Despite facing significant challenges in the electric vehicle (EV) market, Ford CEO Jim Farley remains unwavering in his commitment to push the company’s EV production forward. In a recent interview, he compared electric vehicles to Henry Ford’s first cars, stating, “It’s actually not much different than the Model T, when we had to teach people to drive because they’re coming off a horse. I think the industry has a huge education to do.”
NPR reports that in a recent interview, Ford CEO Jim Farley expressed his determination to expand Ford’s electric vehicle production, even as the company faces stiff competition and delays in its EV milestones.
The electric vehicle market is currently dominated by Tesla, both in the U.S. and globally. Legacy automakers, including Ford, are strategizing on how to catch up. Ford had initially set a target to sell 600,000 EVs this year. However, this has been postponed to the following year. Furthermore, their ambitious goal of selling 2 million EVs by 2026 has been put on hold indefinitely.
File Photo: Henry Ford With His Model T. (Photo By Getty Images)
TOPSHOT – US President Joe Biden drives the new electric Ford F-150 Lightning at the Ford Dearborn Development Center in Dearborn, Michigan on May 18, 2021. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP) (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)
Addressing the delays, Farley explained, “One of the biggest growth opportunities for us was our plant in Cologne, Germany, where we’re going to launch the electric Explorer. And we weren’t happy with thermal propagation — the countermeasures around fire — with the vehicle. So we took a six-month delay to get the engineering right. That was the principal reason.”
Farley also touched upon the broader challenges of transitioning to electric vehicles, emphasizing the need for public education. He drew a parallel to the early days of the Model T, saying, “It’s actually not much different than the Model T, when we had to teach people to drive because they’re coming off a horse. I think the industry has a huge education to do.” As it embarks on this alleged education of Americans, Ford is piling up the red ink. Ford is set to lose $4.5 billion on electric vehicles this year.
Despite the challenges, Farley emphasized Ford’s commitment to the EV market. He noted that even with a revised target for 2023, aiming for 400,000 EVs by year-end, the company is still quadrupling its production from 2022.
The CEO also highlighted the importance of the electric pickup market for Ford. “For us to be the bestselling electric pickup is super important strategically,” Farley said. “The first people who buy our first-generation electrics are going to be the first people to buy our second-generation electrics.”
Despite Farley’s love for electric pickups, Ford’s consumers are often finding their experiences with the vehicle to be negative. One Canadian man called electric vehicles the “biggest scam of modern times” after he was forced to abandon his F-150 Lightning during a road trip to Chicago. A review of Ford’s EV truck called road trips its “Kryptonite.”
A car enthusiast on YouTube created a video of an F-150 Lightning participating in a towing test, which he called a “complete and total disaster.”
Read more at NPR here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan