Ford CEO Jim Farley has made it quite clear that he’s worried about Chinese automakers and the massive ground they’ve gained in recent years, largely, as it pertains to electric vehicles. While most automakers across the globe have dialed back their EV ambitions, China continues to pour resources into it, and that same country controls most of the world’s raw materials supply, to boot. Turns out, Farley is so worried about his Chinese competition that he doesn’t believe The Blue Oval will survive if it can’t catch up.
“We are in a global competition with China and it’s not just EVs and if we lose this we do not have a future at Ford,” Farley said during his appearance at the 2025 Aspen Ideas Festival. This new admission is a bit different than some other prior comments we’ve gotten from the executive, which have largely centered around Chinese EVs and the belief that they’re years ahead of the competition in terms of sheer technology – a development that Farley admitted was “humbling.”
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, which has given the latter a big leg up in terms of the ability to generate profits in a notoriously difficult space. The Blue Oval is exploring ways to catch up with its Chinese rivals in terms of its existing technology features, and 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
HE should be the one without a future.
Agreed !
What a stupid comment from Farley. Good grief, get him gone.
Plenty of talent and resources within the company. If he can’t make Ford stand alone and be better, hire someone who can.
Farley needs to go!
If the light just came on for farley, he should resign now! Plus eliminating the Edge was stupid. All that’s left for family vehicles are the Escape and Explorer?
And the Escape is gone in 2026 so all the some what affordable Fords will be eliminated eventually to be replaced by not affordable small EVs.
As a Ford salesman I agree totally!
Farley is constantly making up reasons why Ford can’t succeed with him at the helm. Make no mistake – paying someone $24 million per year to say “the sky is falling” is a giant waste of money.
Hell – I’ll agree to ruin the company for $1 million per year – saving the stockholders $23 million for the same outcome.
Farley needs to go, it’s beyond understanding why Bill Ford is protecting him. If Fords EV doesn’t have a starting price of $25k Ford and the other auto manufacturers are doomed if Chinese EVs come into the US.
Bill Ford is lost. He tried running Ford as CEO, then gave up and hired Mullally. Since then he hired two bad CEO’s. Ford’s only hope is to find a competent person.
Ford doesn’t have a future if they don’t fix their endless quality control problems either
100% true ! Bring Mulally back !
Just EV’s? Given Mr. Farley”s “deals” with the CCP and allowing the use of likely malware infested Chinese software and back doors, it is crystal clear he built his own problem. The losers are all Americans driving Chinese manufactured
Ford and Lincoln vehicles.
Yeah- so many of us wonder what is he thinking? Edge- Kill it, Fusion- Kill it, Now Escape? Kill that too. I have news for F and the team. You are losing customers on the promise that your trucks will keep the company above water. This defeatist attitude coupled with some poor marketing decisions spells doom. What marketing genius thought it was good to remove the key pad? And now its coming back? Guess that is the same genius who said Kill the EDGE ? Who needs a 2 row SUV? Then there is the public statement about AI replacing 1/2 the workers ! Thanks Jim ! Can you give us some more negativity?
He should be worried… For a car guy he’s made a mess of Ford’s move to electric and abandoning ICE.
Just checked Ford’s 2025 vehicle offerings and surprise surprise, the Escape is the lowest cost offering in it’s base configuration at $29K and change..
And the geniuses in Ford market are killing it after this year.
Bought a 2024 Escape ST Line for my wife last year and if it’d pull an enclosed utility trailer I’d replace my Expedition with one.
It’s almost more fun than my 2017 Mustang GT..
It’s interesting that Farley admits to liking his driving experience in a Chinese car but Ford keeps killing off it’s affordable cars and now small SUV’s like he Escape.
Correction: it’s not interesting it’s moronic.
Farley moans about Ford tanking while Ford has shifted to SUV’s and Bro Dozer pickup trucks.. all of which are stupid expensive.
I’ve been buying Fords since my new 1970 Mach 1 Mustang.. I’ve also owned a few European and Japanese cars as well but I’ve always had vintage AND late model Fords in my stable..
But I’ve only had either one Ford Pickup or large SUV (Always used ones) for hauling and towing and our daily drivers have been Ford cars for the most part…
But once Ford kills the Escape we’re probably done buying Fords after 55 years of owning them.
PS: The Mustang GT is the last affordable Ford performance car but doesn’t come close to the value per dollar of a base C8 Corvette.
Not matching GM on that is pretty dumb as well. GM is also sadly going down the SUV/Truck route as well..
Footnote:
Studebaker didn’t die because its vehicles were bad.
Studebaker died because of extremely dumb executive decisions.
Maybe Farley can get a job running Packard.
All they have to do is streamline the lineup without cannibalizing their icons. (Aka stop naming everything Mustang and Bronco)
Mustang as your coupe
Falcon as your only sedan (let Australia develop that like the Ranger)
Bring the Puma here as your small suv/hatch (let Europe develop the car and RS variant)
Bronco as the body on frame off road
Explorer midsize suv
Expedition full size suv
Maverick small truck
Ranger mid size truck
F150 as full size truck
You don’t need a Mustang sedan or suv EV. That’ll just give you an excuse to kill off the Mustang and have a sedan with a mask on trying to carry the legacy.
it’s time for Farley to find a new job it is obvious that he has never looked at the history of Ford Motor Company I do not think Henry Ford would throw in the white towel
Ford has no future thanks to permanent quality control issues courtesy of Failure Farley.
Wie kann Bill Ford so einen Kommentar dulden? Das ist doch selbst zerfleischung mit einem zu hohen Gehalt. Ich hatte mal viel Respekt vor ihm! Wohin geht die Reise? Entweder Jim raus oder Ford löst sich auf. Haben wir nur noch Rüstungsindustrie als Hoffnung?