Ford’s CEO says the company is officially gunning for Tesla.
In an interview this week with Bloomberg, Jim Farley said the company has ambitions eventually topping Tesla and General Motors.
“We really have a chance to get to No. 1. We’re competitors, and I race, and second is the first loser. So we’re going to go for it,” he said.
Taking the lead from Tesla is a tall task, the report notes, as Tesla currently “dominates” the U.S. EV market. This year, Ford is likely to wind up fourth, behind names like WV and GM.
However, Ford wants to ramp up production of EVs to 600,000 per year in two years, the report says.
Farley continued: “We’re a very scrappy company when it comes to scaling our manufacturing. We’re in the middle of it and it’s hard to handicap how it’ll come out, but we’re committed to getting to about 600,000 units running rate in 24 months.”
The company’s plans including doubling its capacity at its Dearborn, Michigan factory to build 160,000 electric Ford F-150’s it currently has reservations for. The total number of reservations for the new electric F-150 has surpassed 200,000.
It’ll also look to add capacity to produce more Mustang Mach-E vehicles in Mexico, while delaying plans for its new Explorer SUV in order to focus on its hot selling EVs.
Jeff Schuster, LMC’s senior vice president of forecasting, told Bloomberg about the EV race: “This is going to be a tough battle. As we get into the middle of the decade, we’re going to see this play out more and see how much these brands can eat into Tesla.”
Farley concluded: “We really need to prioritize right now. We’re now going to be doubling production of the Mach-E and now we have to find another place for all those vehicles to be built.”
“I really admire Tesla and Elon” Musk. But I wouldn’t bet against the Ford team.”
