Name: Bill Ford on Ford Motor future: 'We're going all electric'
Uploaded: 2022-02-07
Duration: 6 min 49 s
Description: Ford says 'I like our chances' in competing against Tesla.

Ford says "I like our chances" in competing against Tesla.

Bill Ford on Ford Motor future: "We're going all electric"

Bill Ford - Executive Chairman, Ford Motor Company

Leadership

bill. So good to see you again. Thank you so much for joining us to talk about all of the things that are changing at ford. And for starters you're in the michigan central train station in downtown Detroit. This was a historic building, a dynamic transportation hub and now you're announcing that you're partnering with google and others to modernize this historic building and turning it into a tech hub for startups and for entrepreneurs. Um why are you doing this every time there was a national story about the decay of Detroit, this would be the visual and frankly I was thinking of it. Uh but at the same time I realized that our industry was changing dramatically and that all these new technologies were in their infancy and that we needed a place to be a test bed and a development that if you will for all these new technologies. So um I bought the train station and we are completely renovated and it's gonna be absolutely beautiful. We're gonna have shops and restaurants and public art and you know green space and bike paths and all that around this campus. But I didn't want it just to be a trip down memory lane. I really wanted this to be where the future of transportation was invented. So this whole district is going to be about drones, robots, autonomous driving connected vehicles and all the things that are going to change in our future bill. You're also making huge changes at ford with a very aggressive push into electric vehicles, Why is the U. Turn? You know it wasn't so long ago that Ford was on the sidelines when it came to eat talking about E. V. S. What changed? Well you know a lot of it was Suzie, we weren't talking when others were we decided we would rather kind of walk softly and carry a big stick. So we didn't make a lot of grand pronouncements even as we were working on things like autonomous driving E. V. S. Um And I think the story kind of on the street was ford's not in the game but we were very much in the game but we don't want to just be in the game, we want to win. And so everything we're doing now and you mentioned TVs particularly TVs is about winning. And so we very consciously chose to electrify our most iconic vehicles first the mustang the F150 because I think that would signal to the world and also to our own company how serious we are about the electric vehicle push. Well you're spending billions of dollars on this electric vehicle development, you're building new manufacturing plants, you're hiring thousands of workers and you're saying that in eight years, about half of the entire force fleet will be electric. I mean what is it going to take to make this a reality? Well, interestingly the demand so far has been um much much greater than we anticipated. I mean we're basically we're sold out. We've already we haven't even made our first uh F. 1 50 Lightning E. V. We've already had to double capacity. Um, and probably we're going to have to do more down the road. And I think for the individual customers like on the Mustang Mach e, they're absolutely loving the vehicle. We have sky high customer satisfaction on that vehicle. So I think the trick is getting people into them and once they're into them they don't want to get out of it. Well, it's interesting you bring up the names of a couple of these vehicles because ford ceo jim Farley told investors recently that the company is building a modern forward with a portfolio of hot vehicles. You just talked about the F 1 50 what do you think in your portfolio are going to be the shore winners? You know, the F 1 50 of course just keeps getting stronger and stronger and stronger than the best selling vehicle, you know, in the country for many, many years. But the electric version, we're completely sold out. Uh, the Mustang Mach e, that's been a huge hit. So we're really on a roll in the bronco. Uh, we're well, I wish we could make more broncos. Uh, so, you know, our product portfolio right now is the strongest it's ever been. But you know, when people talk about electric vehicles, they think Tesla, what do you have to do to compete with an established powerhouse like Tesla. Well we're doing it and you know, and I think the vehicle that really woke the nation up to ford seriousness and and it got us in, you know, at the forefront of the discussion was the electrification of the F 1 50 that caught so many people by surprise, including President Biden who came out and uh test drove it because it's not just putting a battery in a pickup truck. It actually can do things that gasoline pickup truck cannot do. Is that your edge against Tesla? Well it's against everybody, not just Tesla and are also R. E. Transit, our transit vehicle which is used for so many deliveries. Um it is the most popular man in the world. We've electrified that. We are the demand for that is sky high. So look, you know we're going all electric but we have some huge strengths as a company that we're capitalizing on as we go to electric. Well let's talk about that a little bit because General Motors is now saying that it will be the number one in E. V. S in the next few years which is the tougher challenge for ford going up against GM or Tesla. Well they're both tough and they're both really good companies and um you know but but I like our chances, the future is wide open right now for everyone and it's all gonna come down to who can actually um understand the customer how they live their lives and what they're looking for in a vehicle better than anyone else. And it's not just the hardware, it's also the software and what the vehicle can do to make your life easier and better. And the company that figures that out is going to win in the marketplace. So should Elon musk be worried? Look, my hat's off to Tesla. You know, they've done some great things. Um, but they've also largely had the field of themselves for a while and that won't be true in the future. We'll, you know, bill, I'm sure you've heard this from many people that they doubt that a 118 year old automobile company can reinvent itself and come out a winner. What do you say to the skeptics? Well look, we have to prove it. But frankly, you know, we didn't get to the age, we are without having to reinvent ourselves many many times and have gone through many transitions and you know, world wars and depressions and financial crisis and everything else. And so I really like our chances as we go forward. Bill, what do you think Henry Ford? Your great grandfather would say about ford going all electric. I think he'd say what took you so long? He would have leaned into all this new technology stuff, driving artificial intelligence, all of that. And as I say, I think you take a look at us today and say it's about time