Ford CEO Jim Farley has been praising Chinese EVs for quite some time now, as well as admitting that such vehicles are years ahead of the competition in terms of tech. A recent visit to China is also what prompted the executive to create Ford’s skunkworks team, which has been tasked with developing a low-cost EV platform that will eventually spawn multiple models that are more capable of competing in that space. In a recent appearance at the 2025 Aspen Ideas Festival, Farley reiterated his adoration for Chinese advanced vehicles, too.
“It’s the most humbling thing I’ve ever seen. 70 percent of all the EVs in the world, electric vehicles – made in China,” Farley said. “They have far superior in vehicle technology. Huawei and Xiaomi are in every car. You get in, you don’t have to pair your phone automatically, your digital life is mirrored in the car, you have an AI companion that you can talk to – Chat GPT equivalent in China. All your automatic payment is already there, you can buy movie tickets – it has facial recognition so it knows who’s in which seat.”
Farley is quite knowledgeable when it comes to Chinese EVs after the executive brought a total of five of them back to the U.S. with him, which the company has been driving around in as they attempt to play a bit of catch up in many regards. As for the CEO himself, he’s particularly fond of the Xiaomi SU7, a car that he admitted he “didn’t want to give up” after tooling around in it for quite some time.
Ford and its skunkworks team have been focusing on driving down costs via individual components – something they learned from the Chinese competition – which has given the latter a big leg up in terms of the ability to generate profits in a notoriously difficult space. However, The Blue Oval is also exploring ways to catch up with its Chinese rivals in terms of the technology features Farley mentioned here – in fact, it filed a patent recently outlining an idea for a system that would use images of passengers in a vehicle, after which it could automatically make adjustments to the seating arrangement.
Comments
After some researching on Chinese EVs their biggest cost savings are because there companies are Vertically Integrated all most everything is in house and not supplied by the lowest bidder like Ford and the other auto manufactures.
Henry did the same with buying a rubber plantation and smelting his own iron. Sometime in the intervening century the MBAs took over from the engineers.
Humbling until they start piling up in landfills when it becomes apparent they didn’t do the ‘car part’ as well as the ‘tech part’, battery cost and depreciation means zero resale value and battery replacements become cost prohibitive.
We should start to see this in the next 4-5 years.
How long have they been selling Bolts, Teslas, and Leafs? Are the landfills full of batteries? Are 5 year old EVs free? Or is your anti-EV FUD starting to smell bad?
You sound like a tech savvy idiot… Most folks simply don’t want EV’s. If you removed the blindes from your eyes and did some actual worldwide research you too would see how useless EV’s are after a few years of use.
If China were allowed to import vehicles here Ford, GM and Stelantis would go out of business.
That’s why they aren’t allowed to import here. Free Market lunks get bent about that, but if China were allowed free access causing Ford, GM, and Stellantis to collapse then it would torpedo the US economy. The domestics going under would take around 8 million jobs out of the economy and around 3 trillion dollars would evaporate (domestic auto manufacturers and the jobs that they support). Although to be honest, sometimes I wish it would happen just to see the haters get punched in the face by a faltering economy.
Well, we could steal their tech like they’ve been stealing from us for years. Our robots’ wages are the same as theirs, and we have parts supply chains and repair networks where they don’t. The skunk works better get going before the flood hits.
Well, it’s telling that Farley says they are doing a better job than he does. An amazing admission, for sure. That being the case, why is he paid $24 million per year in wages and bonuses?
This is why Farley has to go! CEO of a major manufacturer and does not even use its products !
When will the board at Ford smarten up and get rid of this guy!
His EV love has cost Ford billions, and all he does is waste money that could be used to develop vehicles that consumers want, not what he wants.
If he loves the Chinese EV so much, go move over there and work for them !
And to Jim here, wrecking yards are full of Bolts, Leafs, Prius and other EV’s that their former owners did not want to fix because of the costs to replace batteries!
No one will buy a five year old EV, and if they did, they are nuts!
I totally agree. One of my cars is an EV and I love driving it. But I would not be stupid enough to buy it. I have a 33 month lease and will lease another when that’s up.
( free service and electricity for the entire lease)
Exactly Dave!!! Farley is an Idiot that oy wants to bud vehicles for other Idiots…
Shunk works? Kelly Johnson is rolling over in his grave. If Johnson was in charge this super vehicle would have already been produced. Always been a Ford fan however they have been taken over by financial and lawyer idiots, just like most American companies. Low cost suppliers are the root cause of your quality issues.
They have been taken over by an idiot CEO.
Whose fault is that dufus Farley?
The only person at fault is billionaire Bill Ford who for some unknown reason likes Farley and is protecting him.
As well as every other inept CEO before him ……….
After riding in one of the Chinese cars in Europe I was amazed at how far ahead of us they were. The one thing Ford and other USA car manufacturers could easily do is start using Passkey technology to start a car. It just might cut down on stolen vehicles. Although the valet services may not find this to their benefit. But i would like to have this option.
This is what happens when companies play tidily winks with clueless radical politicians and practice virtue signaling instead of putting full focus on the PRODUCT!
Yes!!! 100%