Volvo kills plans for all-electric lineup by 2030 amid industry shift



Volvo has declared that it has abandoned plans to sell only electric cars by the end of the decade. The Swedish auto manufacturer is the latest carmaker to walk back ambitious electric vehicle plans.

Volvo was one of the first automakers to promise an electric-only lineup. However, Volvo has scrapped its plan to sell only electric vehicles – just three years after it pledged it would "become a fully electric car company by 2030."

'It is clear that the transition to electrification will not be linear, and customers and markets are moving at different speeds of adoption.'

Volvo said the company needed to "adjust its electrification ambitions due to changing market conditions and customer demands."

"Going forward, Volvo Cars aims for 90 to 100 percent of its global sales volume by 2030 to consist of electrified cars, meaning a mix of both fully electric and plug-in hybrid models – in essence, all cars with a cord," the car company stated in a press release shared on Wednesday.

Volvo noted, "This replaces the company’s previous ambition for its lineup to be fully electric by 2030."

“We are resolute in our belief that our future is electric,” said Jim Rowan, CEO of Volvo Cars. “An electric car provides a superior driving experience and increases possibilities for using advanced technologies that improve the overall customer experience."

Rowan admitted, "However, it is clear that the transition to electrification will not be linear, and customers and markets are moving at different speeds of adoption. We are pragmatic and flexible, while retaining an industry-leading position on electrification and sustainability.”

Volvo blamed "slower than expected rollout of charging infrastructure, withdrawal of government incentives in some markets and additional uncertainties created by recent tariffs on EVs in various markets" for the lower demand for electric vehicles.

Volvo Cars proclaimed there is a "need for stronger and more stable government policies to support the transition to electrification."

The car company said it expects to feature 50% to 60% of its lineup as electrified vehicles by 2025.

Volvo said the share of fully electric cars in its lineup stood at 26% during the second quarter of 2024, adding that this is the highest level among its premium peers. The car company stated that EVs and hybrid vehicles account for 48% of its lineup.

Volvo is owned by the Chinese car company Geely. Volvo and Geely also own the Polestar EV brand.

Last week, Bloomberg reported that Polestar had suffered $242.3 million in operating losses for the second quarter. Polestar admitted that revenue had dropped 17% to $574.9 million due to “lower global volumes and higher discounts.”

Bloomberg reported, "Once a vanguard of the electric-car movement, Polestar is grappling with high costs and increasing competition from new players, including from China. At the same time, consumer demand for EVs is waning amid high inflation and the end of subsidies in key markets, forcing some carmakers to offer discounts."

Volvo's reversal of ambitious goals of electric vehicles comes at a time when other automakers have dialed back their commitments to EVs.

As Blaze News previously reported last month, Ford Motor Company announced measures to scale back multiple EV plans. Ford killed plans to manufacture a large, three-row electric SUV. The American auto manufacturer also developed a new plan to focus on smaller, cheaper EVs as the future, while hybrid technology will be utilized for powering larger vehicles. Ford will also reduce future capital expenditure plans on pure EVs from 40% to 30%. Ford's EV division is reportedly on pace to lose as much as $5.5 billion this year.

Three years ago, Mercedes-Benz proclaimed it would feature an all-electric car lineup in 2030 "where market conditions allow." However, in February, Mercedes backpedaled and indicated it would continue to manufacture internal combustion engine cars and hybrids well past 2030.

"Spurred on by weaker than expected demand for EVs, this about-face was the most recent indication that the global car industry is growing increasingly pessimistic about an all-electric future," according to Forbes.

Reuters reported in June that General Motors downgraded its 2024 EV production forecast from 300,000 units to 250,000.

Porsche watered down its plans to become an all-electric car company in July.

"The transition to electric cars is taking longer than we thought five years ago," Porsche said in a statement. "Our product strategy is set up such that we could deliver over 80% of our vehicles as all electric in 2030 – dependent on customer demand and the development of electromobility."

According to Edmunds sales data, new car sales of electric vehicles in the U.S. were only 6.8% in May 2024.

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Ford becomes latest company to reject DEI initiatives — Human Rights Campaign resorts to name-calling after slew of losses



The Ford Motor Company walked back some DEI initiatives following pushback from conservatives. The Human Rights Campaign — America’s largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization — reacted to Ford's new direction by slinging insults after suffering its latest repudiation by a major company.

On Thursday, filmmaker and conservative consumer activist Robby Starbuck shared an internal memo from Ford CEO Jim Farley to employees regarding a pullback of commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

'What we want to do with this campaign is just make workplaces about work again with no divisive political or social issues.'

