On the other hand, Tesla seems to have done OK without advertising, auto shows, or dealers. Musk's tweets and shows substituted for those. But Musk is a double-edged sword at this point. His antics with Twitter are both distracting him and turning some people off. Threatening advertisers like Apple to force them to advertise seems an odd tactic. Whether his Twitter mess will affect the Tesla brand, hard to say.
Regardless, Ford is not Tesla. Auto shows are expensive, maybe Ford is looking at how it spends its marketing dollars, and maybe they need the money for R&D. The Lighting and Mustang EVs were one-offs. Great to get some sales and EV cred, but neither advanced their ability to create more EVs. The F150 is basically an ICE truck with batteries stuffed in it. Nothing there to reuse for making other EVs.
While Ford was doing that, GM was well along the Ultium platform development. Ultium can underpin a wide range of vehicles as we know, from delivery vans to Hummer, to Equinox EVs. The Hummer development did most of the work for the Silverado, This is why we are seeing GM announcing EV after EV. GM can now basically drape different sheet metal onto lots of shared motors, software, and battery components enabling a wide range of EVs.
2023 they pick up speed a notch from their 2021 and 2022 work and if they stick to their plan, 2024, 2025, and beyond will be busy years for their EVs. Unfortunately, General Electric is already taken, otherwise, that would be a great name for the reborn company.
