The heavyweight position of NIO and Tesla in the electric vehicle market can be seen through the NIO position raised by JP Morgan last month, and the ability to continue to successfully expand factories and establish research centres of Tesla in various places. Ford, previously hailed as one of the pioneers of the second industrial revolution, also gave an update on the two NEV makers, saying NIO and Tesla are the two enemies Ford must defeat.
Ford Motor Company is still a household name in the car industry start from a century ago in 1908. For the EV market, Ford has already received over 200 thousand reservations for their future F-150 Lightning pickup truck, thanks to its early success with the Mustang Mach-E. Aside from a slew of new electric vehicles on the road, Ford is expanding EV support for commercial customers and energy management solutions for consumers at home, comparable to Tesla’s Powerwall technology.
Jim Farley, Ford’s Chief Executive Officer, recently spoke at a virtual auto tech conference hosted by Wolfe Research on the company’s future goals. During the webcast, the Ford CEO singled out Tesla and NIO as the company’s top rivals, vowing to defeat them.” We know our competition is NIO and Tesla, and we have to beat them, not match them.” Jim Farley said.
In addition to discussing Tesla and NIO, Farley clarified allegations from Bloomberg last week that Ford was considering spinning off its EV and combustion divisions in order to achieve Tesla-like value. Farley disputed that Ford is planning to split off any of its businesses, which previously reported rumours about Ford’s plans for spinoffs to increase value. Instead emphasizes how the company can continue to succeed in ICE sales by improving vehicle quality and cutting pricing through less complexity.
