Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F) CEO Jim Farley on Friday wrote an article on X, detailing his long-standing love for gas vehicles and a newfound love for EVs, and rival CEO Elon Musk is excited. The sentiment, however, is not shared by EV owners across the U.S.
What Happened: “…as a lifelong petrol head, I was as surprised as anyone when I fell in love with electric vehicles,” Farley wrote on Friday. The change was not spurred by government policies or political beliefs but purely from a customer perspective, he said. The CEO drives a Ford F-150 Lightning Platinum EV.
Electric vehicles are not for everyone and every job, Farley wrote while also noting various “disinformation” around EVs. Innovation, though slammed initially, gets accepted if it has its edge, the CEO opined.
“When Ford said we were moving to an aluminum body in our popular F-150, our competitors aired commercials lampooning us. But customers knew better performance and fuel economy when they saw it,” Farley wrote. “It takes time for innovations to take hold. But when they do, the shift is profound and lasting.”
The next major shift in the field of automobiles will be toward software-defined and electric vehicles, the CEO said. Charging access and speed will improve, the average price of an EV is falling and the experience of an EV is different, ...