Ford's mess is a really good case of them just not reading the room....5 years ago they had a lot going on; F-150 selling in masses, at strong margins, with no signs of slowing, Mustang too, the shift to crossover/SUV working in their favor, lots of fresh Police contracts on Explorer, etc. Then they put all their eggs into one very expensive EV basket, with the economy in a precarious state and rising inflation / interest rates. Never mind the fact that the lightning is a turd from a functionality standpoint.
The Koreans will come out the winners on this, as I've said many times, from a purely economic standpoint, there's no beating a simple naturally aspirated four cylinder, 140hp, mechanically simple, cheap to produce, cheap to own, etc. Compact sedan or compact CUV, when finances get tight, that's where the volume is going to go because the math works.
I wouldn't mind seeing Ford succeed though; they're building 'Blue Oval City', their newest/largest manufacturing campus about 30 minutes away from our new place in TN....Potential there to bring a lot of economic activity to an otherwise pretty slow area of SW Tennessee. Likely won't hurt real estate in the area either.
