Electric pickups are trucks that run on batteries instead of gasoline. They’re cleaner and cheaper to run, but they haven’t sold as many as people expected.
Fossil fuel engines are the traditional gasoline or diesel engines that most cars use today. They’re still common because electric charging isn’t everywhere yet.
Retooling means factories are being changed to make different cars. If a company isn’t selling enough electric trucks, they might switch back to making regular gasoline ones.
When the battery in an electric car no longer holds enough charge, it needs to be replaced with a new one.
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This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something. Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe
obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity? They may be happening to you without
you knowing. If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off
excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA. OSA is a serious
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information is provided by Lily, a medicine company.
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Monday morning to you. Ron Ananian is host of the Car Doctor, which is available weekly on
iHeartRadio's app, and he is owner of our automotive in Waldwick, New Jersey. And we say good morning
to you, Ron. Good morning, Ken. Happy to be here. Thank you. Good to be on with you, my fellow New
Jersey man. I'm a New Jersey man myself. And Ford, of course. I know. Yes, yes. I've only
mentioned it 2,000 times today alone. Ford has halted production of the all-electric
F-150 Lightning, and now they're taking a $20 billion charge tied to its EV strategy. So
it's one of the biggest EV course corrections we've seen from a U.S. automaker. So why is that an
important point? And you have to say that slowly, Ken. You know, it's $20 billion with a V. This
this isn't pocket change and pocket change. And it's just it's important to note it's and this
isn't a reflection on the lightning. This isn't a reflection on the F-150 Lightning. It was a good
vehicle. A lot of people bought them. A lot of people are happy with them. The inside story is
Ford was losing $125,000 of vehicle. Oh my God. And it got worse after the government subsidies
went away because there were government subsidies to buy an EV vehicle. And they were eliminated,
I believe, this year mid-year. So all of a sudden, you know, hey, listen, it's got to stand on its
own. You got to stand on your own two feet sometime, kid, right? And it wasn't making money. So they
said, hey, let's pull the plug. The demand isn't isn't what it's supposed to be, even though there
was demand, but there wasn't enough. And, you know, it sends a signal. Electric pickups really
aren't selling the way they shouldn't. They're not making money for the companies like they're
supposed to. And that's the death bell. And you're seeing automakers all over the country and all
over the world now retooling, right? Going back in many cases to producing more fossil fuel engines
again. And then I think they have to, you know, listen, for the record, I think EVs are a great
idea. I think if you know a route, you're going to travel. If you're an Amazon driver, if you're a
taxi cab in New York City, if you're, you know, you're making that 50 mile loop on a continuous
basis, yeah, great. EVs are a wonderful idea because you can charge them. I'm not saying
they're going to be more cost efficient because studies show most EVs don't reach a break-even
point till about the 60,000 mile mark in terms of their impact on the environment, the carbon
footprint. And we can, you know, have that conversation another time. We can go in that
direction. But, you know, bottom line, you know, they're struggling to get these vehicles out the
door, make a profit and put them in the hands of people to use them. So they've said, okay, we're
done. And subsequently, all this development cost ended up to $20 billion. So here we go. And we're
going to go in a different direction now completely. We're going to go back towards internal combustion.
But we're going to go to internal combustion and hybrid, which is what I kind of said two years ago
that we were going to go to this because, you know, we're going to do a balance of both hybrid,
you know, internal combustion and a hybrid vehicle. Which makes total sense. I mean,
this way you're not, you're not risking anything. You have both options. I know it's a more
complicated engine design, right? Because you have to be able to switch back and forth.
But it does give you the best of both worlds. It does. It's still a machine though, Ken, at the
end of the day. It still requires maintenance. A lot of people don't seem to understand that.
We're seeing now, for example, a little off subject, start-stop technology, right? You're
familiar with start-stop. You stop and the engine goes off, sure. Right. And the engine goes off.
We're seeing a lot of issues with certain manufacturers, Ford among them, where it's
causing issues with variable valve timing components, cam shaft parts.
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This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something. Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe
obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity? They may be happening to you without
you knowing. If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off
excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA. OSA is a serious
condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing
interruptions and oxygen deprivation. Learn more at don'tsleeponosa.com. This information is provided
by Lily, a medicine company. Bring incredible sound into every corner of your home this holiday
with the new Wim Sound smart speaker. Get high resolution audio with a 1.8 inch touchscreen,
smart control, and modern design in one powerful speaker for just $2.99. From quiet mornings to
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beautifully designed, effortlessly connected. Shop now at Amazon and search Wim Sound. That's W-I-I-M-S-O-U-N-D.