"For more than a century, Ford has been a pioneer in providing opportunities to people around the world of all races, genders, and backgrounds," the memo began. "Our people are our greatest strength, and the diverse experiences, perspectives, and talents of our team have enabled Ford to create some of the most iconic vehicles in history and afford millions of people the freedom of mobility."

"We are mindful that our employees and customers hold a wide range of beliefs, and the external and legal environment related to political and social issues continues to evolve," Farley said in the memo.

The automaker giant noted that the company has evolved in the past year, and Ford has "taken a fresh look at our policies and practices to ensure they support our values, drive business results, and take into account the current landscape."

Included in the new policy changes, Ford proclaimed that employee resource groups must now focus efforts on "networking, mentorship, personal and professional development, and community service."

Ford Motor Co. stressed that it "does not utilize hiring quotas or tie compensation to the achievement of specific diversity goals."

The carmaker also declared that it will not use quotas for minority dealerships or suppliers.

Farley continued, "Ford remains deeply committed to fostering a safe and inclusive workplace and building a team that leverages diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and thinking styles to craft the best products, services, and experiences for our customers."

"As a global company, we will continue to put our effort and resources into taking care of our customers, our team, and our communities versus publicly commenting on the many polarizing issues of the day," the memo read.

Of the car company's philanthropic endeavors, Ford noted that it would focus on "areas where we can make the biggest positive difference for the most people, including education for the future of work, entrepreneurship, and essential services, such as our support of and volunteer work with Team Rubicon, the veteran-led group dedicated to disaster recovery."

Ford Motor Company announced that it would no longer participate in the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index and various other "best places to work" lists.

The Human Rights Campaign responded by hinting at a boycott targeting Ford and stooped to name-calling against Starbuck.

"Today, Ford ABANDONED its values and commitments to an inclusive workplace, cowering to MAGA weirdo Robby Starbuck," the Human Rights Campaign said. "With the LGBTQ+ community wielding $1.4 TRILLION in spending power and 30% of Gen Z identifying as LGBTQ+, we won’t forget this shortsighted decision and its impact."

Ford had a perfect 100 score on the HRC's Corporate Equity Index in 2023 and declared the automaker to be a "leader in LGBTQ+ workplace inclusion."

The HRC bills its so-called Corporate Equity Index as "the national benchmarking tool on corporate policies, practices, and benefits pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees."

The Human Rights Campaign was described as having a "leading role in Democratic Party politics and left-leaning activism" by InfluenceWatch — an organization that provides "accurate descriptions of all of the various influencers of public policy issues."

Regarding the memo, Ford told USA Today, "The communication to our global employees speaks for itself. We have nothing further to add."

Starbuck declared, "We are winning, and one by one we WILL bring sanity back to corporate America."

"What we want to do with this campaign is just make workplaces about work again with no divisive political or social issues," Starbuck added. "Some on the left may see sponsorship of a pride event as supporting a community but others see children being exposed to sexual content and find it wildly inappropriate for a workplace to sponsor. As a consumer, I can’t in good faith support a company that explicitly funds things that I’m morally opposed to."

Ford is the latest major company to rein back DEI commitments.

As Blaze News previously reported, Harley-Davidson rejected DEI commitments and also said it would no longer participate in the HRC's woke index.

Last month, Tractor Supply declared that it would no longer submit data to the Human Rights Campaign and would remove DEI positions and ditch its carbon emissions goals.

Also in July, farm equipment manufacturer John Deere announced it would no longer sponsor “social or cultural awareness” events and would audit all training materials "to ensure the absence of socially-motivated messages" following a campaign organized by Starbuck.

Starbuck then took aim at exposing DEI commitments at Jack Daniel's and its parent company — Brown-Forman. Last week, Brown-Forman proclaimed that it would no longer participate in the HRC's Corporate Equality Index social credit system and would end "quantitative workforce and supplier diversity ambitions" and ensure company goals are exclusively tied to productivity and not DEI initiatives.

This week, home improvement behemoth Lowe's discontinued some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments and dropped out of surveys for the Human Rights Campaign.

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Ford kills electric SUV as EV division is on pace to lose $5.5 billion this year



Ford Motor Company announced that it is recalibrating its EV strategy over concerns about profitability, including scrapping an electric SUV.

Ford is canceling plans to manufacture a large, three-row electric SUV.

Ford chief executive officer Jim Farley said, "We loved our three-row crossover and I was so excited to show everyone the work we did. But there was just no way it would ever meet our criteria of being profitable.”

