Ford in Australia: ‘We’re no longer a car company’, CEO Graeme Whickman says

[LeadFoot81]

The future is coming...

http://www.news.com.au/technology/in...08ae2390fb8c60

[Bossxr8]

Misleading thread title. He said "we are not solely just a car company".

And I think it's smart that they are hedging their bets with this.

[lra]

After reading that, I got an urge to put flowers in what little hair I have left, shed most of clothes and skip down the road singing “California Dreamin”.

[Syndrome]

The future looks bleak.

[uniacidz]

He is right about this

In the future, Ford will focus less on people that want to own a car and more on those who simply need to use one now and again.

People are changing.
Gone are the days where we 'wanted' that car etc and mass populous has really turned into buyers wanting to just 'get there'.

For the enthusiast and even the collectable car owners, might be a bleak outlook

[CyberWasp]

I think it means less people will be buying their new cars and keeping their older ones that have character and which you can actually drive yourself.

[LeadFoot81]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

Misleading thread title. He said "we are not solely just a car company".

And I think it's smart that they are hedging their bets with this.

Yeah I copied News.com.au's title verbatim. They're all about that click bait.

With Fords recent performance push (STs, RS, Mustang etc) i still see excitement as part of the brand (whilst being prudent enough to holistically look at the future of transport)

[FormulaFG]

Whether you like it or not the world is changing.

Environmental, Lifestyle, Economic and buying trends etc etc. At least Ford have the foresight to see it coming and adjust to it. Makes good business sense and those that don't will perish.

[GO FURTHER]

I'm sure Ford is not the only car manufacturer thinking along these lines.
The world is changing, and also people's attitudes to transportation.

The younger generations are more interested in technology and their mobile phones than cars.... For them it's just a means to an end or getting from A to B.

I keep thinking about that photo in the article with that Chinese freeway with 50 lanes.... Imagine being in a far right lane, trying to merge across to the left to get off the freeway... What a nightmare!.... I think I'll take the train or bus.

[malazn mafia]

Toyota had the whitegoods on wheels, no frills transport down pat since the mid 90s. If that's the future of Ford, I don't want to be a part of it.

[Ford17]

That's a pretty bleak outlook - "the future" used to be something exciting to look forward to.

I'd like to imagine manufacturing technology improving to the point where things can be made quickly and easily; though developments in 3D printing, which would include metal, rubber as well as automotive plastic components.

Ford for example would produce & stockpile the bare chassis/shell with an engine/drive-line, with several variations being available.

The customer would then go online and choose the body style and interior fit out they desire.
This online order feeds through to the assembly area and the body/interior parts automatically (and almost instantaneously) get produced and fitted into place.

Like one of the past classic designs - no problem - choose from any of them.
The option of an XA Coupe, XE ESP, etc. retro-tech build will then pop into life.
Or just choose one of the current aero designs, and go cutting-edge.

[Vesper Martini]

Originally Posted by uniacidz

People are changing.
Gone are the days where we 'wanted' that car etc and mass populous has really turned into buyers wanting to just 'get there'.

For the enthusiast and even the collectable car owners, might be a bleak outlook

Couple of years back on a Holiday in Bali, we had a pre arranged driver we could use every day as part of our package.
The Driver couldn't understand why people drive themselves In Australia.
he asked me, who was my driver at home.

Another example is Singapore where they pay enormous road tax's and owners need to apply & pay for a "certificate of entitlement"
Cabs are so cheap and plentiful there it wasn't surprising the cars on the road were either cabs or Luxury brands.
As Australia's main cities become more populated I can see this happening, we are a long way off that sort of density atm though.

[Dauphin]

Time to start looking into this kind of thing perhaps:

[Sabantien]

Where I live, new apartments are going up at a huge rate. Sure, they can't fill them now and most are empty, but over time they'll fill up, and the council will not issue resident permits for new residences. It's already a nightmare to score a park, or just get in and out of this little nub of a suburb, while during peak times there's buses on the major roads every couple minutes.

For a lot of the people who will live here, a car is something they won't need or want. A car sharing service or autonomous taxi service or whatever will be all most people need.

I don't see myself in that situation any time soon.

Current job I start at 5am, there is no PT, and while I often cycle to work, I'll drive when the weather is bad, or i'm running a bit late.
Previous job was 2 hours, 3 buses and a 30min walk, or a 20min car drive.

Off to the country soon for six months, and without a car would never have been able to take the job.

I agree with Bevsta, we don't really have the population density for it yet, but we're well on the way in some places, and I think there's already a lot of people who will be happy to never own a car.

