If you were wondering whether or not Ford was going to embrace Rivian further as part of its plans to take on the EV market, it looks as though the answer is a resounding “no”.
That’s because Ford sold almost all of its stake in EV company Rivian last year, according to the company’s newly-released annual report submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.
Ford offloaded a total of 91 million shares of Rivian in 2022, according to CNBC. This amounts to about $3 billion in total proceeds, representing about a $1.8 billion gain from the original $1.2 billion investment the company made in the competitor.
The company sold 25.2 million shares in Q2 for about $700 million in proceeds. It then sold another 51.9 million shares during Q3 for proceeds of about $1.8 billion, the annual report confirms.
At the end of last year, the legacy Detroit automaker held only about 11 million of its initial 101.9 million share stake in the company. Ford “declined to comment on plans for the remaining shares”, CNBC reported.
The company first invested in Rivian back in 2019 before the company went public. Plans to use Rivian’s “skateboard” platform that now underpins Rivian’s R1T pickup and R1S SUV in the production of Ford vehicles never panned out.
Despite the sales, Ford still remains one of the largest shareholders in Rivian.
Recall, just days ago we wrote that Morgan Stanley had expected more “EV deflation” after Ford’s recent price cuts on its electric Mach-E.
In a note out last Tuesday, Morgan Stanley wrote: “In our opinion, cutting price on Mach-E is relatively minor (approx. $100mm on price/mix prior to volume offsets). The more significant question for Ford and other Tesla challengers is what are they doing on the cost side to create enough room to follow Tesla’s current and future price cuts without compressing margins.”
The Mustang Mach-E GT Extended Range has seen its price fall to $64,000 from $69,900 before, according to CNN Business. The price of the standard Mach-E model has moved from $46,900 down to $46,000, the same report says. The move comes after Tesla lowered prices as much as 20% on many of its models to start 2023.
“We expect to see a flurry of subsequent price cuts across EV competition throughout the year from startups and legacy players. In a year defined by slower growth, rising rates and consumer austerity we believe manufacturing and design innovation will separate EV winners from the pack,” the note concluded.
Tyler Durden
Sun, 02/05/2023 – 11:30
