cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/32432803
“There are a lot more people out here living in abject poverty than what people like to think or admit to. You voted for this—and now we’re paying the price.”
Employees learned of the cuts on Monday in a video message from Michael Adams, CEO of BlueOval SK.
Adams announced the transition would mean “the end of all BlueOval SK positions in Kentucky.”
Red oblast problems. Zero sympathy and go find a job with Lada in fucking Russia.
That’s Mitch McConnell country, those greasy pricks love fucking up 🙏
To the ones who didn’t vote for this you have my support. For those that did you can fuck right off back to your cesspool life.
I was at the broadcast meeting for employees. They obviously spoke very underhandedly, but also it was incredibly rushed, seeing it pop up on my calendar the evening before. They really wanted to make sure those employees got canned before the holiday break.
No. They voted to be racist. They are too fucking dumb to think if anything else.
Yes, just because they also voted for racism, doesn’t absolve them of the rest of the plainly obvious shit they were voting for. Racism is expensive.
“Instead of plowing billions into the future knowing these large EVs will never make money, we are pivoting,” Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley said in an interview with the WSJ.
And yet, you “plowed billions into the future” by building a brand new goddamn factory, you idiot.
Factories take years and years to plan and build, it’s very likely that it was still reasonable that the USA wouldn’t elect Trump for a second term when the factory was approved
It was BlueOval’s factory though?
Wow their population is between 1900-2700. Obviously not every employee lives there, but it means less people going there / being there. That’s going to have catastrophic local effects.
Yup. All those lunches or coffee/something in the morning on the way to work. Gone. Have the day you voted for.
Plus half the fuel stations, since no-one is driving to work, and half the mechanics, and the car lots, and the car washes. And pretty much most of everything else, since belts will have to be further tightened than they already were.
Fucked around, found out. Zero sympathy.
Every month USA will be less and less competitive in the EV space. The world will not wait for us.
Ya they will…they’ll wait to pounce on a soft target.
“you voted for this”
-one of like 12 people in kentucky who didn’t vote for trump
At the same time, they didn’t vote for this.
16000 in the county this plant is in voted for Harris.
At our last contact negotiation one of the stewards said pretty much the same thing to a guy who would not shut the fuck up about how the company was doing better than it would let on. And that his department was being shuttered out of spite.
This was weeks after Trump was elected, and we all kind of knew tariffs were coming. We had stronger membership than we’d ever had but everyone was extremely nervous about how much steel would even be available to buy. Last time he was elected the company hemorrhaged money on steel because of the Cheeto.
So this guy was a well known trump supporter, and the Steward understandably lost his cool when the guy leveled one accusation after another at him.
He did end up keeping a job, he had to take RIF but he’s still employed.
I live in a purple county of a very red state. I get where he’s coming from. Most of the union guys vote for pro union candidates. “You voted for this” is something we all kind of think once a day.
Whoa, I want to point out that 2/3 of Kentucky adults didn’t vote for Trump.
That’s also a terrible statistic, because Trump voters outnumber all other voters by almost 2:1. I’m sure other half of eligible voters would not have turned the needle the other way, but 700k voters did not want him.
This is also partly Ford’s fault. The F150 Lightning is very heavy and very expensive. It’s capabilities as a truck aren’t that great for the pricetag. They needed to be making more smaller, affordable EVs than shooting for the moon.
They’re still making the Mustang Mach-E, and that CUV sells better than the actual Mustang.
Speaking of which, IDK why anyone would want a Mach-E. Sat in one and it was mind-blowing just how Spartan the interior of those cars are. Even the real Mustangs have have nicer interiors, and sports cars aren’t exactly known for their luxury. But the Mustang might as well be a Bugatti by comparison to the Mach-E.
Noticed that trend in a lot of EVs lately, actually. They all seem to have the same bare-bones, Tesla-like interiors: all you get is just a steering wheel, somefake leather seats, some vents, and a giant screen that covers half the dashboard. And they expect people to pay $100K for these econo-boxes.
Tesla somehow successfully rebranded minimalism as luxury, and that was spectacular for their bottom line while trying to sell electric vehicles to people for as cheaply as possible, which they absolutely needed to do because widespread adoption was going to be the only thing that would justify the proliferation of charging stations (where the real money is made).
Everybody else who tried to follow Tesla in the EV market (after sitting on their hands for years like idiots) thought the secret sauce was minimalism, when really it was just people compromising on features to have the ability to charge their car for a lot less money than it would have cost to fill it up with gasoline.
I bought a Mach-e back in April, yeah sure, the interior is pretty sparse, but I don’t mind, you can pick them up for $30,000 CAD at this point. Biggest plus in the back of my mind is I never have to pay for gas again, I’ve already saved so much money.
What do you mean? The Mach E actually has physical buttons for basically anything you need to do, which isn’t the case with many other EVs. You also have a dashboard behind the wheel that shows actual important stuff like your speed, battery, etc. I’ve driven it a couple times and I have never felt that I need to do anything with that iPad while I’m driving.
What market are you in where it costs over $100k? It’s not even that much in Sweden, where cars are usually much more expensive than the US.
