Ford CEO Jim Farley Expected GM Would Surpass Blue Oval’s EV Sales

After announcing some major EV plans just a few years ago consisting of massive investments and multiple future models, Ford has dialed back its ambitions in that area in a major way amid weak demand. Currently, the automaker sells just three EVs in the U.S., in fact – the Ford E-Transit, Ford F-150 Lightning, and Ford Mustang Mach-E, none of which have received any sort of refresh or redesign since launching, and it’ll be a while before the next-generation models arrive, too. As such, it’s no surprise to hear Ford CEO Jim Farley concede the company’s EV sales spot to its cross-town rival, General Motors.

“In North America, it’s absolutely the right strategy, but it’s not our complete strategy. GM has 14 nameplates, we have three,” Farley said in a recent appearance on The Verge‘s Decoder podcast. “We came out with our vehicles four or five years ago, and it’s coming out with them now. So, our product cycle is completely different. What I mean by that is we’re about to launch our second generation of products, and it has its first 14 out now. I hope it outsells us. If I were GM with 14 nameplates, it should easily scale. I personally didn’t think we would be number two for three years with our simple lineup, but it seems to have worked so far in the first inning.”

As Farley notes here, Ford is currently working on developing new, lower-cost EVs as it pivots away from larger, pricer models, which are intended to more effectively compete with Chinese rivals. Meanwhile, the automaker is using a bit of a loophole to continue to offer the now-expired $7,500 tax credit on its eligible EVs, too, though Farley admitted that he expects those sales to be cut in half in the short term.

Regardless, Farley still believes that Ford is gaining ground on its rivals thanks to this new strategy. “We’ve been busy the last three years behind the curtain,” he said back in August. “No one could really see how we’re allocating our capital and what our new EV strategy was. We are out of sync in a good way with our competitors who are now fully loaded with all their EVs, and they’ll have to commit to them full cycle of product.”