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the great reset

Ford will no longer allow you to own your leased EV

Matt Posky, The Truth About Cars

Ford Motor Co. will be suspending end-of-lease buyout options for customers driving all-electric vehicles, provided they took possession of the model after June 15, 2022. Those who nabbed their Mach-E beforehand will still have the option of purchasing the automobile once their lease ends.

The change, made earlier in the month, cruised under our radar until a reader asked for our take over the weekend. Ford could be wanting to capitalize on exceptionally high used vehicle prices, ensuring that more vehicles make it back into rotation. The broader industry has likewise been talking about abandoning traditional ownership to transition the auto market into being more service-oriented where manufacturers ultimately retain ownership of all relevant assets. But it may not be that simple as this being another step in the business sector’s larger plan to maximize profitability by discouraging private vehicle ownership.

… We could speculate on the why of this decision endlessly. But your author is inclined to believe it’s a conglomeration of issues with the recall issue being of lesser importance than Ford realizing that it might soon become exceptionally difficult to source batteries. The same goes for the company wanting to pivot toward more leasing, especially since the industry often talks about how the broader premise of “mobility”  that often includes placing curious limitations on vehicle ownership. It hasn’t even been a full month since Ford CEO Jim Farley suggested fundamentally changing the entire business. This included suspending traditional advertising campaigns, killing the existing dealership model, and moving to online-only sales where customers cannot negotiate on price.

“We’ve got to go to non-negotiated price. We’ve got to go to 100-percent online,” Farley said at the Bernstein 38th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference held at the start of June. “There’s no [dealer] inventory, it goes directly to the customer. And 100 [percent] remote pickup and delivery.”

This kind of talk often coincides with industry leaders promoting their own financial services arm, finding new ways of keeping customers tied to the current brand, and prioritizing new modes of business where the manufacturer retains ownership of the vehicles they’re “selling.” Ford certainly has discussed those topics in the past, however, the play to nix lease buyouts hasn’t yet overlapped. Though all automakers are pretty consistent in feeding us the same lines whenever those schemes are questioned.

From software to books to cars to housing: all will be owned and controlled by your betters, because they know better.