The guys that founded Tesla (not Elon) actually did a great market analysis. They said EVs are expensive, so you don’t start at the budget end. You actually start at the expensive luxury end. With trucks though it’s hard because the buyers think they need a towing truck and the aerodynamics and thus range are awful.
The problem is everyone else followed that.
That strategy worked great for Tesla. It’s seems valid for lucid, although too early to tell. It seems to be working for Rivian but 2026 is what will determine that. These are all early adopters who were able to make a compelling high end vehicle.
But it hasn’t been an effective strategy for legacy manufacturers, those who are late to the party, who are producing same old vehicles with different power train. They don’t seem to notice that too many of their attempts just aren’t compelling
But more importantly the market conditions have changed. There already are compelling high end EVs. They’re not going into an empty market, they are late. EVs have found a niche and companies are supplying it. But what hasn’t happened (at least in the us) is that breakout to mass acceptance. What about the rest of us?
If I want a $100k EV, I have choices so why would I buy some legacy manufacturers half asses first attempt?. If I want a $50k EV I have choices, including those which have already been refined through a couple generations. Cars are slowly working their way into the general market. But if I can only afford a $30k car, where are my choices? Why isn’t ford looking at that market? The market has changed: they need to do their own research and should have gone where the opportunity is rather than copy those before
While I guess I have to applaud the Lightning as an attempt to break open a new market segment, they should have known going in that these are your most conservative customers. They want what they got last time, they’re not trying anything new, and they’re not compromising even in features they never use. It was always going to be tough
You have this all mixed up. New features are always expensive. So new feautes always start at the top end and work their way down. Then as you get the design nailed down, the supply chain flowing, and economies of scale working the price works its way down. Manufacturers don’t get to say “I want it cheap” and poof it’s cheap.
To be fair, the F-Series trucks make up almost 39% of all vehicles fold by Ford in the USA (2024), plus . Americans overwhelming want big trucks from Ford, they’re listening to their customers, their customers are just wrong though lol.
Ford Brand Total - 1,974,009
Ford Trucks Total - 1,158 964
F-Series - 765,649
They yearn for the coal mines.
To be fair, people have been voting with their wallet as well. EVs aren’t hitting the sales numbers the auto manufacturers wanted them to hit. Removing the subsidies doesn’t help. Well it doesn’t help US manufacturers, it does help China get ahead in the EV market and be better positioned for the future.
This is technically true, but misses the context of massive PR and smear campaigns against EVs on social media. People voted with their wallet after being bombarded with propaganda on EVs being somehow more dangerous, somehow worse for the environment, and that it’s more fun apparently to go to a gas station every week.
Me, an EV owner who hasn’t gone to a gas station in 2 years now, has had no maintenance, and happily charges at home
I think it’s more the price than anything else. Tesla is nowhere near a premium car, let alone a luxury one, but sells for luxury car prices. Of course other manufacturers wanted to jump on this train with spectacular profit margins.
For most A to B drivers a new EV is completely out of their price range. Not to mention a bunch of them live in apartments so they would effectively still have to go to a “gas” station to fill up, except now it takes 3 times as long.
Price is the only reason that I’ve seen that I respect. They are more expensive. If you can afford one I recommend switching, if you can’t then I understand.
No charging at home is doable, but it wouldn’t be easy, so I also respect that one - but I recommend something like a plugin hybrid for when you can.
For 80% of Americans who have at least 2 cars and a garage though, there’s no reason not to have one of them be an EV. You have a place to charge at home so you never need gas, and yes it’s more expensive but if you have a garage and can afford more than one car, then maybe hold on for the extra 10k to get an EV.
I love how everyone was freaking out about the effects of EVs on the grid but no one gives a fuck about AI’s energy usage.
Instead of trolling here with arguments outside the scope, take your discussion to @FuckAI
This is within the scope of the conversation and the community.
Turns out it was never them being worried about the power usage at all…
Lots of people give a fuck about AI’s energy usage, but the data centers are paying off the people that could do something about it.
I get what you’re saying but EVs are totally different than data centers in terms of electrical load distribution.
EV can help smooth out usage spikes with two way energy transfer.
That’s nice in theory but reality is if that were happening and people’s vehicles battery charge started going down while they were plugged in at home, they’d unplug. They plugged it in because they wanted to recharge for later, not because they want to help the grid.
If your on the larger Internet you’ll find there are lots of people concerned about AI data centers to the point they’re protesting. If we were to switch to EV enmass the grid would need upgrades and since its in largely private hands those upgrades would be slow and expensive.
The electric F150 lost 5 figures on everyone sold so its not surprising that Ford was looking for a reason to stop production.
Yeah, but the EV companies could have ran counter attacks if it was that easy.
If it provides any context at all, I want my next vehicle to be an EV. I’ve already had my electrician run large enough conduit to add L2 charging to my garage when I added electricity to my garage this year. My dream vehicle is actually the Rivian R1T.
