Wall St loves electric cars, but love for big trucks strong in US

Wall Street may love the shares of Silicon Valley electric carmaker Tesla Inc, but Americans love big, fuel-thirsty trucks like Ford Motor Co’s bestselling F-Series pickups and are paying ever higher prices to buy them.The auto industry is at a crossroads, with the future of legacy automakers like Ford, General Motors Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV uncertain as governments float proposals to ban internal combustion engines over the next two decades.But in the present, consumer enthusiasm for trucks and sport utility vehicles is strong, especially in the United States.And that is providing Ford, GM and other established automakers with billions in cash to mount a challenge to Tesla.Tesla has ambitions to boost annual sales to 500,000 vehicles a year.But it is wrestling with the sort of production problems that old-line automakers have largely put behind them, and has reported a net loss of $666.7mn through the first six months of 2017.The company is expected to post a third quarter net loss of $380.4mn when it reports results next Wednesday.Electric cars are money losers, which explains why global automakers have been slow to roll them out until now.But regulatory and consumer pressures are forcing established automakers to put more electric vehicles in their fleets over the next several years.In a cash-intensive industry, profits from pickups and SUVs may give them a competitive edge.Ford said on Thursday that the average price of one of its F-series pickups rose $2,800 to an average $45,400 a truck in the third quarter.Sales of F-series trucks, which range from spartan work trucks to Platinum models with the features - and price tags - of a European luxury sedan, were up nearly 11% to 658,636 vehicles for the first nine months of this year.GM has driven its share price up nearly 30% so far in 2017 as Chief Executive Mary Barra has talked up plans for putting self-driving, electric Chevrolet Bolts into ride services fleets within a few quarters.Barra told investors improved profit margins on trucks were “one of the big drivers of the overall 8.3% margins” in the automaker’s North American business during the latest quarter.GM has forecast free cash flow for the full year of roughly $6bn.That is $1bn less than forecast earlier this year, but strong enough to fund the company’s promise to develop 20 more electric vehicles by 2023 and send $7bn back to shareholders.GM, which emerged from a government funded bankruptcy eight years ago, now has $31.4bn in available funds, including $17.3bn in cash.Ford lags behind GM in sales of battery electric models, but the company has said it will spend $5bn developing battery electric and hybrid models.Ford’s new Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett has said the plans include shifting $500mn into electric vehicle development from internal combustion projects.Ford’s share price has been flat for the year as the No 2 US automaker ushered out former CEO Mark Fields.Still, it had $28bn in cash and marketable securities as of Sept 30.Automakers also are becoming more confident they can make money on electric cars as battery costs come down.