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Comment by nindalf | Hacker News Reader

> Rivian has been working on EV technology since 2009. Ford... not so much.

You say this like Ford is floundering with no clue. But that’s not the case. They have 100k reservations for the F-150 Lightning, which by all accounts is pretty impressive (https://youtu.be/J2npVg9ONFo).

If you think for some reason that the F-150 Lightning that ships won’t be as impressive, or it’ll be more expensive or that people who reserved it won’t buy it … then please share why you think so. But otherwise a knee jerk “old car manufacturer doesn’t know what they’re doing” doesn’t appear to fit the facts.

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I think the parent commenter may have been referring to how Ford was floundering with no apparent clue. In 2019, there was little public indication of the legacy automobile manufacturers being serious about EVs. Meanwhile, Tesla had been investing in battery manufacturing technology for years.

It takes a long time to thoughtfully design a new chassis, electrified or not. It also takes a long time to build up manufacturing capacity, especially when they key ingredients such as battery cells were not integral to the chassis of the past.

The F-150 Lightning has clearly evoked interest. It could have come a lot sooner. But perhaps Ford can be an effective fast follower, especially if it figures out how to address sticky points like 1) managing dealer relationships and 2) writing software. These issues are business/cultural challenges, so may require more care to address than engineering problems, which Ford has a history (a century!) solving effectively.

>. In 2019, there was little public indication of the legacy automobile manufacturers being serious about EVs.

That's just not true at all. Nissan has been selling the leaf for a decade, for starters. VW had the e-golf in 2017. Everyone else has been dabbling to some extent or another.

The problem thus far is that electric vehicles have not been profitable to manufacturer.

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