Having a charger at home is honestly so freaking nice. I just don’t think about gas or gas stations or anything. I will never go back to ICE vehicles after this one
It was strange talking to my brother about that - I showed him the data that last year I needed to use a supercharger three times in road trips, never more than 20 minutes. Otherwise I charge at home for half price. All those weeks of never going to a gas station are somehow outweighed by the very small number of times I need to charge in a trip.
I did eventually persuade him but he bought the Chevy
behemothSilverado because he thinks he needs to drive 7 hours at a stretch instead of fivePeople talk about EVs like they do long haul 12 hour road trips every week and that it’s just “imposssssible” to have an EV. Like, it’s not nearly as bad as people make it sound, and then even then if it is terrible just keep an ICE vehicle around for them. Apparently I’m a weird one with 99% of my trips being commuting, going to the grocery store, random errands, and short 20ish mile drives.
I try to tell people this all the time. They always say they’re worried about range and I slays remind them that it’s plugged in when you’re home so you always start the day with full range. Unlike an ICE where your range dwindles with every drive until you make a specific stop at a gas station. Also not having to worry about oil changes has to be amazing.
Though, if I started at home, drove out of town to where I’m staying for the night, and the woman/friend/family member/hotel I’m sleeping at doesn’t have a charger, then I start the day severely depleted and have to go find the nearest charger god knows where and then hang out there for what I assume is at least a couple hours.
With gas, yeah you have to get gas, but gas stations are everywhere and I don’t have to wait for the gas to charge, it just dumps in the tank and I’m back moving in under 5min.
A prime example of the argument propaganda has pushed.
How do I know? Because I’ve seen this argument literally hundreds of times and it’s so easily bunked.
How often do you actually make that drive? Is it every month or more? I highly highly doubt that you’re driving that far that frequently.
If it’s that rare? Rent a car. It’ll be less than buying gas.
Or, if you have a two car household have one EV and one ice. Take the ice on long trips and then 99% of the trips you take near home it’s ev.
Even if they make that drive every month, a plugin hybrid would be a vastly better solution. I used to have a job I did have to make the trip every month. I really wanted a plugin hybrid for that reason.
It’s not a couple hours it’s like 15-30 minutes.
Really? That’s pretty damn fast, I’m impressed. Is that all brands or just some? If that’s like a “just tesla” thing I’m right out, not buying a car that has spy cameras and can be bricked remotely, and that’s before the politics even come into play lol, and that applies to new ice vehicles too.
30min is definitely more doable. Still inconvenient but not like hours inconvenient.
Yes, for that rare occurrence you will be inconvenienced. Meanwhile every other day of your life will be more convenient.
Rare for you, not necessarily rare for everyone.
What’s more, I have a townhouse with an HOA I hate, not even sure I’m allowed to install a charger out front of my house. And before that when I was renting apartments what am I supposed to run an extension cord from my bedroom down to the parking lot?
Not everyone has the privileged homebody life you may, happy for you though.
The problem for me is the absolutely criminal rates for DC fast charging, and the fact that almost every EV charger is trying to lock you in to an ecosystem. This is pretty easy to fix though.
What I learned driving my EV for a year is that people don’t have range anxiety, they have charging anxiety. When you are on a trip in your EV, it is very difficult to find a charger without pulling over and futzing around in a few apps. Meanwhile, for gas cars, they’ve had 2+ stations at every exit for the last hour with prices on billboards that can be seen from miles away.
This is valid, the charging infrastructure was getting much better than stalled ironically because people said “the charging infrastructure isn’t good enough”. If a trip is long enough sometimes we just rent a car
My “break even” point where it costs the same to use my EV or my wife’s civic is one stop to recharge. If a trip is going to take 2 or more fast charges, it’s cheaper to to take the other car.
People want simple, repairable EVs for less than $80k. There is a reason they wont allow the cheap chinese EVs into america, they would destroy the american auto makers overnight.
and most people don’t want an ipad on wheels. I know most cars are just screens now, but I don’t know of any EVs that has buttons, knobs, or actual window cranks. I don’t want to go 3 screens deep just to turn on the AC.
I sat in an Hyundai Inster recently. The interiour was almost identidal to my old I10. The price tag, though…
Gonna take this opportunity to be a corporate shill and praise my Kia EV6. They really nailed the layout of the dash. It’s a good blend of digital and physical. Hope more manufacturers learn from them.
Hyundai and Kia seemed to figure thar out pretty quick.
Similar for the cheaper EV3.
My only design gripe is that the climate control info is all directly behind the steering wheel, so I need to lean over to see it.
There was a company pitching this idea a while ago.
Yep… here it is
I don’t have to go 3 screens deep to turn on my AC in my EV…
Popping the trunk, or turning on the windshield defogger is another story though. Hit the HVAC button on the bottom right of the center screen, then hit the defog option, then close the menu, and set your temp and fan speed from the main screen. Good thing you never need to mess with that while you are driving, it would be very distracting.
Totally agree. It’s funny now that it seems luxury has come back full circle to adding buttons again. I remember in the 90s the joke was that luxury cars had way too many buttons. Then people complained about the blanks covering where buttons would be if you bought a higher trim so they just got rid of buttons all together.
The transition requires incentives, and if we don’t do it someone else China? will.
Yeah, I mentioned that.
