We want our next EVs to be more affordable
On Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid podcast, Executive Editor Brian Sozzi sat down in an exclusive interview with Ford (F) CEO Jim Farley to delve into the latest developments and trends shaping the automotive industry — including Farley’s thoughts on electric vehicles and Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.
To watch the full interview, click here.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Morning Brief.
This post was written by Angel Smith
Video Transcript
Competition.
The auto sector is heating up as the industry transitions to evs in an interview on Yahoo Finance’s opening bid Ford.
Ceo Jim Farley laid out his company’s future plans, very own executive editor, Brian Sazi.
Joining us now, Brian, it was a great conversation between you and Jim.
So what were your key takeaways from that discussion?
Well, first and foremost, guys, it really, it was uh Jim Farley’s thoughts on EV.
Si should note this uh uh interview for opening bid uh took place inside Michigan Central Station which reopens today $1 billion investment from the 14th refurbish this iconic train station.
But it was in there.
I asked Farley his views on EV is a division that might lose close to $5 billion in operating profits this year.
We really believe in the consumer experience for an EV.
And so we want the next ones to be more affordable and that’s why we’re investing in more affordable evs in the next cycle of products that people see in from Ford in the next couple of years.
We’re number two in evs in the US behind Tesla, a long way behind, but we’re still there and people love their Maquis and Lightnings and they’re gonna like the new ones even better.
Um, it is what’s hard about it is making the physical changes to be profitable to bring the cost down.
So Farley, I think is very focused on getting that division to profits.
Now, I pressed him if he has a date on when that EV division might hit profits, didn’t want to share that date.
My quick takeaway is maybe it’s a few years from now.
But nonetheless, you heard Farley mention uh Tesla now Farley has embraced uh Tesla and Ceo Elon Musk both publicly on Twitter.
Uh but also just operationally as well working last year or signed a deal with Tesla to get uh adapters for his electric vehicle so they could be charged at Tesla Supers uh Super chargers.
I asked Farley uh about that relationship and where it stands.
I think it’s been largely positive relationship.
You know, we in 100 and 20 years, we’ve been through a lot as a company like we know when what a partnership should be and what’s realistic to expect out of a partner.
You know, we compete.
I mean, Macky and ma y they’re in the market competing every day.
So we’re realistic.
But um so far the partnership has gone well and we have a professional relationship.
It was funny to hear uh Farley, he also mentioned in the interview that they need 90,000 more adapters from Tesla and he said he texted Elon the day before this interview and I asked him, well, did you text them?
Did he text you back?
I don’t know if he texted him back right away.
But there is, there is a, a relationship here between these two titans of the auto industry and there should be, I mean, uh, this is probably good business for both companies.
Well, yeah, I mean, the North American Chargers standard is what Tesla had been trying to get every automobile manufacturer on.
It was their way of cementing their own kind of key or key cog within the broader engine to the EV landscape at a whole.
So II I would hope that he got his text back.
I I I’m sure I’m sure Elon texted it back.
We’ll wait for uh Elon to respond over to us on, on X but I do.
It’s interesting because you hear uh Farley talk about he’s very focused on ev profitability now adding more hybrids to the mix.
GM has taken a little bit of a different tact than NCO uh Mary Barra.
They remain, I think laser focused on getting these electric vehicles to market at any cost, even if it means losing money, how they’ve been uh have, how they’ve been able to offset those.
Uh EVs is cutting a lot of costs throughout their organization, buying back a lot of stock.
That’s why you see GM stock uh having outperformed the likes of Ford in the past year.
All right.
Yeah, seriously.
Uh, great interview there.
You can watch the full interview, Ryan Zazi and Ford’s Ceo Jim Farley on Yahoo finance.com.