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DAILY ENERGY NEWS | 07/18/2023

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How much money is Ford going to lose on the Lightning?

Ars Technica (7/17/23) reports: "Ford's F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck just got significantly cheaper. On Monday, the automaker announced hefty price cuts across the F-150 Lightning lineup, cutting between $6,079 and $9,979 from the truck's MSRP. The cuts reverse some recent price increases, although the commercial-focused F-150 Lightning Pro is still about $10,000 more expensive than when Ford first launched the Lightning in 2021. Ford says that increased capacity at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Michigan is responsible for the price cuts, along with cheaper raw materials for the electric trucks' lithium-ion batteries. 'Shortly after launching the F-150 Lightning, rapidly rising material costs, supply constraints and other factors drove up the cost of the EV truck for Ford and our customers,' said Marin Gjaja, chief customer officer of Ford Model e (Ford's EV division). 'We've continued to work in the background to improve accessibility and affordability to help to lower prices for our customers and shorten the wait times for their new F-150 Lightning.' As with so many things EV-related, Tesla started the price-cutting trend (albeit with an occasional price increase, too) here in the US. That has helped drive down used EV costs over the past year, although some have questioned whether there's a glut of new EVs that aren't selling well."

"Ford and GM are trying to sell expensive luxury cars into a market where consumers are increasingly skeptical of EVs. And they’re doing so at a time when prices on new cars of all types are high, consumers are holding onto their cars longer, interest rates are high, and a recession is looming. And all this is happening while large numbers of EVs are already sitting on dealer lots and the automakers are going to build hundreds of thousands more."

–Robert Bryce, Substack

Green-led deindustrialization is playing out in real-time across Europe, but Biden insists it will be different here.

Wall Street Journal (7/17/23) reports: "Europeans are facing a new economic reality, one they haven’t experienced in decades. They are becoming poorer. Life on a continent long envied by outsiders for its art de vivre is rapidly losing its shine as Europeans see their purchasing power melt away. The French are eating less foie gras and drinking less red wine. Spaniards are stinting on olive oil. Finns are being urged to use saunas on windy days when energy is less expensive. Across Germany, meat and milk consumption has fallen to the lowest level in three decades and the once-booming market for organic food has tanked. Italy’s economic development minister, Adolfo Urso, convened a crisis meeting in May over prices for pasta, the country’s favorite staple, after they jumped by more than double the national inflation rate. With consumption spending in free fall, Europe tipped into recession at the start of the year, reinforcing a sense of relative economic, political and military decline that kicked in at the start of the century. Europe’s current predicament has been long in the making. An aging population with a preference for free time and job security over earnings ushered in years of lackluster economic and productivity growth. Then came the one-two punch of the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s protracted war in Ukraine. By upending global supply chains and sending the prices of energy and food rocketing, the crises aggravated ailments that had been festering for decades...At the Stellantis auto factory in Melfi, southern Italy, employees have worked shorter hours for years recently due to the difficulty of procuring raw materials and high energy costs, said Marco Lomio, a trade unionist with the Italian Union of Metalworkers. Hours worked have recently been reduced by around 30% and wages decreased proportionally. 'Between high inflation and rising energy costs for workers,' said Lomio, 'it is difficult to bear all family expenses.'"

You can't be held accountable for failure if you never set a goal.

In D.C., a faux pas is when someone mistakenly tells the truth.

NY Post (7/15/23) reports: "Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday called on the US to 'reduce population' in an effort to combat climate change, but she meant to say “reduce pollution,” according to the White House. The shocking gaffe happened as the 58-year-old vice president delivered remarks at Coppin State University in Baltimore, Md., on the need to build a 'clean energy economy.' 'When we invest in clean energy and electric vehicles and reduce population, more of our children can breathe clean air and drink clean water,' Harris said, eliciting applause from the audience. The official White House transcript of her speech acknowledges and corrects Harris’ disquieting error. In the transcript, 'population' is crossed out and 'pollution' is added in brackets to denote what the VP intended to say."

Energy Markets

WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $75.29
Natural Gas: ↑ $2.61
Gasoline: ↓ $3.56

Diesel: ↑ $3.85
Heating Oil: ↑ $260.02
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $79.49
US Rig Count: ↑ 711

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