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.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Minty in the morning is on more of what UNI
from a morning show sevent ten double r in for Larry.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Today is Ken Rosetto.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Had a very good Monday morning to you, Ron and
Nany and his 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.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning Ken. Happy to be here, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Good to be to be on with you, my fellow
New Jersey man. I'm a New Jersey man myself and
Ford ours. Yes, yes, prily I've only mentioned it two
thousand times today alone. Ford has halted production of the
all electric F one to fifty lightning and now they're
taking a twenty billion dollar charge tied to its EV strategy.
(00:48):
So it's one of the biggest EV course corrections we've
seen from a US automaker. So why is that an
important point?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
And you have to say that slowly, Ken, you know
it's twenty billion with a B. This isn't This isn't
pockets 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 one fifty Lightning.
It was a good vehicle. A lot of people bought them,
a lot of people are happy with them. The inside
(01:15):
story is Ford was losing one hundred and twenty five
thousand dollars a 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 midyear. 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,
(01:37):
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 should. They're not making money
for the companies like they're supposed to. And that's the
death bell.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, and you're seeing automakers all over the country and
all over the world now tooling right, going back in
many cases to producing more fossil fuel engines again.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
And 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 you're
making that fifty 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
(02:27):
because studies show most evs don't reach a break even
point till about the sixty thousand mile mark in terms
of their impact on the environment, the carbon footprinting. And
we can, you know, have that conversation another time, can
go in that direction. But you know, bottom line, you know,
they're they're struggling to get these vehicles out the door,
(02:48):
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 costs added up to twenty
billion dollars. 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
(03:09):
of said two years ago that we were going to
go to this because you know, we're gonna we're gonna
do a balance of both hybrid you know, internal combustion
and a hybrid vehicle, which.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
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 to switch back and forth. But it does give
you the best of both worlds.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It does. It's it's 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 stars, right, and the engine
goes off. We're seeing a lot of issues with certain
(03:53):
manufacturers Forward among them, where it's causing issues with variable
valve time and components, cams, they have to parts 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 engine gets
sixty seventy eighty thousand miles on them all of a sudden,
(04:16):
they need two thousand dollars 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. It's
so technology comes at a price, I guess, is the
message I want to put out there. Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I was when I first saw that feature, and I
didn't even realize it existed until I felt the car
pewter off. The salesman forgot to mention that little fact,
and I thought, my god, why is my car starting 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
(04:55):
going to be idling at a traffic light for twenty minutes,
you really have to wonder is it worth wear and
tear in the vehicles?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
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 you know,
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
(05:22):
start every time, you know, 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, you know, I started at the house
and get to work that kind of thing. So, and
that's a whole other conversation for another day. I just
I think the point becomes that evs didn't pan out
(05:42):
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 you know, 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.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
And isn't there a point when with EV's you will
have to replace the batteries and how expensive are those well?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
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 twelve to fifteen thousand dollars on some vehicles.
Now that's okay. You go, well, it was one hundred
thousand dollars vehicle, but the battery fails in year seven
(06:30):
or eight, for example, Are you going to put fifteen
grand into an eight year old vehicle?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yep, good point.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
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 one 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 Altuna Pa. Altuna's nestled at the
(06:56):
base of the Alleghenies. I always tell my wife, when
they get enough electricity to come over the top of
the Alleghany's and feed electricity to Altuona and make it
all electric, then you'll see EV vehicles for the masses.
But until then, it's it's really just a marketing thing.
