 Ford unveiled its plan to form distinct auto units, to be operated as separate businesses, for its EVs and ICE-based vehicles, which would be branded as Ford Model e and Ford Blue, respectively. Ford expects an EBIT margin of 10% (+270 bp YoY) and to produce 2 million EVs by 2026. More: - Ford aims for $11.5B to $12.5B in company-adjusted EBIT. The company expects a significant decline in ICE structural costs of up to $3B.
- The automaker plans to spend $5B on EVs in 2022, 2x the previous year's investment, including capital expenditures, expense, and direct investment.
- Ford expects to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and use 100% local, renewable electricity in its manufacturing operations by 2035.
- $F was up 8.71% for the day on Wednesday afternoon.
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 Wing, Alphabet’s drone unit, revealed it has surpassed 200,000 commercial air deliveries across its global markets, not including test flights. Wing operated over 140,000 deliveries in Australia, Finland, and the U.S. in 2021. More: - The drone delivery service had 30,000 deliveries in the first two months of this year in Australia, where it operates orders from supermarket Coles, delivering from a selection of 250 items in Canberra.
- Wing also has partnerships with KFC, Friendly Grocer for COVID-19 tests, and St. John Ambulance Queensland for first aid kits.
- In early February, Wing announced the launch of Walgreens delivery via drone for customers in Frisco and Little Elm, Texas. The UAV flies at a maximum of 64.9 mph and can carry up to 2.6 pounds, designed for deliveries within six miles and six minutes.
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General Motors confirmed it sold its stake in EV company Lordstown Motors during the fourth quarter. GM had 7.5 million shares of common stock in Lordstown with an initial equity value of ~$75M, constituting a less than 5% stake in the company. The exit has been estimated to be at a loss, with GM receiving between $26M and $60M. More: - General Motors had invested in the SPAC merger that took Lordstown Motors public in October of 2020.
- GM had sold its previously closed production facility in Ohio to Lordstown in 2019. "Our objective in investing was to allow them to complete the purchase of the plant and restart production," GM spokesperson Jim Cain told CNBC.
- Lordstown sold the facility to Foxconn for $230M plus $50M in Lordstown common stock in Sept. 2021, where the manufacturer is working on the production of the EV company's Endurance SUV, in addition to the Fisker Pear model.
- Lordstown stock dropped 7.99% upon the news by Wednesday morning.
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As the situation in Ukraine continues, more automakers have followed in making changes to production and operations in the region, following announcements earlier this week by Volkswagen, Daimler, Volvo Cars, and Hyundai, among others. On Wednesday, Honda said it will suspend the export of cars and motorcycles to Russia. More: - Mazda revealed it is planning to halt exports of auto parts to Russia.
- Nissan said it is continuing operations in Russia while monitoring the situation; however, it has closed offices and dealerships in Ukraine. The automaker sold 53,000 vehicles in Russia in 2021.
- Toyota Motor has been experiencing a partial disruption to shipments to Russia while continuing operations.
- Mitsubishi said on Tuesday that it may suspend production and sale of its cars in Russia due to potential supply chain disruptions following sanctions.
- Ford CEO Jim Farley tweeted that the company is suspending its operations in Russia, including its joint venture with Sollers.
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 Electric vehicle company Workhorse will retire the C-1000 van model, for which it issued a safety recall in September. Workhorse announced it would shift its focus to produce the W750 Class 4 vehicle for GreenPower, with a production start aimed at Q3. More: - Workhorse reported a $2M sales net loss in the fourth quarter, down from a $0.7M net profit in Q4 2020. The company attributes the loss to a decrease in production volume and increased vehicle returns and allowances due to the C-1000 recall. Overall, Workhorse had a net loss of $156.1M during Q4 versus a net income of $280.5M during the same period in 2020.
- On its 2022 expectations, Workhorse CFO Bob Ginnan said the company's outlook "reflects our planned progressive ramp in manufacturing, which is backloaded, as we are not expecting to produce any vehicles in the first half of the year." Workhose plans to produce 250 vehicles for $25M in revenue in 2022.
- Workhorse had approximately $201.6M in cash and cash equivalents at the end of 2021.
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XL Fleet, which focuses on electrification solutions for vehicles, reported fourth-quarter revenue of $8M, down from $10.9M the previous year. The company attributes the drop in revenue and a gross loss of $1.6M, down from a gross profit of $0.7M in Q3, to negative impacts from the ongoing semiconductor chip shortages, which led to a lack of new fleet chassis. More: - XL Fleet had approximately $352M in cash and cash equivalents at the end of 2021.
- In December, the company completed the installation of a series of charging stations for Apex Clean Energy's fleet of Ford F-Series pickups equipped with XL-fleet hybrid electric drive systems.
- In November, XL Fleet was awarded a contract with the Department of Defense to develop a fuel-saving prototype for military vehicles.
- XL Fleet stock jumped 13.59% for the day by Wednesday afternoon.
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- Alterra Property Group partnered with Embark to identify and launch autonomous trucking transfer point sites across the U.S. Sun Belt.
- Hyundai's eVTOL unit, Supernal, signed a memorandum of understanding with the city of Miami to create a framework for advanced air mobility.
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 |  | Written and curated by Nicolas Saravia, an avid map maker and data nerd. Nicolas has worked in the shared-scooter space, as well as advised e-bike and moped start-ups. |  | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
Labelbox is a training data platform designed to increase model performance faster and with less data. | |
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