The Automotive Valley of Death

[r0tor]

Hydrogen only makes sense in the form of a fuel cell electric vehicle - and at that point why bother having the pricey fuel cell on board the car

[MrH]

Ford is having some problems negotiating its way through the Valley. It's just taken a beating shutting down its joint AI venture with VW, Argo. If someone else cracks the autonomy problem, Ford will be ordering it in.

https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/26/ford-vw-backed-argo-ai-is-shutting-down/

(There's also the debt problem - hope they'll be okay - Mach-E is a good sign)

What's the debt problem?

[Morris Minor]

What's the debt problem?

I'd thought they carry a pretty high debt burden - I think Renault is up there too.

[MrH]

I'd thought they carry a pretty high debt burden - I think Renault is up there too.

Nothing unusual compared to the industry norms.  There was a really bizarre thing floating around the Tesla twitter world about how all the incumbent OEMs are on their death bed due to the high amount of debt they carry.  But they all have captive financing arms except for Tesla.  When you look at their financials with Ford Credit removed, it's all pretty typical of the auto world.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4417862-captive-financing-arms-avoiding-pitfalls-in-comparing-teslas-balance-sheet-to-those-of-auto-oems