That's my point though. A fully thought out answer to that one question would easily take the whole 10 minutes, likely more, and require a bunch of charts and infographics... and entirely too much of the engineers' time.
She opened with a question about a weakness (EV range being shorter when it's cold) being solved by... App Dependency! 🤦‍♂️
The event was not held live... it was an edited production. Don't open with an objective weakness.
Ford is a 100+ year old company that's stuck in its corporate ways. They've released hundreds of unique car models and will continue to do so.
No, not really. They have a good understanding of how temperature affects range and recharge time. I guarantee you there are engineering documents with those metrics in her computer.
The problem even if they have those metrics, your definition of cold, and mine, and everyone else's are different. Even if she picked a location and temperature, range is going to vary widely based on load, driving habits, wind, etc.
People are way too concerned about this. Unless you are Elon Musk and can get away with bold direct answers that often aren't true and never held accountable to missed dates of delivery, anyone else in the world would be quoted and grilled until the end of time with not living up to their answers or expectations. We all know how EVs work and the specifics are way early for final production. She wanted to show some face. I didn't expect a full reveal. It was nice for them to reach out and say something.
Slate has a lot more to prove than Ford does. The answers we got didn't rise to that level of reality.
Ford also has tons of defects and a record year of recalls, I think more than any make. My Maverick hybrid has blown a transmission at 15,000 milea, And there's an extended warranty on the engine which may or may not blow up, the front drive shafts and the heat exchanger. They've removed the active grill shutters under recall In a sad compliance move in the event the engine blows and that affects how it heats the cabin in winter. And This was supposed to be a fresh start in quality. In theory, the small gas hybrid truck is amazing. In the mileage is amazing and I love how it drives. So honestly, Ford may have a more difficult Road ahead of them since they never seem to get this under control. Even though they have taken control of it proactively with the recalls and warranty extensions (No one knows why the transmission blew up because they generally don't have problems with that ) and the dealer has been very easy to work with, the transmission was replaced in a day. The Slate is a much simpler vehicle and In essence, a clean slate. I'm more hopeful for this.
That's kinda my point. Ford doesn't need Q&A sessions when inertia is on their side. They could totally screw the new Maverick to death with recalls and still thrive off the F-150. Even if they somehow took a devastating economic hit, investors and even the US taxpayer could bail them out.
And I take them seriously at it by not spewing BS and information that posters like you are going to tear apart and say they're going to fail. I'm going to give it until they release and see what the product is like. It can't be any worse than buying another Maverick which is probably going to have lots of issues. Although you are correct in that the company will continue to exist, if you want to deal with that.