Ford will reduce future capital expenditure plans on pure EVs from 40% to 30%

Ford now plans to leverage hybrid technology for its next-generation three-row SUVs.

Ford forecasts smaller, cheaper EVs as the future, while hybrid technology will be utilized for powering larger vehicles.

“This is about us being nimble and listening to responses from our customers,” Ford vice chairman and CFO John Lawler said in a call on Wednesday. "Hybrid tech for those customers is the best solution."

Lawler added, "We've been out in the [EV] market here for over two years, and we’ve learned a lot, and what we’re understanding is that customers want more electrification choices.”

Lawler noted that Ford will reduce future capital expenditure plans on pure EVs from 40% to 30%. He did not provide a timeline for the reduction in fully electric vehicles.

"As we’ve learned in the marketplace, and we’ve seen where people have gravitated, we’re going to focus in where we have competitive advantage, and that’s on commercial land trucks and SUVs," Lawler stated.

Farley said in an interview, "This is a tremendous pivot for us, and we’re not going to make a tremendous pivot without doing a lot of homework to convince ourselves this is the exact right plan. I'm very confident.”

The Blue Oval said on Wednesday in a press release that the cancellation would cause Ford to take a special non-cash charge of about $400 million for writing down the value of manufacturing assets it will no longer use.

Ford also admitted that the strategy of embracing hybrids over fully electric cars could cost the company as much as $1.5 billion in additional expenses and cash expenditures.

Ford's EV division is on pace to lose as much as $5.5 billion this year, according to a Thursday report by Bloomberg.

Bloomberg reported in May, citing sources, that Ford was losing $100,000 for every electric car it delivered in the first quarter of 2024.

Ford also announced this week that its upcoming pickup truck, codenamed "T3," will be delayed two years to debut in 2027. The T3 pickup will be manufactured at Ford's $5.6 billion BlueOval City production facility in Tennessee, which is expected to open in 2025.

Ford stated that it still plans to introduce an all-new fully electric commercial van that will begin production in Ohio in 2026.

The car company said it plans to move some battery production next year for the Mustang Mach-E electric SUV from Poland to Holland, Michigan, to qualify for Inflation Reduction Act manufacturing tax credits.

"An important enabler to achieving that profitability is around the mix of the battery production that’s in the U.S. that’s going to qualify for the advanced manufacturing tax credit," Lawler explained. "That’s going to be a big part of our walk to profitability."

Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy Department announced it had given a $9.2 billion conditional loan to a joint venture of Ford Motor and South Korea's SK On to build three battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky.

Ford expects to begin manufacturing lower-cost lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, batteries at the BlueOval Battery Park plant in Michigan starting in 2026.

Farley said the LFP battery will power their upcoming all-electric midsize pickup and would be cheaper to own and operate than a traditional internal combustion engine or hybrid model.

"It's a game-changing product from a cost-of-ownership standpoint," Farley declared. "If you are not competitive on battery cost, you are not competitive."

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Teen with only months to live gets dream car from dad, special invitation from Ford



A cancer-stricken teen with only months to live recently got his dream car. The 18-year-old also received a special invitation from the CEO of the Ford Motor Company.

The teenager's father, Joe Tegerdine, explained why he gifted his son a Ford Mustang in a post shared on the X social media platform earlier this month.

Tegerdine wrote, "For those wondering why I’d buy my 18yr old son a 330hp Mustang, well, he’s been given months to live and can’t work long enough to buy one himself. His comment on the way home, 'Dad, I’m going to squeeze a few extra months of life just to be able to drive this.'"

The tweet concluded with the hashtag: #cancersucks.

— (@)

The post shared on March 2 went viral with nearly 8,000 retweets, more than 177,000 likes, and almost 14 million views.

The tweet also caught the eye of Ford CEO Jim Farley — who replied by saying, "Hi Joe, I’m so sorry to hear what your family is going through. Please let me know if you and your son would like to attend @FPRacingSchool to experience a @FordMustang Dark Horse on the track. DM me and we’ll make it happen."

Tegerdine connected with Farley about the special invitation for his son Joseph to attend the Ford Performance Racing School.

Tegerdine told the Detroit Free Press, "It was really crazy. That tweet was just kind of random. He sent a direct message to me, saying, 'Hey, you want me to do this?' If it's OK, his guys would get everything set up ... at the Ford Performance Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. They're flying us out there. It's just really cool, and we'll stay in Charlotte for a couple of days. There's a big dinner before school. Then Joseph will be on the track with the (Mustang) Dark Horse."

