 xux this is uh 2020 all-wheel drive transit cargo a cargo van and passenger van but this is uh a little dated but uh the new updates to the ford uh transit van are going to be electric and they're they're not releasing any you know there's like five of them in production or out to fedx i just wanted to try to get this started here um this is a presentation by ford i'm going to just let this play for one minute uh at a trade show fleet and truck leasing management magazine trade show let's just uh play a few minutes of this and i'm going to comment pause and comment on it hi i'm tiffanie chang and i'm the ford transit brand manager and i'm so excited to share with you our new 2020 transit transit's done really well over the last couple of years where the world's best selling cargo van and this next model really steps up the game the okay so number one selling transit van again their e version of this to the best of my knowledge is not in production yet and um like i said i believe there are five of them the the latest information i could find is that there are like five of them uh out the e versions of these so they're not in full production uh the ceo ford wants to compete on the Mustang f-150 and this transit van and um course lords town motors has this same van in the wings basically ready to go uh had they have followed the previous schedule um before the fox con deal um this van would have been prototyping and heading towards production right now they do have the stamping dies for the body panels of this van it's built on the endurance platform now i want to remind you that the endurance platform is four-wheel drive hub motors uh low height uh vehicle a battery electric vehicle which the the platform is already homologated and certified uh it's just would be the body uh panels and so forth the body construction would be the additional certification needed but let's just hear what they have to say about what the customers have demanded with this forward van very first breaking news i have to share with you is that transit has an available all-wheel drive this has been a huge want from our customers we know that they need something that gets them through challenging driving and weather conditions and we're so proud to be able to deliver this so what this does is an intelligent all-wheel drive always on system meant to provide enhanced traction and icy muddy snowy conditions and it really gives our customers that on-road confidence okay so that is exactly the endurance will the e version of this forward transit b four-wheel drive like the f-150 lightning i don't know i think they're gonna have to raise the the height of the bed of the floor in this truck a lot uh to accommodate a rear motor and um again i think that uh you're going to have the independent rear suspension which is going to be you know problematic for a real truck uh let's just uh pause this for a minute till i can get to the next section all right in this section she's talking about the low load load for which i do not believe forward is going to be able to maintain in the new vehicle because of their drive system the hub motor is superior here let's see what they have to say which means that we were able to preserve and maintain some of the things that our customers currently love about our transit including the low load floor and the ride height and that allows for easy ingress and egress and what that does is minimize driver fatigue throughout the day when and i believe they're going to have to sacrifice this um and i do not believe uh the lords town endurance high top fan is going to have to i think this is going to be a competitive advantage uh for lords town and let's just let this play a minute further i have some more information put in here and you think about our commercial customers they're in and out of the vehicle dozens of times a day you know they really need to make sure that they are not sacrificing comfort for that capability which we're able to offer them we are coming out with two all new engines we have a 3.5 okay they're just talking here about the and they've invested substantially in the ice drive trains for this vehicle and updating the ice drive trains for this vehicle and where's the bev ford vehicle we don't know i can't you know the ceo ford is talking a lot but we're not seeing i'm not finding the information about the progress on this vehicle for ford and they just fired all the engineers they worked on the f150 they're coming out with a completely new electric platform for 2025 i think their design on this van is going to be a stop gap at best like the ford f150 and um i think it's going to be heavy and it's going to burn tires like the ford f150 is all right this is a state of the fleet industry this is a great bob business media this is the editor of automotive fleet magazine and this is his 2023 evaluation of the market 2023 to be a catch up here for missed and cancelled fleet orders to say this is bullish for fleet vehicles is an understatement but let's just play a few samples of this i'll put a link in the description indications all indications are that demand for fleet vehicles during the 2023 ordering cycle will be extremely strong primarily because of the huge pent up demand created by the shorter ordering windows in 2021 in 2022 that resulted in the acceleration of early order deadline dates the cancellation of accepted orders and allocation restrictions for certain high demand fleet vehicles all of which has created a pent up demand for replacement vehicles that this industry has never seen before okay i don't know if we can get much more bullish than that my now he's talking mainly about ice vehicles he doesn't really do a breakdown for battery electric vehicles here my research has shown that the last survey of fleet managers indicated that they planned on converting 30 of their new orders to battery electric vehicles let's just move on here to this next section that's very bullish many fleet managers anticipate this catch up ordering cycle will continue for the next several model years so barring any unforeseen developments these fleet managers say they don't anticipate returning to normal replacement cycles until model year 2025 so i don't know what else to tell you about that i don't know if it could be more bullish for a fleet vehicle now what they are talking about here as uh let's just preview this chapter a little bit um what they're talking about here is fleet vehicles and he's putting an emphasis on vans but of course pickup trucks are part of this as well how confident are fleet managers that they will receive all the 2023 vehicles they actually order based on what i'm told there is a high degree of pessimism among fleet managers as to the likelihood they will have everything they ordered actually built and delivered to them in this model year and of course this is an monolithic response i mean i got a range of responses that went across the full spectrum that included many who said they have high confidence that they'll get all of the vehicles that they ordered but the majority of the responses from fleet managers skewed in the other direction and here are some examples quote i have no confidence in receiving my entire 2023 order and i base this on recent history i've had orders canceled now for two years in a row end quote or consider this quote i am skeptical about getting everything i ordered because retail sales are taking priority over fleet sales plus i'm also competing with other fleets for the same vehicles for the same volume end quote and well other fleet managers believe that the vehicles they ordered