I don't see car ownership disappearing in Australia any time soon. These new technologies will be great in the cities, but not for people in outer suburbs and rural areas, and there's a LOT of that.

I wouldn't be surprised if we get to a point where you can't drive in the cities, you'd have to park your car and swap to mass transit or a self driving vehicle to go any further.

But not for a long time yet.

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by Bevsta007

Another example is Singapore where they pay enormous road tax's and owners need to apply & pay for a "certificate of entitlement"
Cabs are so cheap and plentiful there it wasn't surprising the cars on the road were either cabs or Luxury brands.
As Australia's main cities become more populated I can see this happening, we are a long way off that sort of density atm though.

We are doing this already, it is called excessive car registration.

Governments have, through insidious methods have already introduced congestion taxes; increased car rego to a point that only the "privileged" few will be able to afford it and stupidly high car parking prices (Melbourne city council increased it a few years back to $4hr for street parking up to midnight).

[GO FURTHER]

Originally Posted by Wretched

We are doing this already, it is called excessive car registration.

Governments have, through insidious methods have already introduced congestion taxes; increased car rego to a point that only the "privileged" few will be able to afford it and stupidly high car parking prices (Melbourne city council increased it a few years back to $4hr for street parking up to midnight).

I think in the future car registration will be a nominal fee.... Instead it will be based on a user pays to use our roads basis.

The government will instead charge car owners based on the number of kilometres they do each year, either by a GPS tracker fitted to the car or by logging the odometer reading at the start and end of each year.

Those that use the roads more will pay a greater share than the little old lady who only drives to church on Sundays.

Especially since there will be more electric cars on the road in the future, and the government won't make any money from them in petrol taxes.

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by BAXRSIX

I think in the future car registration will be a nominal fee.... Instead it will be based on a user pays to use our roads basis.

The government will instead charge car owners based on the number of kilometres they do each year, either by a GPS tracker fitted to the car or by logging the odometer reading at the start and end of each year.

Those that use the roads more will pay a greater share than the little old lady who only drives to church on Sundays.

Especially since there will be more electric cars on the road in the future, and the government won't make any money from them in petrol taxes.

I've seen a lot of talk about that approach and have to say i think it is fair.
Personally, in 12 months i'll drive may be 8 or 9000km. I drive to the train station and back home each day.

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

Toyota had the whitegoods on wheels, no frills transport down pat since the mid 90s. If that's the future of Ford, I don't want to be a part of it.

That's not what they are saying. This is for people who don't want to drive, but they have also stated a few times they still want to cater to people who do want to drive. And they never want to let go of that.

[PridenJoy]

I guess Ford has to move with the times. In the last few days i heard Tesla Motors has overtaken Ford in company value or worth if you like, even though they sell a tiny fraction of cars that Ford do.

This would be why Ford need to continue to innovate.

[Syndrome]

Originally Posted by PridenJoy

I guess Ford has to move with the times. In the last few days i heard Tesla Motors has overtaken Ford in company value or worth if you like, even though they sell a tiny fraction of cars that Ford do.

This would be why Ford need to continue to innovate.

Tesla company is a sham.

[PridenJoy]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

Tesla company is a sham.

Because it's valued more than Ford or.......?

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by PridenJoy

Because it's valued more than Ford or.......?

Technology stocks, its a sham.

Ford made $US 15 Billion profit last year, Tesla made their first Qtr profit in 4 years in Qtr 3 2016 ( $US 111 million ).

[GO FURTHER]

Originally Posted by Fordman1

Technology stocks, its a sham.

Ford made $US 15 Billion profit last year, Tesla made their first Qtr profit in 4 years in Qtr 3 2016 ( $US 111 million ).

To be fair though... Ford has been in business for 114 years (Est. 1903) versus Tesla for 14 years (Est. 2003).

In another 100 years from now.... When all cars will be electric or fuelled on some technology other than fossil fuels, the profits may look very different between Ford, Tesla and emerging car makers.

[PridenJoy]

Originally Posted by Fordman1

Technology stocks, its a sham.

Ford made $US 15 Billion profit last year, Tesla made their first Qtr profit in 4 years in Qtr 3 2016 ( $US 111 million ).

This article sums it up well.

http://www.vox.com/platform/amp/new-...rd-stock-price

So not really a sham but possibly the very reason Ford is diversifying. They know what the stock market knows and are planning to change it.

[danzvtil]

Originally Posted by Wretched

We are doing this already, it is called excessive car registration.