To make it simple, things that are affecting engine controls and timing, particularly if the
person isn't due diligent about their oil changes and we're seeing long-term complications when these
engines get 60, 70, 80,000 miles on them, all of a sudden they need $2,000 worth of work that
had they done oil changes, they may not have needed and they're attributing that to the start
stop because it's always on, it's always off, it's always on, it's always off. So technology comes
at a price, I guess, is the message I want to put out there. When I first saw that feature and I
didn't even realize it existed until I felt the car peter off the salesman forgot to mention that
little fact and I thought, my god, why is my car stalling out? What's the deal? It's a brand new
car. I thought I had a bad tank of gas and then I realized, no, that's the feature. It's supposed to
save fuel but for the whatever negligible amount of fuel you're saving, unless you're going to be
idling at a traffic light for 20 minutes, you really have to wonder, is it worth the wear and tear
on the vehicle clearly? Well, I worry about the wear and tear. I also worry about the safety
perspective. When I get a car started, I'd like to know I'm going to go from A to B and if I stop
at every traffic light and if I'm going through maybe a less than desirable area or if I'm in a
heavy traffic situation or if I'm in a condition where I want to make sure the car is going to
start every time and it shuts off, what if I have a problem? What if it's late at night? What if I'm
alone? And I kind of like my car to run. I started at the house and get to work, that kind of thing.
And that's a whole other conversation for another day. I think the point becomes that
EVs didn't pan out to be what they were supposed to be because of the technology,
the costs associated with them, start stop isn't panning out to what it's supposed to be
because they're finding other, for every great idea there's a bigger problem just waiting around
the corner that they have to overcome. And there's a lot of technology that goes into a car today
and they're still learning even today. And isn't there a point when with EVs you will have to replace
the batteries and how expensive are those? Well, and then, you know, yeah, it's, you know, the EV
battery replacement is more expensive than replacing the engine on most internal combustion
vehicles. So, you know, we hear stories, we see numbers 12 to $15,000 on some vehicles.
Now, that's okay, you go, well, it was $100,000 vehicle, but the battery fails in year seven
or eight, for example. Are you going to put $15,000 into an eight-year-old vehicle?
You know, the numbers don't make sense. The bigger problem with EVs, Ken, is distribution,
getting electricity to where it's supposed to be. I tell this story a hundred times when I'm
doing the show, you know, we go out to Pittsburgh on a regular basis and we drive through the
beautiful town of Altoona, PA. Altoona's nestled at the base of the Alleghenes. I always tell my
wife, when they get enough electricity to come over the top of the Alleghenes and feed electricity
to Altoona and make it all electric, then you'll see EV vehicles for the masses. But until then,
it's really just a marketing thing. I just don't see how effective it's going to be.
Well, with New Jersey's electric rates going up 20% a year and probably even more exponentially
under the new incoming governor, I think it's probably time to go back to gas. Ron and Anian,
host of the Car Doctor, available weekly on the iHeartRadio app and owner of RA Automotive in
Waldwick, New Jersey. Always a pleasure, my friend. Happy New Year. Thank you, Ken. You too. Be well.
Thank you. You too, sir. And when we come back, we're going to have a recap of today's show
and my final thoughts at 710WOR. A New Year is on the horizon and your 2026 savings start here.
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About this episode
Ron Ananian discusses the significant challenges facing Ford's F-150 Lightning and the broader electric vehicle market. With Ford halting production and taking a $20 billion charge, Ananian explains the financial struggles linked to EVs, including high production costs and declining demand after government subsidies ended. He emphasizes the importance of hybrid technology as a potential solution, while also addressing concerns about maintenance and battery replacement costs. The conversation highlights the complexities of transitioning to electric vehicles and the ongoing need for reliable infrastructure.
On Mendte in the Morning on WOR Radio 710, Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor, joins holiday host Ken Rosato to break down one of the biggest automotive stories of the year. Following Ford Motor Company’s decision to halt production of the F-150 Lightning and take a reported $20-billion charge tied to its EV strategy, Ron explains why the move isn’t a failure of the vehicle—but a reality check on profitability, subsidies, infrastructure, and consumer demand. The conversation expands into the future of EVs, the growing shift toward hybrids, the hidden costs of new technology like start-stop systems, and what all of this means for drivers long term.
Catch Ron Ananian every other week on Mendte in the Morning at 9:40 AM on WOR 710 AM.
