The Torquest - Your Daily Auto Fix
Automotive news from the world of legacy automakers, electric vehicle startups, suppliers and everything in between and beyond.
In this issue: *Tesla’s exponential delivery, production track* Ford vows to launch five EVs in Australia by 2024 end* Cathie Wood dumps more Tesla shares* Facebook outage and Signal’s million new signups* Tesla slapped with huge fine over racism at work*
October 5, 2021. Issue #25
1. Here’s How Tesla Has Raised The Bar With Exponential Delivery, Production Numbers Over Years #datatalk
By now everyone tracking the automotive industry knows that Tesla Inc crushed the third quarter delivery targets when it reported the latest numbers over the weekend.
The Elon Musk-led electric vehicle company is growing at a fast pace despite the global semiconductor shortage that seems to have slowed legacy auto players on the tracks.
Take a moment to see how Tesla’s deliveries and production numbers have tread higher and higher over the years.
2. Ford Reveals Electric Vehicle Strategy For Australia - A Market Where It Stopped Making Cars In 2013
Ford Motor Co on Monday revealed plans to launch upto five electric vehicles in Australia by the end of 2024, starting with all-electric E-Transit vans next year.
The Dearborn, Michigan-based company's CEO Jim Farley announced the plan but did not say if the lineup will include Mustang Mach-Es and the F-150 Lightning.
The automaker however said the full-size e-Transit van will feature a 68kWh battery, with a driving range of up to 317 kilometers. The van will be capable of fast-charging from 15% to up to 80% in around 34 minutes.
Ford stopped making cars in Australia in 2013. The automaker instead shops its cars from across the world including Thailand, Spain and Germany.
Ford is spending more than $30 billion cumulatively through 2025 under a turnaround plan to shift to an electrified lineup of vehicles and become carbon neutral by 2050.
3. Cathie Wood Dumps More Shares In Tesla To Book Profit
Tesla Inc superbull Cathie Wood is on a roll. The ace investor on Monday yet another dumped shares of the electric car company to book profit as the stock hovered higher after months of sluggish performance.
Wood’s money managing firm Ark Invest sold an estimated $112 million worth shares in the Elon Musk-led company on Monday.
The New York-based firm continues to own large exposure in Tesla via three of its active exchange traded funds each of which still hold over 10% weight in the stock.
Wood has piled up shares in Tesla at much lower levels and has predicted the stock will breach the $3,000 mark by the end of 2025.
The Palo Alto, California-based Tesla last week said it delivered 241,300 electric vehicles in the third quarter, a jump of 73% year-over-year and smashing past expectations of 220,900 deliveries. Tesla sales were also up 20% on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
4. Tesla To Pay $137M To Former Black Employee Over Racism At Work
Tesla Inc’s workplace ethics is in the news again. This time around the electric automaker has been ordered to pay $137 million in damages by a federal jury for subjecting a former Black employee to racism at work, Bloomberg reported late Monday.
Tesla failed to take sufficient steps to prevent a black employee from being harassed at the workplace, the federal jury said, as per the report.
Instances of racism at Tesla have come up in the past. In August, the Palo Alto, California-based Tesla paid a former Black employee more than $1 million in damages after it failed to stop supervisors from using the “N-word” at a company manufacturing facility in California.
5. Facebook’s Global Outage Sent Millions Sign Up For Elon Musk-backed Tesla
Probably Facebook Inc’s global outage news has no place here but it was too big a development to not mention it. Especially when a rival messaging app known to be secure saw millions flock to it in hours.
Elon Musk-backed cross-platform messaging app Signal on Monday saw user signups run into million new additions when a global outage wiped out Facebook’s network of apps and services from the internet.
The hefty signups led to some glitches which Signal rushed to fix.
#Ford #Tesla #ArkInvest #ElectricVehicle