
Ford's US July sales rise over 9% on SUV, pickup demand
Aggressive discount programs and its "zero, zero, zero" campaign, offering a $0 down payment, zero percent interest for 48 months and zero payments for the first 90 days on most vehicles, helped the company gain some market share.
Ford, whose lineup leans heavily on SUVs and pickup trucks, has also continued to benefit from demand from buyers towards larger vehicles.
Sales of its top-selling F-Series were up 6.6% to 73,538 trucks in July.
The Detroit automaker notched sales of 189,313 units compared with 173,223 units a year ago.
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Reuters
23 minutes ago
- Reuters
Rivian's loss bigger than expected as rare earth curbs raise costs, credits fade
Aug 5 (Reuters) - Rivian Automotive (RIVN.O), opens new tab reported a higher-than-expected quarterly loss on Tuesday as disruption in supply of rare earth metals used to make parts of its electric vehicles raised costs and income from credits sold to traditional automakers dwindled. Shares of the automaker fell nearly 5% in trading after the bell. China's curbs on the export of heavy rare earth metals —essential components for motors — sharply increased material costs and disrupted supply chains, driving up the cost of EV production in the U.S. Rivian's cost of revenue for each vehicle produced rose about 8% to $118,375 per unit sold from a year earlier, according to Reuters calculations. "That's really reflecting a much lower production volume, which was largely driven because of challenges we had within our supply base as a result of a lot of the changes in policy," CEO RJ Scaringe told Reuters. "Therefore, our costs look higher, but it's not as if our bill of materials grew or as if we became operationally less efficient." Rivian will shut down production for three weeks in September, after a one-week pause in the second quarter, to integrate key components and prepare for the launch of the R2 SUV next year. The company reported an adjusted loss per share of 80 cents for the second quarter, compared with analysts' average estimate of 65 cents, according to data compiled by LSEG. Rivian also flagged a bigger adjusted core loss this year, expecting it to be between $2 billion and $2.25 billion, compared with $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion previously forecast. The company largely blamed a tapering in the value of U.S. regulatory credits for the higher loss estimate. The elimination of penalties for automakers not meeting fuel economy standards by President Donald Trump's administration has drastically reduced demand for regulatory credits, which companies like Rivian previously sold to traditional automakers to help them avoid emissions fines. Meanwhile, Lucid (LCID.O), opens new tab cut its annual production forecast and missed Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenue as trade tensions took a toll on demand. The luxury EV maker's shares slid more than 7% in extended trading after the company also said it had issues with the supply of magnets, but had resolved it by using substitutes. The $7,500 federal EV tax credit expires at the end of September, eliminating a key competitive advantage that has driven demand, but analysts anticipate a surge in third-quarter sales as customers rush to make purchases before losing access to the incentive. Rivian said on Tuesday it expected record deliveries in the third quarter across its consumer and commercial segments. The Amazon-backed company's revenue for the second quarter stood at $1.3 billion, surpassing analysts' average estimate of $1.28 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Rivian delivered 10,661 vehicles in the second quarter, marking a 22% decline from the same period a year earlier, as the company limited production to prepare for its 2026 model year launch.


FF News
24 minutes ago
- FF News
Arcade.dev and Lithic Announce Partnership to Create E-Commerce Agents
the first unified agent action platform that makes AI agents production-ready, and Lithic, the trusted card processing platform engineered for performance and built to last, today announced a partnership to develop the world's first AI e-commerce application capable of making secure, authenticated payments. The partnership will launch the world's first shopping agents that can search, compare products, and check out in one streamlined process. To make fully agentic commerce a reality, Lithic and Arcade introduced the pioneering approach of 'just-in-time auth' for agentic payments, which ensures agents can only access the exact payment permissions they need precisely when they need them. To complete a purchase, at checkout, the application creates a single-use credit card bound to the exact merchant and price of the user's cart. The technology is intended to be open-source, so that any developer can build their own agent with these capabilities. This approach unlocks one of the last major hurdles to secure and simple AI-powered commerce: the ability for agents to simply and securely check out. 'The shift to AI-native commerce will be a multi-trillion dollar transformation, and, until now, payments have not existed within the AI ecosystem,' said Lithic Co-founder and CEO Bo Jiang. 'Partnering with Arcade allows us to create the first truly secure payment rails for AI agents, enabling highly trustworthy AI-driven commerce for Lithic clients.' AI is reshaping how consumers discover and evaluate products online, from personalized search results to intelligent product recommendations. Large language models help millions of users research purchases and compare options, but consumers are still unable to complete transactions in an AI-native environment. This partnership aims to eliminate this friction and deliver comprehensive AI-powered commerce by enabling AI agents to securely complete purchases on behalf of users. 'Security is the foundation of any reliable agent capable of taking real action,' said Co-Founder and CEO Alex Salazar. 'Arcade is making reliable agentic transactions possible. We're building a future where consumers don't think twice about an agent making a purchase for them.' Arcade is building the essential authentication and authorization layer that lets these agents securely transact across a broad catalogue of merchants and platforms. People In This Post Boling Jiang Lithic


The Independent
25 minutes ago
- The Independent
‘We will work collaboratively': Big Pharma admits it is discussing Trump's plan to lower drug prices
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