LIVE AT 2:30 MT 2-hour wildfire evacuation notice issued for some Fort McMurray neighbourhoods
A wildfire evacuation alert for some Fort McMurray residents has been updated to a two-hour evacuation notice.
Ford's second-quarter outlook is improving, with large numbers of customers making reservations for four of its new vehicles.
Ford Motor Co. now anticipates its quarterly adjusted earnings before interest and taxes for the April through June quarter to top its expectations and be significantly better than the year-ago period.
Although there's still uncertainty around semiconductor supply, Ford is seeing improvement in its automotive business due to lower-than-expected costs and favorable market factors. It's also being helped by increased vehicle auction values.
CEO Jim Farley told investors at Deutsche Bank's Global Auto Industry Conference on Thursday that the company is benefiting from lower costs overseas and in North America due to restructuring. It's also seeing "pretty breathtaking" prices for its vehicles with tight inventories, and higher revenue from its credit arm, he said.
But he said Ford is still being hit harder than competitors by the global shortage of computer chips because it was more reliant on Renesas, a Japanese chip maker that had a fire at one of its factories in March. Even though the Renesas plant is restarting some production, he doesn't see Ford returning to normal vehicle availability until sometime next year due in part to high demand.
"I would say in the second half of the year, things are going to get better for us," Farley said. "We are learning that this is a scramble to get the (computer) modules in the vehicles in the second half, even."
Also, unlike competitors, Ford will not remove features such as fuel-saving stop-start technology in order to keep building vehicles with fewer chips, Farley said.
Ford had previously said it could lose up to 50% of its second-quarter production due to the chip shortage, but it gave no specifics about whether that actually happened.
On Thursday, Ford announced it had acquired a California electric vehicle charging software company called Electriphi. Farley said charging management would be among the services Ford will offer fleet customers. With wireless diagnostics and algorithms that predict vehicle problems, Farley expects the company's parts and service business to double.
Farley said it's clear the administration of President Joe Biden is committed to switching the industry to electric vehicles and away from internal combustion power. He said he would like government incentives to entice customers to switch, and called on Biden to emphasize vehicles made in North America, especially the U.S.
Ford said reservations have climbed to 190,000 for the revived full-size Bronco SUV, with 125,000 of those already converted to orders. The vehicle is now in production. There's also 100,000 reservations for the battery-electric F-150 Lightning pickup; 36,000 for the new Maverick compact pickup and 20,000 for the all-electric E-Transit commercial van.
Ford is taking $100 refundable deposits for Bronco and Lightning reservations. No deposits are required to reserve the Maverick and the E-Transit.
Ford is expected to announce its second-quarter results and provide an outlook for the second half of the year on July 28.
A wildfire evacuation alert for some Fort McMurray residents has been updated to a two-hour evacuation notice.
Canadian LifeLabs customers who filed an application for a class-action settlement began receiving their payments this week, though at a much lower amount than initially expected.
Nobel laureate Alice Munro, the Canadian literary giant who became one of the world's most esteemed contemporary authors and one of history's most honoured short story writers, has died at age 92.
Wildfires have led Environment Canada to issue air quality advisories for parts of B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, as forecasters warn the smoke could drift farther east.
Saskatchewan RCMP have revealed that a historic sexual assault investigation has led to the discovery of alleged crimes against children dating back to 2005.
An American accused of sexually assaulting a Pennsylvania college student in 2013 and later sending her a Facebook message that said, 'So I raped you,' has been detained in France after a three-year search.
The annual list of Canada's top restaurants in the country was just released and here are the places that made the 2024 cut.
Ontario Provincial Police are responding to a fatal collision involving two vehicles on Highway 417 in Ottawa's west end on Tuesday morning.
The Israeli flag is flying at Ottawa City Hall today to mark the country's national day, with plans to hold a private ceremony to mark Israel's Independence Day. There is a significant police presence at City Hall, including security barriers outside the main doors.
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A $200 reward is being offered by a North Vancouver family for the safe return of their beloved chicken, Snowflake.
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
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A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.