Joseph said of the offer, "I don't know how to drift. I've always been too scared to go to a parking lot to figure that out, because I'd just hit a light pole or something. I need an instructor, a trainer. Also, I get to drive one of the most powerful Ford track Mustangs there is. This is going to be sick."

The Mustang Dark Horse boasts a 5.0L Ti-VCT V8 engine with 500 horsepower and 418-pound feet of torque. Joseph will get to drive the powerful Ford on the track at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Joseph said he is excited about his own Mustang since it's his dream car.

"I've just liked Mustangs for as long as I can remember. Six-year-old me liked it, the headlights looked cool, and I stuck with it," Joseph explained. "I used to drive this Ford Bronco. It was a big truck, basically. I'd get compliments and I'd feel so manly. We sold that and I started driving my mom's minivan, a Honda Odyssey. I felt like my testosterone was being drained away. Not great."

"You have to live day by day because, day by day, if you look at my life, it’s actually fantastic," Joseph said. "I'm in Japan right now. I've got a car of my dreams, I'm surrounded by tons of people I absolutely adore and I'm going to driving school."

Joseph is also cognizant that he likely only has months to live because of a terminal bone cancer called osteosarcoma.

According to the Mayo Clinic, "Osteosarcoma is a kind of cancer that begins in the cells that form bones. Osteosarcoma tends to happen most often in teenagers and young adults. But it also can happen in younger children and older adults. Osteosarcoma can start in any bone. It's most often found in the long bones of the legs, and sometimes the arms."

Joseph said, "Then you look at the future, and it all starts to break down. I don't really need to look at the future. Morbidly, I don’t really have one. I can’t be, like, 'In a year —' If I get a year, I’ll be extremely lucky."

The father said of his son's cancer diagnosis, "When my son was first diagnosed I had to make a decision. Either curse God and die or try to make the best of a really bad situation. With the perspective of what it would be like to experience sudden loss, I decided to be grateful. Grateful that we’ve had the 18 years to build memories and enjoy him."

"Even now, with the only treatments left to prolong life and manage pain, I’m thankful he’s still with us, squeezing out the best that life can offer under less than ideal circumstances," Tegerdine said. "My heart is still broken, but I know it could be a lot worse."

He noted, "Over the years, I’ve known many parents who have lost their children to sudden tragedy, who never got a chance to say goodbye."

The family is currently on vacation in Japan.

However, Joseph will continue radiation treatment and chemo, plus he'll need to undergo surgery when he gets back home.

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Ford plans to invest nearly $4 billion in the Midwest for next-generation vehicle manufacturing



Ford Motor Company will be investing $3.7 billion in the coming years as it commits to investing in its Midwestern manufacturing capabilities and prepares for the launch of the net-generation Ford Mustang and Ranger in North America.

Last Thursday the company announced the massive financial commitment along with pledging to generate 6,2000 new United Auto Worker (UAW) union jobs, Newsweek reported.

In addition to the massive jobs announcement, Ford revealed that its new line of electric vehicles will begin to be produced at its Ohio based facilities in the mid-2020s. Ford, the country’s largest employer of hourly autoworkers, also plans to expand its Ohio manufacturing site to accommodate these new developments.

The cost of the company’s Ohio expansion will be around $1.5 billion. Once expansion of the Ohio facility is complete, 1,800 UAW union jobs will be installed.

In addition, Ford is planning to spend $100 million in investments in Lima Engine and Sharonville Transmission plants which is estimated to create an additional 90 jobs.

The company also confirmed that the state of Michigan will continue to be the homebase for the Ford Mustang and Ranger as both models move into their next generation of production.

Ford’s Michigan assembly plant in the city of Wayne will continue to constructing the Ranger while the Mustang coupe will be manufactured at the company’s assembly plant in Flat Rock.

These Michigan based manufacturing hubs, in addition to Ford’s Route Electric Vehicle center in Dearborn, account for $2 billion of the company’s Midwest investment. These Michigan based initiatives are expected to create 3,200 jobs.

Ford is also expected to construct a new Ford Customer Service Division packaging facility in Monroe, Michigan that will cost $35 million and is expected to generate 600 UAW union jobs. This facility is expected to open in 2024.

In a press release, Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer said, “We are thrilled that Ford is advancing its long legacy in Michigan by investing $2 billion to create 3,200 good-paying UAW jobs.”

She continued, “I am proud that we came together to deliver economic development legislation that has helped us land huge projects creating thousands of jobs. With this announcement, Michigan has added nearly 25,000 auto jobs since I took office, and we continue to lead the future of mobility and electrification. Let's continue in this spirit of collaboration to keep growing our economy, creating jobs, and advancing the future of mobility and electrification.”