- Ford will have a profitable $30k EV ready in about 2.5 years, CNBC reports.
- CEO Jim Farley says Americans need to fall back in love with smaller cars to help the transition to electric power.
- Farley also said Ford had to make profitable EVs within five years or risk being battered by the Chinese.
Ford CEO Jim Farley claims the automaker will launch a $30k EV by the start of 2027, and make of profit on it. Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Farley said the secret electric car would be ready in “roughly two and a half years.”
Though Farley didn’t disclose any information about the car itself, he confirmed that it was designed to compete with Chinese EVs from the likes of BYD, as well as the baby electric car Tesla is working on, CNBC reports.
Related: Ford Poaches Rivian, Tesla, Lucid Employees For Its Low-Cost EV Program
Farley also said America had to kick its big-car habit to help the country transition to a cleaner, electrified future.
“We have to start to get back in love with smaller vehicles. It’s super important for our society and for EV adoption,” Farley told a CNBC interviewer. “We are just in love with these monster vehicles, and I love them too, but it’s a major issue with weight.”
Ford is prioritizing making small EVs because it didn’t make financial sense to electrify huge ones, Farley explained.
“You have to make a radical change…to get to a profitable EV. The first thing we have to do is really put all of our capital toward smaller, more affordable EVs,” the Blue Oval chief said.
“That’s the duty cycle that we’ve now found that really matches. These big, huge, enormous EVs, they’re never going to make money. The battery is $50,000. … The batteries will never be affordable.”
Amusingly – though nor for Farley – a Ford spokesman felt moved to clarify that his boss was referring to electric versions of models like the F350 Super Duty not making sense, rather than the F-150 Lightning. Sales of that electric truck doubled in April, but Ford previously slowed down production due to sluggish demand and Ford’s EV division, Model e, lost $132,000 on each of the 10,000 electric models it sold in the first quarter of 2024.
Farley made it clear in the interview that if Ford didn’t focus its attention on delivering profitable, affordable EVs within the next five years, China’s expansion would continue unchecked.
