Here the boss is still testing himself –
Ford boss raves about his China electric car and receives criticism from the USA
Jim Farley has been driving an electric car made in China for around six months. Experts sharply criticize his choice.
Published today at 6:21 p.m
He tries to drive everything that Ford competes against: Jim Farley, CEO of Ford.
Photo: Bill Pugliano (Getty Images via AFP)
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Jim Farley, Ford’s CEO, has so far praised his electric pickup, the Ford F-150 Lightning. However, he revealed in a podcast that he has been driving a Xiaomi SU7, a competing electric vehicle, for six months. He emphasizes that he is very happy with the car. “We had it flown in from Shanghai to Chicago, and I’ve been driving it for six months now and don’t want to give it away,” is his conclusion so far.
Farley can hardly stop raving about the Chinese tech manufacturer Xiaomi: “It’s fantastic. They sell 10,000 to 20,000 a month and they sell out for six months.” And further: “In the West, our cell phone companies don’t have car departments. But in China, both Huawei and Xiaomi, the two largest cell phone companies, are installed in every vehicle that is manufactured.”
Sleek in the wind: the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra.
Photo: Xiaomi
US energy expert: “Slap in the face”
Farley’s decision to drive a Chinese electric vehicle is causing a stir and criticism. Jason Issac of the American Energy Institute says this is a “slap in the face,” especially since Ford receives billions of dollars in subsidies from American taxpayers to encourage the production of electric vehicles in the United States. Issac points to a $9.2 billion conditional loan the Energy Department gave Ford in 2023 to build three battery plants in Kentucky and Tennessee. These factories will produce batteries for Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles.
According to Ford, Farley’s everyday car is still a Ford F-150 Lightning.
Photo: Ford
Even before Ford CEO Farley made his enthusiasm for the Xiaomi car public, he had repeatedly pointed out the threat that the Chinese auto industry poses to Western manufacturers. After a visit to China in May, he described the Chinese car market as an “existential threat” to Western manufacturers. He was impressed by the quality of the electric cars there and explained that Chinese manufacturers are one step ahead of the competition.
Electric cars continue to bring heavy losses to Ford
Meanwhile, Ford continues to be in the red in the electric car business. In the last quarter, the division made an operating loss of a good $1.2 billion. On the other hand, Ford posted profits before interest and taxes of $1.6 billion for cars with combustion engines and a further $1.8 billion for commercial vehicles.
Chief Financial Officer John Lawler pointed out that Ford would cut costs in its electric car division by $1 billion this year. And when developing new electric models, care is taken to ensure that the expenditure is at the same level as that of the cheapest competitors. It is a tough market in which costs play a decisive role, he said on CNBC.
Ford shares fell more than five percent in after-hours trading. The group only expects adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of ten billion dollars for this year – after previously citing a range of ten to twelve billion. Lawler pointed to continued high expenses for warranty repairs and inflationary pressure in Turkey, which would make vehicles produced there more expensive in Europe.
Meanwhile, Ford’s sales rose 5.5 percent year-over-year to $46.2 billion last quarter. The bottom line was that there was a profit of $892 million – around a quarter less than a year earlier.
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Log inUrs Nagel has been a site manager and news journalist at Tamedia since 2018. He previously worked as a news editor for several Swiss media outlets.More information
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