Legacy automaker Ford (F) may have had to push back on its green ambitions, but there is not much to stop it from laying the groundwork for it. In fact, Ford Pro just brought out a new pilot program to help drive electrification in the Southeast. Investors were oddly displeased, though, and shares slid nearly 2% in Wednesday afternoon’s trading.
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There are, according to Ford itself, over 100,000 electric vehicles currently registered across just three states: Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. So Ford, along with Southern Company (SO)—an energy provider with headquarters in Atlanta—is putting together a six-month pilot program geared toward finding out what the region needs to make those numbers bigger and how doing so can improve business in the region.
Southern Company will also use that information to put together an “electrification blueprint,” which will further help businesses get the most out of using electric vehicles. This includes things like best practices for depot charging, keeping vehicles up and running, and “minimizing total cost of ownership,” Ford noted.
The Unexpected Origins of the Rammus
What do you call a car that is part Ram pickup, part Mustang, and all a little frightening? No, that’s not the start of a really killer joke: that is actually how you describe a Rammus, a Ram/Mustang hybrid that represents the largest Mustang ever made.
The Rammus, commissioned by Sheikh Khalifa Sultan, is a 2015 Ford Mustang that has been, somehow, successfully merged with a Dodge (STLA) Ram pickup. The engine is a 6.4-liter Hemi, and reports from The Drive note that the nose is so long that it comes with a pair of metal poles mounted on the front to let you know exactly where the nose is in relation to everything around it.
Will we ever see a car like this in production? Reports suggest that likely will never happen. But I cannot help but think that there might be some drivers interested in a hybrid pickup/muscle car.
Is Ford Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on F stock based on four Buys, eight Holds, and two Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 0.43% loss in its share price over the past year, the average F price target of $11.04 per share implies 6.31% upside potential.
