In recent months, Ford CEO Jim Farley has spoken about Chinese EVs on numerous occasions, routinely pointing out that those models are not only far cheaper than their competition from other parts of the world, but also, far better and more advanced in many regards. This revelation came after Farley took a trip to China some time ago and was able to experience those vehicles for himself, and we already know that FoMoCo has been benchmarking at least one of them – the Zeekr 001. However, what we didn’t know is that Jim Farley has also been driving another Chinese EV, and he’s apparently quite smitten with it.
“Everyone’s talking about the Apple car but the Xiaomi car, which now exists and is fantastic. They sell 10,000,…20,000 a month…they’re sold out for six months,” Falrey said in a recent interview with the Everything Electric Show. “That is an industry juggernaut. And a consumer brand that is much stronger than car companies. I don’t like talking about the competition so much but I drive the Xiaomi…we flew one from Shanghai to Chicago and I’ve been driving it for six months now and I don’t want to give it up.”
I try to drive everything we compete against. Have done it my whole career. Specs can tell part of a story, but you’ve got to get behind the wheel to truly understand and beat the competition.
— Jim Farley (@jimfarley98) October 23, 2024
It may seem like a somewhat surprising admission from Jim Farley that he’s enjoying the Xiaomi SU7 EV, but in reality, the executive has spoken glowingly about these vehicles in the past, and they’re also precisely what inspired him to create a skunkworks team within Ford to develop a low-cost EV platform of its own. It’s also why Ford has largely given up on becoming a major player in China’s domestic automotive market, as the competition is seemingly far ahead at the moment, making things difficult for foreign automakers like Ford.
Regardless of his fondness for the Xiaomi SU7 EV, a C-class luxury sedan that touts impressive performance, range, and technology – Farley still views Chinese EVs as a major threat to Ford’s business, which is why he’s working to develop more suitable competition for those models and ones from Tesla.
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And, for just those comments, he was the laughing stock of the internet yesterday. He needs to learn to keep it SHUT. Fine to test the competition, but QUIETLY.
A $30k vehicle that goes to 62 MPH in under 3 seconds. That is serious competition. But, to quote another article, “Even if you’re not a fan of China or its EVs, you can start to see the appeal. Even more so when you get inside, when you can tell your car to turn on your Xiaomi smart home air conditioner, your Xiaomi smart lights, or check on your dog with your Xiaomi home camera… you get the idea. It executes on the idea Apple had, something that’s tied more directly to your other devices than ever before.” And that is a core problem with EVs. They can completely integrate all your devices and are the ultimate surveillance machine. That is why the tyrannical Chinese Communist Party has been so keen on stealing the IP of various manufacturers and subsidizing their development. These EVs will give the CCP “extended range” global surveillance capabilities. And people are lining up to pay them for the privilege.
That’s great he has positive thoughts about a competitor, but I think it’s funny that they brought this vehicle over to test, but what are they testing it for or against? This is a sedan and Ford doesn’t really offer a sedan, unless you count the Mach-e.
He loves driving this, his consumers want something similar to this, but yet, his skunkworks team and whole design team are so focused on trucks and SUVs, that he’s missing the idea of giving consumers options for vehicles.
Not everyone can drive big trucks and SUVs. Some like to start with a car, depending on where they are in their life or where they live, and then grow into something bigger.
Skunkworks first project……an EV truck! SMH