will be built they're concerned about very long order to deliver okay i want to add to this that you read those quotes fort is the dominant player in the fee in this field they can't even get ice vehicles out let alone battery electric vehicles i believe this leaves a giant opening in the market for lordstown foxconn to move right in and whether that's with the lordstown high top van which i need think they need to expedite and additionally the the two mih program fleet vehicles that lordstown is proposing to foxconn as the joint venture guys uh let's just go over orders but i also believe that there will be a limitation on actual deliveries from our orders for large fans end quote and other professionals agree with this assessment so here's another quote quote the us desperately needs more options for large and small vans in both cargo and passenger configurations end of quote and yet another quote quote manufacturer is canceling orders months after they've been accepted is incredibly frustrating to all end users and puts pressures on fmc's defined potential solutions the lack of product and long lead times for the past several years has been challenging to say the least end of quote okay um i'm not going to be a dead horse with this section i think you can see that although they're putting an emphasis on vans here uh and i do think the lordstown high top van is so important at this point in time um i think the same can be said for pickup trucks um which uh are hard to break out of the fleet numbers okay but they are significant uh but as you can see here the van is is by far um seems to be the pivot point in this market guys let's do this joint venture let's get this done lordstown foxconn uh i think there's a opportunity here everyone else is falling down in the van market and i just want to go through this section here real quickly and again the link to this will be in the description this is the solution these fleet managers are seeking to use to get their orders filled to fill the needs they have for these fleet vehicles a significant volume of production for high demand fleet vehicles so how are fleets coping with these ordering constraints so and how do they plan to do so in the 2023 model year so one ongoing strategy is to maximize actual deliveries has been to move away from sole sourcing and to expand the number of oems from whom they source replacement vehicles uh translate that forget about four they ain't getting the job done they ain't getting the job done nice and they ain't getting the job done on b v's they're not even close so here's a quote that illustrates this the reality is that we will most likely have to order from several different oems if we want to meet our order numbers end quote and another strategy being employed by some fleets is to elevate their 2023 fleet order volume assuming that oh that even though some of these orders will be canceled the net result would be actual deliveries closer to what they actually need so here's one example cited by a fleet manager quote I believe many fleet managers are going to order at the high end of their order volume for 2023 models the reality is that they will most likely need to continue this ramped up ordering for another two years to fully catch up end of quote okay so I just wanted to put this video out to give people an idea of how how big of a hole there is in this market and uh how uh Lordstown Motors is in a position to fill that hole and we're all waiting for the first quarter uh call but uh I think that you know people haven't looked closely enough at this and you have to realize on the battery electric vehicle front Ford is done taking orders this is what he's talking about here and um their battery electric van nowhere Rivian's battery electric van nowhere um you know there's small niche manufacturers but um there's an opportunity here for Lordstown to make a major move into both these markets and I think this makes a case for the van again Steve Burns was right on the money of course he worked at workhorse previously was his company so he also understood the delivery van market so this is all uh in the DNA of Lordstown Motors and really all they need to do is start production and launch these vehicles um there there is really no competition right now now as long as Fox content source the batteries and so forth boy oh boy there is a great opportunity here okay this is just the final little snippet from this presentation talking about fleets and fleet managers and their relationship with OEMs purchase vehicles in good times and bad so making fleets suffer the cost of no incentives because the market is booming will come back to haunt them when the bottom falls out and fleets are the only ones buying the OEMs need to look at the long game end quote and I am personally confident that the fleet industry will find a way to alleviate or work around these ordering constraints confronting us today nonetheless all of these sourcing difficulties for the past two years has created a very stressful situation for fleet manager suppliers and OEM fleet account executives in fact I'd like to give a shout out to all of the OEM fleet account executives who are in a very tough situation perhaps the toughest in their entire career but who are making the best of it so a word of appreciation to the fleet account executives who are in regular communication with our clients who are transparent and who are genuinely trying to help their fleets clients meet their product needs and I don't believe enough credit has been given to the OEM fleet account executives who are making the best of it during these really unprecedented times nevertheless today is a stressful time for everybody in the fleet industry and this is best captured in the following quote from one longtime fleet manager quote in my 25-year career I have never been so stressed in sourcing vehicles as I've been for the past two years end quote okay I think we're going to end it there I don't know this is pretty black and white so let's see what the earnings call has to say about the joint venture there's a massive case for this also for the purchase agreement we have no confirmation on anything although the breadcrumbs are saying everything's going to go through I'm hoping to get this video out before the call but should it come out after the call and we can all hope for a positive outcome on that but as you can see here as I say there is a giant pile of money on the table if these guys can just get it together and do this deal what the heck is taking you how can you even think twice about this Foxconn come on or Lordstown I mean I don't know whoever's in the middle of all this we're going to have to trust our executives at Lordstown and I do and you know we have moved again one quarter is four years at Lordstown and we've moved from a startup management team to a professional management team high tower is a giant in this industry and DJ Dan CEO Dan is you know you know icon capo so we got the right people in chance favors the prepared mind we're prepared here Lordstown is prepared to take advantage of this and with the partnership with Foxconn they should be able to ramp up and you know they're in a position to actually capture in my opinion if they can supply these domestic clients in the United States with these fleet vehicles battery electric fleet vehicles I mean they have a chance here to dominate this entire market segment they can establish a market share deliver well thought out vehicles which are already on the drawing board I mean this is a massive opportunity and I think it's got money written all over it all right