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Ford, Volvo join Redwood in EV battery recycling push in California

Ford and Volvo will join battery recycling startup Redwood Materials in developing processes, starting in California, to collect end-of-life batteries from electric and hybrid vehicles and recover the materials for use in new batteries, the companies said Thursday. Redwood Materials, co-founded by former Tesla executive JB Straubel, formed an earlier partnership last fall with Ford to develop a “closed loop” or circular supply chain for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, from raw materials to recycling. On Thursday, Redwood Materials said it would work directly with dealers and dismantlers in California to identify and recover end-of-life battery packs. The materials in those packs will be recovered and recycled at Redwood Materials facilities in northern Nevada. U.S. automakers Ford and General Motors Co (GM) have said the battery recycling effort is crucial in efforts to develop a domestic supply chain to meet increasing EV demand. GM and battery partner LG Energy Solution last year announced a partnership with startup Li-Cycle to recycle battery scrap material from Ultium Cells, the GM-LG joint venture that is building battery plants in Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan. Redwood Materials has similar partnerships with battery makers Panasonic in Nevada and Envision AESC in Tennessee, as well as with Amazon. Ford and Amazon are among the investors in Redwood Materials. Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Mark Potter Green Ford Volvo Green Automakers Electric

Deep discounts — $12K, $13K, $16K — are fueling a pickup price war

Heavy discounts of up to $16,000 per vehicle are fueling a "truck war" among full-size pickups sold in the United States by the Detroit Three, a Reuters analysis shows. Strong U.S. sales this year of the highly profitable big trucks have helped offset lagging passenger car sales. But it is not clear how much of the truck demand is linked directly to ample factory incentives and dealer discounts, or how far sales might decline without those subsidies. A Reuters survey of Ford, General Motors Co's Chevrolet and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles's Ram truck dealers across the United States indicates stores are offering deep discounts the country's bestselling full-size pickup trucks. "The walls are not crashing down on full-size trucks," said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania. Detroit-based automakers want to keep cranking out their high-margin trucks, he added, and "giving up a little of the profit is the cheapest way to do it." Stores are offering discounts of up to $12,000 on the 2018 Ford F-150, which remains the best-selling vehicle in the country, recording more than 80,000 sales in May. Discounts run up to $13,000 on the 2018 Chevrolet Silverado and as high as $16,000 on the Ram 1500. Average transaction prices for full-size pick-ups range from around $42,000 to $45,000, industry analysts and automakers say. All three companies are spending furiously - GM and Fiat Chrysler to help sell off carryover 2018 trucks to prepare for redesigned 2019 models, and Ford to sustain its long-held sales crown. A supplier fire that temporarily shut down production of the F-150 last month "changed the game," said Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting at LMC Automotive in Troy, Michigan said. The supply halt nudged Ford's crosstown rivals "to ratchet up incentives on the current models to go after weakness at Ford," he said. Deals advertised on the companies' official websites range from rebates and low-interest loans to ultra-cheap lease rates, but they are not telling the whole story. Ford, for instance, advertises a $2,000 rebate and a $500 financing credit on sales of certain F-150 models. But James Collins Ford in Louisville, Kentucky, is offering discounts of up to $12,215 on the 2018 F-150 XLT SuperCrew 4x4. The price cuts are even steeper at a number of GM and Fiat Chrysler dealers. Quirk Chevrolet is selling the 2018 Silverado 1500 Double Cab at $13,000 off sticker.

How Ford switched gears for the all-new F-150

Editor's Note: This story is authored by Julia Halewicz, a senior editor with AOL's Custom Solutions Group. She holds a Masters in Journalism from NYU and has spent her career as an editor of various newspapers, magazines and digital outlets. Last year on the Friday before Labor Day, the 2014 Ford F-150 pickup truck came off the Dearborn assembly line for the last time. After the last seam was welded, the F-150 that had been so beloved by American consumers would begin the transition from traditional steel manufacturing to an aluminum body, and the second phase of Ford's 2007 blueprint for sustainability would begin. Jobs would be created, and Ford would deliver a stronger product to its consumers. It was a moment Ford would call the biggest in the company's 111-year history. Breaking The Mold For some, the change was almost unfathomable. How could a truck be made with aluminum, and why change what clearly was working very well for the company? "We have a saying at Ford that leaders lead," said Doug Scott, the company's truck group marketing manager. "This was an ideal product to make with aluminum-alloy, because lightweighting made so much sense for a truck, because the extent to which you could take weight out of a truck, you could add more value to the customer in terms of more towing, more payload, more durability, more efficiency – so again all this required us to be out in front further out in front that we normally would be to make sure that we would deliver on all those expectations." Ford began the planning process about five years before the first aluminum F-150 would come to market. The company had a lot of questions. What was customer acceptance of aluminum, could they build the truck, and could the truck be repaired out in the field? Finally, Ford needed to determine if there were enough materials available to support the demand for the F-Series. Aluminum vehicles aren't unusual, but had never been built on the scale of the F-150 – approximately one every minute. Ford created two prototypes to determine if the product would meet and exceed consumer expectations. Any change to the vehicle had to be justified in performance, safety and economy. An aluminum truck needed to be safer, lighter, have increased payload, haul more, and have improved fuel efficiency. After driving the prototypes, Ford knew it was ready to move forward. Once the aluminum truck was ready to build, the next challenge was quickly transforming the plant.