Lets first cover that they have in fact been failing and folding. First AMC went under and received no bailout. Then Chrysler went under and was bailed out to prevent "job loss." Then Chrysler was acquired by Daimler. They Chrysler was spit out. Then it went bankrupt and was reacquired to become FCA. At the same time GM went bankrupt and had its head fired. In these 3 bankruptcies the government had to bail them out each time but its always bailing out these structurally bankrupt firms that are part of the petrol retail chain. Ford is facing cancelling its dividend and it just cancelled all its cars in the US and is now having to partner with VW on electrics- VW might as well acquire Ford as a penny stock in the not to distant future but is itself in trouble. GM as well isn't really modernizing its got people with Lutz' mentality at the helm, its just another piece of the petrol retail chain that is failing to make needed changes. But the real reason for the failure is simply this: It is simply because fossil fuels due to inherent sub threshold ultra low aggregate efficiency have been and always will be a failure in the face of higher efficiency alternatives. Those alternatives starting appearing in the early 1950s and some were above threshold on efficiency. But even if better alternatives hadn't been available fossil fuels would still be failing right down into their retailers because of the level of inherent inefficiency- its unsustainable or sub threshold. The utility of fossil fuels was realized in getting us to the above threshold replacements. The level of tech needed to fix fossil fuel tech's inefficiency would obviate the utility of fossil fuels as an energy because it would yield radically superior replacements on the level of over unity as a pre-requsite. And while that level of tech isn't present we already have radically compelling replacements. The whole point of fossil fuels since 1970 has been the generation of artificial scarcity to help drive human enslavement. Fossil fuels are about asserting a right to exploit or enslave and ending fossil fuels and that assertion is civil rights struggle of our time. Petrol is a black hole destroying everything it touches and and the collapse of these petrol retail ice peddlers is just a symptom like the melting and breaking away of sheets of artic ice. We might as well be mining ore off pluto as an economic basis because petrol's obsolete economics are so bad. The economics of fossil fuels cannot be fixed. No economy that stays tied to it will prosper or remain competitive. Again, fossil fuels cannot be fixed only fools think otherwise at this point.
I don't mean to be a defender of Ford Motor Company, but 101101 post is not truthful. A quick Google search reveals that (Investors Business Daily, 10/24/2018): "Ford Motor (F) earnings fell as expected late Wednesday, but sales topped forecasts and the carmaker affirmed its dividend, following speculation the payout is in danger." Ford made 29 cents per share in the 3rd quarter of 2018 and pays a 15 cent per share dividend. The company also said its balance sheet remains strong, with $23.7 billion of cash and $34.7 billion of total liquidity. Ford's North America segment revenue rose to $22.3 billion, up by $1.4 billion. Ford trucks and SUV sales rose 2.8% in the U.S. in the third quarter, offsetting lower car sales. Revenue fell in South America, the Middle-East and the Asia-Pacific region. But revenue rose in Europe, where commercial vehicle share improved.
No, no, no, there is a reason Tesla has a 60% higher valuation than Ford and 11% higher than GM. These two laggards are again doing compliance numbers on electrics. just as they have for some years now but Ford hasn't been able to manage that and along the way to dropping cars in the US appears to be dropping electric with blather about hybrids. Its just more string us along fail convincingly scam that these diesel gate style bribe pushers use as they lobby to lower efficiency standards and perpetuate fossil fuel crimes, its the stuff fossil fuel criminal companies always run. They companies and their so-called leadership are not credible but Musk and Tesla are. Oh look, Ford wants to partner with a Diesel Gate principal on electrics- ha! ha! Ha! Noticed the new BMW 3 series cars now look like the Toyota Mirai which in turn looks like the back end if a Honda Clarity. I think the truth of the German industry is its running off the glory days of the people behind their products in the 70s - mid 90s. Those people might have been able to weather this storm but the current crop at these firms appear to be a case of gold giving birth to coal. In the case of the US firms the kind of people that could compete with Tesla were gone by the end of the 50s. I still have hopes for Toyota and Honda. Aside from the Honda and Toyota these firms are stupidly profit focused (even though like all fossil fuel industry players their profits are a delusion based on hidden subsidies and some form of structural bankruptcy) and will get destroyed by a mission oriented firm. They know this and it why they spend so much money trying to get away with lying incessantly in the media about Tesla and trying to sabotage Tesla and its board and remove Musk. Because they can't compete they want to undermine and slow down Tesla, they seek to subvert it by proxy. All those voices crying for oversight really want to insert the profit perversion- Musk is working to preempt this and check the real profit box but no so it can idiotically pay dividends to try to buy investors. Ford, GM, Exxon and Chevron need new managements. Tesla is a firm focused on the real bottom line: social profit. Do we think Fords customers would ever help it deliver its cars for free? We know they wouldn't but Tesla's do because they care about the firm and the movement behind it. That's not a cult (a corporate fiefdom like the fossil fuel laggards is more like a cult,) no they do that because they know Tesla is about freedom and competition is about slavery. Its very simple. Thankfully there is no way for the competition to manipulate that aside from getting a genuine mission that empowers customers but that's not something they can fake so they lose. Aside from China I could see these companies letting Tesla take half the world market or maybe more.