After making and selling all-electric vehicles for over a decade to this point, Tesla commands a significant market share in that space, though it has lost some ground to the competition in recent months after companies like Ford continue to roll out more and more EVs. Ford CEO Jim Farley has long viewed Tesla as a major threat to its burgeoning EV business, which is notable given the fact that all-electric vehicle adoption is occurring faster than previously expected. In the past, Farley has mostly praised Tesla for what it has done to blaze a path toward electrification, but he also has some criticisms, as Reuters recently reported.
These comments came after Tesla slashed the prices of its Model Y crossover yet again after the company’s stock dropped 10 percent last week, demonstrating that it can move quickly to react to the market, with CEO Elon Musk hinting that the automaker could continue to cut prices to keep demand high. And that capability clearly impressed Jim Farley, as he explained to reporters at a recent charity event.
“Honestly, anyone surprised at this, I don’t understand,” Farley said. “You have to be able to respond quickly. That agility he’s building is super important for everyone. We used to think we would have a model year. Now with Model e, four times a year we have a model year,” he said, referring to the rapid change that occurs in the EV market. However, Farley also noted that Tesla’s refusal to update its vehicles – at least visually speaking – can also be a disadvantage.
“I think what he’s going to learn is that product freshness matters a lot,” Farley said. In the case of The Blue Oval, such change is critical, as the automaker doesn’t expect its EV division to become profitable until its second generation models arrive, riding on their own dedicated platforms and offering up a simplified design.
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Comments
People aren’t dumb enough to think OTA updates make their Tesla ‘new’ again.
Since when is ‘tech company synonymous with ‘old hardware’.
Apple has a new iPhone every year, auto gets a major refresh every 3 to 4 years, but Tesla, the ‘tech/auto company’ thinks they can get away with what, 10 year cycles?
Given Tesla’s track record of laggard launching of new models, they fear a model changeover, especially in multiple plants. They had a great opportunity when retooling for Austin and Berlin to update the Model Y and they blew it. I don’t know what their engineers work in day to day since new product design is somewhat nonexistent.
Tesla will use its engineering efficiency to crush the competition on price. It will be interesting to watch the gyrations the EV players will go through to respond. Some, like Lucid, will just die off.
Farley needs to be FIRED, Ford is a great product but this guy doesn’t have any idea how Ford got there. People I know want F150s and Super Duties sport utilities not something that has to have an extension cord. If he likes Tesla so much needs to go work for them and run them in the ground. To bad he doesn’t know what the real world is like, how are the younger people going to be able to purchase them. Ford keeps raising prices and trying to blame dealers, dealers don’t have any control on what the manufacturers do on pricing. Ford is pricing themselves out of the market while losing money on their electric vehicles. Stay with what has worked for over 100 years. Good luck with this guy leading the company down the wrong road.