based on a new product, you know,requirements,
Paul Daly: 13:04
or maybe they found a way to get Chet GPT to do engineering.
Kyle Mountsier: 13:07
Oh, boy. See there?
Paul Daly: 13:09
There it is, you know, it's like, we're talking about, like, all these things,and all these big pieces moving around in the industry. And what is so cool about the industry,and what is so cool about working in a dealership and being in a community that these things are happening, and it's cool to be aware of them and just know what's going on and around. But like, I'm looking through the comments, and I see Brian Ortega, and Adrian, and John and Cirilo and Chris Murray. It's like these are people that are in the Dirt Every Day. And we have a far,far greater impact in the Dirt Every Day than these large sweeping changes are so called sweeping change because at the end of the day, a car is going to show up at the dealership lot someone's going to show up with the need with kids with stuff the tow right with with a budget, and there's only one way they're getting from that need into an actual vehicle. That's a fit and that's through a dealership from someone who cares, man listening,
Kyle Mountsier: 13:58
and I love it because it's like I still see yesterday on LinkedIn, three dealers saying hey, we're building stores with our manufacturing partners, we're putting down deeper roots, you know, we're building these gorgeous places for people to to do business. So, like the ground game is still strong. You know,being aware of things that are happening, things that are on the horizon is extremely important. But being in the dirt every single day, we're at the end of the month, we got three days left to go four days left to go. Like that's important to now to your employees to your customers, everybody that like stay in where you're at.
Paul Daly: 14:35
And we're going to answer the best question last Michael Cirillo asks, I want to know how much my truck weighed when I filled the bed with water and turn it into a swimming pool for my kids. Hey, just another idea if you want to do something with your pickup, Evie, whatever that is. Kill the music. That was that was the weirdest outro ever. Because I kill the music.We're gonna do a restart.Because I don't I would not feel good if we left the outro without the beat dropping again.So look, we get it wrong sometimes you get it wrong sometimes but that's cool,because we keep trying. We're gonna get right next time.