I just don't see how effective it's going to be.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Well, with New Jersey's electric drakes electric rates going up
twenty percent 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 Dany and the host
of the Car Doctor, available weekly on the iHeartRadio app
and owner of RA Automotive in Waldwick, New Jersey. All
was a pleasure, my friend, Happy new year.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Thank you Ken, you too, be well, thank you you too, sir.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
And when we come back, we're going to have a
weekap of today's show and my final thoughts at seven
to ten WR
Minty in the morning is on more of what UNI
from a morning show sevent ten double r in for Larry.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Today is Ken Rosetto.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Had a very good Monday morning to you, Ron and
Nany and his 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.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning Ken. Happy to be here, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Good to be to be on with you, my fellow
New Jersey man. I'm a New Jersey man myself and
Ford ours. Yes, yes, prily I've only mentioned it two
thousand times today alone. Ford has halted production of the
all electric F one to fifty lightning and now they're
taking a twenty billion dollar charge tied to its EV strategy.
(00:48):
So it's one of the biggest EV course corrections we've
seen from a US automaker. So why is that an
important point?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
And you have to say that slowly, Ken, you know
it's twenty billion with a B. This isn't This isn't
pockets 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 one fifty Lightning.
It was a good vehicle. A lot of people bought them,
a lot of people are happy with them. The inside
(01:15):
story is Ford was losing one hundred and twenty five
thousand dollars a 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 midyear. 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,
(01:37):
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 should. They're not making money
for the companies like they're supposed to. And that's the
death bell.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, and you're seeing automakers all over the country and
all over the world now tooling right, going back in
many cases to producing more fossil fuel engines again.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
And 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 you're
making that fifty 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
(02:27):
because studies show most evs don't reach a break even
point till about the sixty thousand mile mark in terms
of their impact on the environment, the carbon footprinting. And
we can, you know, have that conversation another time, can
go in that direction. But you know, bottom line, you know,
they're they're struggling to get these vehicles out the door,
(02:48):
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 costs added up to twenty
billion dollars. 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
(03:09):
of said two years ago that we were going to
go to this because you know, we're gonna we're gonna
do a balance of both hybrid you know, internal combustion
and a hybrid vehicle, which.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
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 to switch back and forth. But it does give
you the best of both worlds.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It does. It's it's 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 stars, right, and the engine
goes off. We're seeing a lot of issues with certain
(03:53):
manufacturers Forward among them, where it's causing issues with variable
valve time and components, cams, they have to parts 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 engine gets
sixty seventy eighty thousand miles on them all of a sudden,
(04:16):
they need two thousand dollars 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. It's
so technology comes at a price, I guess, is the
message I want to put out there. Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I was when I first saw that feature, and I
didn't even realize it existed until I felt the car
pewter off. The salesman forgot to mention that little fact,
and I thought, my god, why is my car starting 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
(04:55):
going to be idling at a traffic light for twenty minutes,
you really have to wonder is it worth wear and
tear in the vehicles?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
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 you know,
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
(05:22):
start every time, you know, 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, you know, I started at the house
and get to work that kind of thing. So, and
that's a whole other conversation for another day. I just
I think the point becomes that evs didn't pan out
(05:42):
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 you know, 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.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
And isn't there a point when with EV's you will
have to replace the batteries and how expensive are those well?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
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 twelve to fifteen thousand dollars on some vehicles.
Now that's okay. You go, well, it was one hundred
thousand dollars vehicle, but the battery fails in year seven
(06:30):
or eight, for example, Are you going to put fifteen
grand into an eight year old vehicle?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yep, good point.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
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 one 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 Altuna Pa. Altuna's nestled at the
(06:56):
base of the Alleghenies. I always tell my wife, when
they get enough electricity to come over the top of
the Alleghany's and feed electricity to Altuona and make it
all electric, then you'll see EV vehicles for the masses.
But until then, it's it's really just a marketing thing.
I just don't see how effective it's going to be.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Well, with New Jersey's electric drakes electric rates going up
twenty percent 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 Dany and the host
of the Car Doctor, available weekly on the iHeartRadio app
and owner of RA Automotive in Waldwick, New Jersey. All
was a pleasure, my friend, Happy new year.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Thank you Ken, you too, be well, thank you you too, sir.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
And when we come back, we're going to have a
weekap of today's show and my final thoughts at seven
to ten WR
Host
Ron Ananian
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