Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F) CEO Jim Farley on Wednesday detailed how he decided to strike a deal with rival EV maker Tesla Inc and allow Ford customers access to Tesla’s supercharging network.
The Trip: Farley said that he realized the need for access to Tesla’s charging network when he went on a vacation with his family to Lake Tahoe. Though he had understood concerns of range anxiety intellectually before, he hadn’t understood it as a consumer until then, Farley said in an interview with Tom Moloughney. The CEO added that he almost didn’t make it back to Monterey.
On the drive, Farley said that he stopped twice at Tesla supercharger locations as they were located in places where they could grab something to eat or take a bathroom break.
Back To Work: Farley got back from his vacation and struck up a conversation with his colleague Doug Field who was previously employed at Tesla. Field and Farley then started looking at data on broken chargers and wait times. The data they received showed that only 70% of the time do customers get to pull up the charger and plug it in without ...