Subject: Re: "Productivity"

Is there enough of a pie for everyone to do business upmarket?

That's what I was wondering, when the automakers started abandoning conventional passenger cars, for SUVs, because they could make more profit: when everyone is building nothing but SUVs, will they still command as fat a margin?

two years ago:

Ford CEO Farley Says Two Row ICE Crossovers Going Away

"So I'm very optimistic about our eight percent because we are not going to be playing in the two-row commodity crossover market because that's - because Ford's tried that in the ICE business and it didn't really work out for us," Farley said when asked about the company's profit margin target. "We want to play our hand, our strength, commercial, truck, larger vehicles on the category side."

https://fordauthority.com/2023...

So, now, Ford is dropping the Escape and Corsair, two row SUVs, and, supposedly, retooling the plant to build "affordable" EV pickups. I have been saying the probabilities are non-zero that that EV pickup is vaporware, to provide political cover for their closing Louisville Assembly, and laying off 2800 Americans. While Ford tells customers "either pay up for an Explorer, or go away, because we don't want your low margin business".

Steve