Ford CEO Jim Farley recently sat down with the iconic automotive magazine Car and Driver for a wide-ranging interview about the future of Ford and electric vehicles.
Farley took the helm for the “Big Three” American automaker in 2020 and is known to automotive enthusiasts as a fellow gearhead with familial connections to the Ford brand.
In November, Farley was remarkably candid as he recalled Ford’s acquisition and disassembly — known as a “product teardown analysis” or “teardown” — of a Chinese EV.
Farley, who described feeling “humbled” during the EV teardown, shared a self-penned article about automotive electrification to the social platform X in June 2024, titled: “Confessions from a Petrol Head. I love electric vehicles and it has nothing to do with politics.”
Farley fondly called the revving of gas-powered engines the “soundtrack” of his life, adding: “So as a lifelong petrol head, I was surprised as anyone when I fell in love with electric vehicles.”
Directly thereafter, he said that neither “government policies” nor “political beliefs” had prompted his “late-career romance” with EVs, citing a reason to which any EV owner could relate.
“It’s because I drive one — my Ford F-150 Lightning Platinum. It is astonishingly quiet and smooth,” Farley said, lauding his truck’s “effortless acceleration.”
Clearly, Farley is motivated by a sincere love of the game and pragmatism, as evidenced by his expansive interview with Car and Driver. The outlet asked Farley about the launch of the F-150 Lightning and what Ford could have done differently.
“I totally would’ve done it differently. I mean, look, we didn’t know what we didn’t know,” the CEO said. Eventually, Ford leadership reached a conclusion.
“I guess it didn’t take us long to learn that our internal-combustion-engine prejudice was so high that we hadn’t designed the [electric] cars right,” Farley said, leading Car and Driver to ask him when the iconic automaker discovered it had “done EVs wrong.”
Which of these savings plans for rooftop solar panels would be most appealing for you?
Save less this year but $20k in 10 years
Save less in 10 years but $80k in 20 years
Click your choice to see results and earn rewards to spend on home upgrades.
Farley pegged a Tesla teardown as the moment he and others at Ford fully grasped the issue: a baked-in engineering bias toward combustion engines as a default.
“I was just absolutely flabbergasted. … We didn’t know what was going on in [Tesla engineers’ ] minds. But now we understand. They had no prejudice. We had prejudice,” Farley said.
Ultimately, Farley believed electrification would’ve thrilled Ford’s founder and namesake for the first time in a century.
“I always say, I think Henry Ford would’ve been insanely bored over the last 100 years at Ford,” he began.
“But if he came back to the company now, he’d be up all night. … He’d be working on the next EREV [extended range EV] before our team was. Because I think as a founder, he was a tinkerer. He liked that transformational moment. We’re in that right now.”
Get TCD’s free newsletters for easy tips to save more, waste less, and make smarter choices — and earn up to $5,000 toward clean upgrades in TCD’s exclusive Rewards Club.
