From General Motors, Ford's Lightning pickup, to Tesla's Cybertruck

Chip shortage makes General Motors no longer the top seller of vehicles in the US, as of January 4, 2022. Toyota, which reportedly sold about 114,000 more vehicles than GM in 2021. GM reported that total sales were down almost 13 percent last year due to semiconductor shortages and GM has had to cut features from some vehicles, such as wireless chargers and HD radios, due to supply issues. (Source: https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/4/22867285/gm-toyota-us-top-selling-automaker-chip-shortage)

Meanwhile, GM on last Tuesday (1/4/2022) introduced CarBravo, a website that will list all the used car inventory across GM's participating dealerships as well as used cars owned by GM and its finance arm. According to the news that I am reading, there are 400,000 used vehicles in dealer inventory on an ongoing basis. For sure, this will promote GM's business. Currently, dealers sell about 2.5 million used cars a year. GM and GM Financial have an additional 500,000 used cars in stock each year. (https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2022/01/11/gm-carbravo-used-vehicle-car-retail-carmax-carvana/9171201002/) 

 Another source points out that GM made it the rule that lease holders could no longer sell their vehicles outside the GM dealership network at the end of the term, which should help to bolster the available inventory on CarBravo. (https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a38738514/gm-launches-carbravo-sales-website/) 

 Andrew Bary, Barron, named GM as one of his top stock picks for 2022, he believes General Motors is fast becoming one of the most exciting players in the electric-vehicle space. (https://www.barrons.com/articles/buy-gm-stock-pick-evs-51642111070) 

 Well, I won't disagree with him. On the other hand, Ford and Tesla are also key players in the EV industry. Ford CEO Jim Farley, leading the company’s battery vehicle plans, said in late 2021 that it would double production of both the fast-selling Mach-E electric crossover to 80,000 units in 2022. Then later he claimed that Ford would also boost its annual production target for the new F-150 Lightning pickup to 150,000 units from a previous 80,000-truck goal. According to another news that I am reading, Ford didn’t design a completely new platform for the Lightning, it simply modifies its existing F-150 design. This decision has enabled Ford to move FASTER to market. The Lightning, unveiled in May 2021, starts with a base price of $39,974 (before federal and state incentives) and driving range of 230 miles per charge. Top-end models will cost more than $90,000. Tesla CEO Elon Musk also promised that the Cybertruck would have a base price of $39,900 and a range of 250 miles per charge. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2022/01/13/fords-amped-up-electric-vehicle-strategy-boost-shares-tops-gms-market-cap/?sh=4b0a533b365c) 

But,Recently, reference to a 2022 production schedule was scrubbed from its website, production of the vehicle won’t begin until the first quarter of 2023. （https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/13/22881646/tesla-cybertruck-production-date-2022-removed-website）