Ford Chairman & CEO Jim Farley Wakes After Decade-long Nap, Shocked By China's EVs - CleanTechnica
Ford Chairman & CEO Jim Farley Wakes After Decade-long Nap, Shocked By China's EVs - CleanTechnica
Closing in on 15 years in global marketing and sales roles for Ford, Farley goes to China and is shocked because its cars are better and cheaper.
cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/42676060
Ford has been too busy selling $80,000 trucks to worry about cars and EVs.
I've never understood why so many people in the US buy pickups. City dwellers? Why? People in most trades? Panel van > pickup. Farmers or ranchers? Makes sense.
My employer just swapped me from a pickup with a covered rollout bed to a van. I absolutely love it! Slightly less comfortable ride, but carries more parts and it's all more accessible, especially if it's raining or snowing. So this is why many companies have been using vans for so long...
To absolute morons who make sure it comes with a bed cover they never take off.
An assessment of the global electric vehicle market and Ford merited one lukewarm, brief sentence. At the time, Farley was the Executive Vice President and President of Global Markets. If that sounds like a job that would require paying close attention to China’s reality and increasing competitiveness, it is. If that sounds like a job that should understand disruptive innovation’s death knell for firms like Ford, it is. If that sounds like a job that should have been creating strategy to deal with the reality of China’s emerging electric vehicle juggernaut, it is.
Auto industry mismanagement is redundant.
Oh my that damage control speech from Ford the article was forced to include does not work in the direction they hope it does.
There is actual fear to be perceived as Incompetent in there.
The reporters did very little to sugarcoat that they got told to edit it. Basically a copyPaste of fords demands of what needed to be talked about
They still build the only real EV truck though
I get the criticism of the cyber truck, and the hummer EV is ridiculous, but why do the R1T and Silverado EV not count as trucks? R1T is an expensive but great midsize go anywhere truck. Silverado EV is a range king and a little flat looking, but still 100% “truck”. Lightning is just the all around best value of a truck. I say this as a lightning owner, there are options in this market.
Only one of the three is body on frame and it's Ford's
They almost made a truck with the Silverado EV but then they had to turn it into whatever the Avalanche is supposed to be with fins coming off the cab that get in the way of things. Anyways, not to sound bitter but some people like to be able to put camper shells, tool boxes, or other accoutrement on the back.
R1T is decent, just really expensive.
- The arrogance of seeing only established manufacturers.
- The self-centeredness of assuming US and European are the only markets that matter, and product mix in US is more profitable.
- The instant gratification of not thinking beyond quarterly financials.
- The lack of knowledge of his own business and how to fit engineering timelines into marketing timelines
It was crazy visiting China last year. The EVs that everyday people are driving feel so polished and futuristic in many ways.
I did also and was astounded. More EV brands and retail stores for them than for mobile phones and gadgets in the malls. I counted 14 brands in one mall. Like EVs are a fashion accessory. And I saw car designs for sale and on the steet that looked like what we usually see only as early concept art. not high tier of market either. It is an ultra-competitive race to the bottom , There must be several new factories and brands opening every week, and maybe the same or more shutting down. some of the bells and whistles being thrown in are pretty funny. Little robotic characters ala alexa for your car that sits on the dash with led face responding and moving to commands. half side doors being an LED screen for some reason (mainly to atrract potential buyers in the malls I thought) . The european, tesla and other US evs alongside were very very plain. Whether all of this is a good thing is another matter.
Honestly our sad EV offerings deserve to be disrupted
Lol, the corrections... "We didn't sleep, we sold 5 cars!"
They are still sleeping. The petrol corruption runs so deep, it will the downfall of the western industry.
He was not alone in his sleep. Volkswagen and Mercedes have been sleeping about as deep and long.
Mercedes has just increased the speed limit for their level 3 self driving system to 95km/h, which means you can legally read a book or watch a movie while the car drives on the Autobahn.
They're the world's factory, of course they'll build better and cheaper.
Wish we still had Chris Farley around instead of his dumbass brother…seriously this is Chris Farley’s brother.
Looked it up, wiki says cousin.
Oh shit, good call. It’s been awhile since I heard about Jim here and I guess since they have a bit of a shared resemblance my brain just decided they were bros.
It says they went to China in 2023 though?
Yes, it does. Your point?
China makes everything better & cheaper, not just cars.
The secret is heavy subsidy, very little worker protections/safety, very little environmental protection, and slave labour from a demographic they're currently genociding.
Don't forget the hundreds of billions that global capitalism funneled into China by "outsourcing" absolutely everything they possibly could over the last 30-40 years — devaluing developed world labour markets and environmental regulations, and winding back the clock to an unregulated slave labour market is what made it so attractive.
Not just subsidies the CCP decides how much the car makers have to produce. They are overproducing and the Chinese market is saturated, there are graveyards full of unused EVs because nobody wants to buy last year’s lower range versions. And now they dumping that over production onto the rest of the world.
I think you got something mixed up there. The saying does not go:
If you want it to last, buy made in China!
It goes:
Buying cheap is buying twice
And China really sells the cheapest crap there is. It isn't even a competition.
That's not how you spell "Xinjang camps" ...
America has more prisoners than China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate
You mean cheaper and worse, there are little to no regulations and if there are any, inspectors are paid off as China is corrupt AF. and the cheaper part is because the general factory workers are kept extremity poor to uphold the cheap labor, next to the Uyghurs in concentration camps who are forced to work for free. There are no rights or regulations for factory workers, so no protective clothing or gear, no safe work environment, while working with extremity toxic materials as those are cheaper then the safer alternatives. Working 12 to 16 hours per day, as young as 8 years old, 6 to 7 days a week, no sick days, no holidays. There is no quality control. There is media control, so every online post of a spontaneously combusted EV, which are maaaaany, is removed.
So you confuse quality with quantity. Yeah, it's cheaper. But at what cost. Not just the lives of the Chinese workers, those toxins are also in the products we use.
Until the brand goes poof because China didn't like something they did and poof; now you have a ghost car. Good luck finding repair parts for your car; and fixing the server connection required features
You are correct, but that has happened with American brands (even cars) before
At half the price of other EVs, I bet an entire new class of service stores, half mechanic shop, half third party parts, half mods, would spring into existence if these cars are allowed in the market
Instead, we protect the horrible local brands
never had this experience before.
But I had exactly this issue many times with Google cancelling stuff I like.