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Comparison may be the thief of joy, but in business it can lead to real growth—just ask Ford CEO Jim Farley. On a recent episode of Monica Langley’s podcast, “Office Hours: Business Edition,” Farley said that his first peek under the hood of his biggest EV competitor led to some major structural changes both for Ford’s vehicles and the company. “I was very humbled when we took apart the first Model 3 Tesla and started to take apart the Chinese vehicles,” he said. “It was shocking what we found.” Compared to the Model 3, the wiring in Ford’s Mustang Mach-E (an EV that outsold its internal combustion counterpart last year) was roughly a mile longer and 70 pounds heavier. That extra weight translated to $200 per battery in costs just to carry that additional heft, he explained. He realized that investing more in pricier but lighter wiring could lead to savings on the battery. Featured Video An Inc.com Featured Presentation “We don’t do that [system-wide] way of looking at the cost in an internal combustion engine. All the math changes with an EV with that huge expensive battery,” he said on the podcast. That realization became a moment of reckoning for the iconic automaker. Farley said it prompted a 2022 restructuring into three segments: an EV division called Ford Model E, a commercial division called Ford Pro, and a division for internal combustion engine vehicles called Ford Blue. That decision offered added transparency into the EV business, putting its challenges on full display for investors to see. “Model E was a big decision for the company because it put our EV losses—$5 billion a year—in the public investors’ eyes, and they hold us accountable as managers to solve that problem,” he said. “If you break it out, everyone knows. It’s no secret.” Farley’s comments come at a time when the EV industry is holding its breath as it awaits the impact of the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill. It eliminated consumer electric vehicle tax incentives at the end of September. In August, Ford announced a $2 billion investment into an assembly plant in Louisville, Kentucky, unveiled a new electric vehicle platform, and reimagined the assembly line. At the time, Farley said the new platform “represents the most radical change on how we design and how we build vehicles at Ford since the Model T.” It was devised by a secret team that Ford assembled in 2022 to make an innovative, affordable vehicle, capable of competing with Chinese EVs. The first vehicle from this new platform is expected to go on sale in 2027. “My ethos is take on the hardest problems as fast as you can and do it sometimes in public, because you’ll solve them quicker that way,” Farley said on the podcast.
