Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley recently admitted in an interview that Ford is currently unable to make competitive affordable electric cars. The existing R&D system has lagged behind the industry for 25 years, and it is impossible to defeat BYD by relying on this system. Farley mentioned that BYD has achieved vertical integration of the entire battery industry chain, and its battery costs are 30% lower than those purchased by Ford from CATL.
To be close to BYD in terms of battery cost, Ford needs to completely reconstruct the energy efficiency design of electric vehicle motors, gearboxes, and inverters, thereby reducing the battery capacity of the vehicle by 30%.
Farley bluntly stated that Ford cannot match BYD's vertical integration advantage in battery costs, and the only way to catch up is through technological innovation based on battery energy consumption.
Farley also revealed in previous interviews that Ford has purchased a number of domestically produced electric vehicles in batches and flown them to the U.S. headquarters for dismantling and benchmarking, and comprehensively analyzed BYD's supply chain, R&D process and vehicle cost control logic, requiring the entire company to face up to the competitiveness of Chinese new energy vehicle companies.
This is not the first time that Fali has expressed shock about Chinese electric cars. Last year, he publicly stated that he felt very ashamed after dismantling Tesla Model 3 and Chinese electric cars. What he found after dismantling was really shocking.
In addition, Farley also mentioned that the sales volume of electric cars in the United States is only one-tenth that of China. Neither Tesla, General Motors, nor Ford can compare with the competitiveness of Chinese car companies.
