Will Ford's aluminum-bodied F-150 drive their stock? I think so!
Review: 2015 Ford F-150
Excerpt "the lightweight metal is also an indicator of a better truck":
Despite aluminum’s cost premium over steel, Ford kept price increases for its F-150 to less than $500 in some cases, but that doesn’t temper the shock of just how expensive full-size trucks have become. We drove a low-spec four-door XLT model with the 2.7-liter EcoBoost V-6, cloth seats, rear-wheel drive, and relatively few creature comforts that carried a sticker price of $42,875. That’s a problem that doesn’t plague just Ford, but the entire full-size-truck segment. If you’re going to spend that kind of money on a truck, though, the F-150 best justifies its price. Its aluminum body and bed mark a sea change in an industry that so often drifts with the current. Just as aluminum often indicates top-shelf beer these days, the lightweight metal is also an indicator of a better truckTruck Wars: The Ultimate Question Facing Ford Motor Company's 2015 F-150
Excerpt:
It appears that consumers are indeed ready to accept an aluminum-bodied truck. It only appears that Ford's 2015 F-150 is too far advanced because its competition is so far behind. Make no mistake, this is a huge gamble on Ford's part, and it could become a huge and costly mistake -- but if Ford executes the launch flawlessly and consumers follow through on their interest, it could be a huge win.This chart shows huge gains ahead for Ford
Excerpt:
The stock appears to be targeting a return to its 52-week highs at $18.12 per share, he said. “Ford continues to look very bullish here technically,” Newton said. “It looks very good.” Despite a large pullback in the stock over the summer, Ford’s stock held what Newton sees as a long-term uptrend in place since 2008. The stock’s low at $13.26 in October tested the uptrend and coincided with the 50 percent retracement level of the stock’s 2012 to 2014 rally. It subsequently bounced from there.Comment: 5 years ago (July 2009), in one of my first stock trades, I bought 100 shares of Ford for under $ 7. Image source is screen capture from Ford
My brother has a 2006 F-250. Very nice.
ReplyDeleteI've been looking at Ford sales figures. The F-150 is between 1/4 and 1/3 of all Ford sales.
ReplyDeleteFord Presses Ahead With Developing Fuel-Efficient Vehicles
ReplyDeleteFord Motor Co. , one of the world’s largest car makers, will press ahead with developing more fuel-efficient vehicles even as lower oil prices make the strategic push less of an urgent matter, a senior company executive said Wednesday.
The Detroit-based car giant has spent some $3 billion in the past five years to develop a lighter-weight and therefore more fuel-efficient version of its F-150 pickup. That model contributes around half of the company’s overall North American earnings. But oil prices globally have been declining, resulting in lower gasoline prices at the pump, potentially denting demand for cars that burn less fuel.
Ford, however, has no plans to alter its strategy of developing more fuel-efficient cars in response to the global oil price drop, the company’s executive chairman said in Dubai.
“Fuel is a cost and any time we can save our customers money I think that is a good thing,” said Bill Ford, who is the great-grandson of the company’s founder Henry Ford. “It was absolutely the right thing to do, we will continue to push on that issue,” he said.
The fuel savings are minimal
ReplyDeleteEditorial: Look To The Future For Further Ford Fuel Savings
With its unprecedented shift to an aluminum body for the next Ford F-150, the Blue Oval appeared to be pivoting towards a serious improvement in fuel economy. But with the release of the official EPA figures, the newest truck appears to offer only modest improvements.
Ford's new F-150 to get 26 mpg, tops among pickups:
ReplyDeleteSome analysts thought the truck might even top 30 mpg after Ford's multi-billion dollar investment to develop and produce it. The final figure met Ford's expectations of a more modest improvement, and represents 13 percent greater fuel economy than the current F-150.
With gas now averaging $2.84 per gallon, the aluminum F-150 will save the average buyer only $100 to $200 a year in fuel costs over competing gasoline models from General Motors and Chrysler, said Larry Dominique, president of the ALG auto forecasting firm.
Ford's New F-150 Improves Fuel Economy by 5-29%
ReplyDeleteRecycling Twist Cuts Ford Truck Costs
ReplyDelete- Same Trucks That Deliver Aluminum Take Scrap Back to Mills for Reprocessing:
Ford Motor Co. ’s decision to build a lighter-weight pickup truck using aluminum body-panels has been billed largely as a way to achieve better fuel economy. The company’s boss says it is also a recycling play.
The 2015 F-150, perhaps the most important vehicle to hit Ford dealerships in decades, goes on sale this month. By the time a new truck exits the factory and heads for the showroom, it will have left behind $300 worth of scrap aluminum on the plant floor.
That scrap is collected, cleaned, and sent back to the aluminum plant on the same trucks that delivered it fresh—creating what Chief Executive Mark Fields calls a “closed loop” that helps offset the expense of building its best-selling vehicle with a material that is far pricier than steel.
“Every single scrap of aluminum is reused,” Mr. Fields said in an interview. “The more you can reuse or recycle, it makes it a more compelling business case.”
Every day, about 50 semi tractor-trailers drive out of Ford’s F-150 plant in Dearborn, Mich., with thousands of pounds of shredded aluminum, scrap that was stamped out of six-foot-wide aluminum rolls used to make F-150 body panels. Only 60% to 65% of a roll is actually used in the stamping process because many body panels have big holes, such as windows.
Cheap gas has Ford investors nervous over 2015 F-150:
ReplyDeleteGasoline in the US continues its weeks-long descent with prices down about 13 cents a gallon over last week to $2.544, which is lower by around 69 cents/gallon from this time last year, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Many drivers are welcoming the lower bills at the gas station as a fantastic holiday gift, but Ford investors are somewhat spooked over the potential sales implications for the 2015 F-150.
Market analyst Rod Lache of Deutsche Bank recently downgraded Ford's stock from a buy to hold, according to TheDetroitBureau.com, and his report to investors may have played a part in a drop in the company's share price. Lache praised the truck's powertrain and lightweight technology, but wrote, "We question whether consumers will pay the price for this content with $2-$3 gas," in his report, according to the website.
Whether buyers actually turn away from the F-150 is mostly speculative at this point because it only recently began production. With around 700 pounds of weight loss thanks in parts to its new aluminum parts, the latest Ford pickup offers up to 26 miles per gallon on the highway, plus segment-best payload and towing ratings. Prices are up somewhat in part to pay for additional standard features, though.
Aluminum Ford F-150 earns five-star crash rating :
ReplyDeleteThe scores are in, and the 2015 Ford F-150 has been awarded a five-star Overall Vehicle Score in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's testing. That makes it, according to Ford, the safest F-150 ever.
"The five-star safety rating is a terrific example of One Ford collaboration and innovation," Vice President of Global Product Development Raj Nair said in a statement. "Our truck team worked together for years to deliver this accomplishment, using an unprecedented combination of advanced materials throughout the all-new F-150. The 2015 model is engineered to be the safest F-150 ever, which matters to customers who depend on this truck to not only get the job done, but also get them safely home."