Governments have, through insidious methods have already introduced congestion taxes; increased car rego to a point that only the "privileged" few will be able to afford it and stupidly high car parking prices (Melbourne city council increased it a few years back to $4hr for street parking up to midnight).

You're kidding aren't you? We have very low registration and running costs in this country. See below for costs involved with buying a new car in sg, and on top of this the latest Cost of Entitlement for anything over 1.6lt is roughly S$80k for 10 years.
Do the sums for a $55k Aussie built sedan.
Vehicle taxes and registration fees

All motor vehicles imported into Singapore are slapped with a customs duty of 41 per cent ad valorem. There is also a Registration Fee to be paid. The fee is $1,000 for private vehicles and $5,000 for company vehicles. In addition, when a car is first registered (whether new or used), an Additional Registration Fee (ARF) of 150 per cent of the car's Open Market Value is payable. All these make the price of cars here artificially inflated compared to those in the States or Europe.

[Charliewool]

Tesla cars are a mere hobby to Musk compared to his powerwall battery vision!
Google.. Nevada gigafactory... Going to be larger area than the Boeing factory, which is presently the largest on Earth!

[Feathers]

Originally Posted by Sabantien

Where I live, new apartments are going up at a huge rate. Sure, they can't fill them now and most are empty, but over time they'll fill up, and the council will not issue resident permits for new residences. It's already a nightmare to score a park, or just get in and out of this little nub of a suburb, while during peak times there's buses on the major roads every couple minutes.

For a lot of the people who will live here, a car is something they won't need or want. A car sharing service or autonomous taxi service or whatever will be all most people need.

I don't see myself in that situation any time soon.

Current job I start at 5am, there is no PT, and while I often cycle to work, I'll drive when the weather is bad, or i'm running a bit late.
Previous job was 2 hours, 3 buses and a 30min walk, or a 20min car drive.

Off to the country soon for six months, and without a car would never have been able to take the job.

I agree with Bevsta, we don't really have the population density for it yet, but we're well on the way in some places, and I think there's already a lot of people who will be happy to never own a car.

I don't see car ownership disappearing in Australia any time soon. These new technologies will be great in the cities, but not for people in outer suburbs and rural areas, and there's a LOT of that.

I wouldn't be surprised if we get to a point where you can't drive in the cities, you'd have to park your car and swap to mass transit or a self driving vehicle to go any further.

But not for a long time yet.

Same thing around where I work - they're trying to force my local council to meet a quota of new apartment buildings, but council said no because it's not viable, so there will be a fight.

Already we're seeing the effects around work - even though most of the new apartments aren't ready yet.
This morning it took me an hour to drive 8km to work. Most of that time was just the last 1.2km.
Because more people are using the motorway entrance down the street from our office, and they have not adjusted the traffic lights to balance out the increased traffic, especially with the new hardware store that has just opened, which has people confused as to how to access it, or ignoring the road rules completely and doing U-turns over double lines and turning against signage.

Coming back to the yard this afternoon at about 4.15pm, the last 700m to our driveway took 25 minutes and 12 changes of traffic lights. There are just so many cars, that even when the light is green, you cannot move.

Screw this. I want out of Sydney.

I'm currently investigating how hard it would be for me to move to Finland. Seriously.

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by danzvtil

You're kidding aren't you? We have very low registration and running costs in this country. See below for costs involved with buying a new car in sg, and on top of this the latest Cost of Entitlement for anything over 1.6lt is roughly S$80k for 10 years.
Do the sums for a $55k Aussie built sedan.
Vehicle taxes and registration fees

All motor vehicles imported into Singapore are slapped with a customs duty of 41 per cent ad valorem. There is also a Registration Fee to be paid. The fee is $1,000 for private vehicles and $5,000 for company vehicles. In addition, when a car is first registered (whether new or used), an Additional Registration Fee (ARF) of 150 per cent of the car's Open Market Value is payable. All these make the price of cars here artificially inflated compared to those in the States or Europe.

Ah yes, but cannot compare Singapore to AU, vastly different, having a car there isn't as much of a requirement as it is here.

[Adamz Ghia]

The user pays for roads is unfair. In a state where our public transport grinds to a virtual halt when it gets warm and when it rains there is a good chance your train won't run at all, the government cannot in good conscience charge people for how long they drive and the one that tries won't be in government long enough to implement it.

I work in Derrimut and drive from Lara every day to get there. There isn't a train station or bus within cooee of me. I will take great delight in breaking the GPS box they install in my car if this gets in.

And if user pays is the latest thing and is so much fairer and just, then I look forward to not paying any Medicare levy this year as I haven't been to a doctor for a full two years and to a hospital for 15.