Ford's CEO says China's EV progress is 'the most humbling thing' he's ever seen

Farley told Isaacson that part of the reason Ford couldn't offer something similar was because tech giants such as Google and Apple "decided not to go in the car business."

"Beyond that, their cost, their quality of their vehicles is far superior to what I see in the West," Farley said.

"We are in a global competition with China, and it's not just EVs. And if we lose this, we do not have a future Ford," he added.

This isn't the first time Farley has praised his Chinese competition.

Last year, Farley said the Chinese tech giant Xiaomi was an "industry juggernaut and a consumer brand that is much stronger than car companies." Farley had praised the tech company during an appearance on "The Fully Charged Podcast" that aired in October.

"I don't like talking about the competition so much, but I drive the Xiaomi," Farley said of the Xiaomi Speed Ultra 7. The SU7 is Xiaomi's maiden electric vehicle.

"We flew one from Shanghai to Chicago, and I've been driving it for six months now, and I don't want to give it up," he added.

Last month, Xiaomi unveiled its second EV, the YU7. The company called the YU7 a "luxury high-performance SUV" and pitched it as a cheaper alternative to Tesla's Model Y.

Xiaomi said last week that it had received more than 200,000 orders for the YU7, which is priced at $35,000 compared with the Model Y's $36,760.

In August, Ford's chief financial officer, John Lawler, said the company was changing its EV strategy. Lawler said Ford would replace its planned electric SUVs with hybrid models instead. The switch is set to cost Ford nearly $2 billion.

[quote]Farley told Isaacson that part of the reason Ford couldn't offer something similar was because tech giants such as Google and Apple "decided not to go in the car business."

Um, what? The real reason is that US carmakers have been asleep at the wheel because they've been getting mixed signals from D.C. where the guard now changes every four years, with their radically different views on climate change and the EV transition shifting with it. How can a business possibly plan strategically in such an unstable environment?

[quote]Lawler said Ford would replace its planned electric SUVs with hybrid models instead.

Trump is gonna fuck them over irreparably while Europe and China race ahead on EVs over the next four years. Not that that'll help, they'll just pour the money they should be investing into EVs now into lobbying the 2028 election instead, to try and further slow down the transition. And then they'll want a bailout by the end of the decade.

Corporatism is just lazy, shortsighted rent seeking. They cut everything for more profit, but if everyone left is just a wealthy investor sitting on their ass loaning out money, no one will be there to do any work, no innovation, no improvements to processes, nothing. But we persist playing this silly game, like some sick national pastime.

The problem isn't just for US automakers, but for European, Japanese and Korean makers as well.

With Trump, we’re pulling back from EV because he keeps pushing the dying fossil fuel industry.

China is looking towards the future and leaving us in the dust

I haven't purchased an American car since 1986.

Ah, I see you’re already working LingLing! How’s air quality in Beijing today?

The United States enabled this with its greedy neo-liberal (and human rights blind) policies.

The U.S. practically handed China prosperity on a silver platter.

Hmmmm, methinks it was a Republican who started all this....

R8 the two aren’t mutually exclusive. You can have thriving businesses, innovation AND invest in human beings, and rights and prosperity. But greed gets in the way of that. It’s actually what China is doing now. That’s why their once non-existent middle class is booming. And why ours is dwindling.

Maybe one day we will feel the sweet relief that Britain must have felt - MY GOD, we don’t have to be #1. Once that is the case we won’t have è to shiv in the back anyone who gets in our way to being #1, including our own people.

Sure, but what are the crash testing results like?

R8 it wasn’t Bill Clinton’s fault you stupid fuck. NAFTA did not start this. This started way back under Nixon /Ford. And now Republicans have fucked us with innovation, technology, and climate change. For the person who mentioned the air in Beijing that has nothing to do with this whole article.

And the Big 3 won’t let China sell their EVs here because it would put them out of business

The Chinese quality joke was funny 30 years ago, but it doesn't really work anymore. BYD is selling cars internationally, making money, issuing recalls, fixing issues, updating models, etc, all the normal stuff that a global car company does. They saw us do it when we cared, and then took over when we gave up.

We have to face the reality that we can't just build a competitive world and then sit on our ass because we had all the power at some point. We have to keep competing.

R14 is right. If the CEO at Ford says he's been driving one for six months and doesn't want to give it up, we're not talking about the Yugo anymore.

Funny thing is, the one US manufacturer that was on the right track was Tesla...

[quote]I haven't purchased an American car since 1986.

I haven't bought one EVER. (First car purchased: 1973.)

This clown, and his predecessors at Ford, GM and Stellantis/Chrysler have been doing nothing but bitching, whining and complaining for 40 fucking years about how others have such an unfair advantage so they can't make a decent car that people will buy. Remember the '64 Ford Mustang? Remember the '81 Dodge/Plymouth K cars and the '84 Chrsyler Minivans? Remember the GM intermediates of1968-1972 (Chevy Malibu/SS, Pontiac LeMans/GTO, Olds Cutlass/442 and Buick Skylark? Vehicles people couldn't get enough of?

Unfortunately, they all adopted the Donald Trump school of management, where everybody else is at fault because they can't make money. It was NJ's fault, it was the Casino Control Commission, it was Atlantic City's fault that Trump couldn't make money running casinos. Never mind the Borgata opened in 2004 and has been the leading money maker in AC ever since, by far. It's always easier to bitch than to actually do something about it, which is what Farley is basically doing with Ford here. The Ford family needs to ditch his whiney ass SAP.

It seems really unwise for the CEO of a major American manufacturer to drive around in a car provided to him by Chinese authorities.

Crash test results are excellent R11, world-class:

[quote] It seems really unwise for the CEO of a major American manufacturer to drive around in a car provided to him by Chinese authorities.

Only unwise to talk about it, publicly.

The Chinese have a technology for fast-charging EVs in 5 minutes! That's a game changer.

Maybe he's trying out to be the CEO of Xiaomi

I meant it’s unwise, given the Red Devils’ tendency to bug things and steal ideas.

Lol.ok

SUM TING WONG!!!!!

R26 is about 50 years late.

R26 That wasn’t funny the first eight times you posted it today.

You speakie Ching Chong, R28??

HO LEE FUK!!!!

R29 has convinced me she's a big fat smelly person by imitating one from 20 years ago.

I don't think the US fully realizes how fucked it is when it comes to economic competition with China

This is the part where China quietly but firmly overtakes the US and there's nothing anyone can do about it because Americans are busy fighting about trans people and working to further enrich billionaires.