Ford Motor Co. is looking at ways to separate its electric-vehicle operation from its century-old legacy business, hoping to earn the sort of investor respect enjoyed by Tesla Inc. and other pure-play EV makers.
Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley wants to wall off Ford’s electric operations from its internal combustion engine business and has even considered spinning off one or the other, people familiar with the effort said. A spinoff could generate the kind of earnings multiples that have given Tesla a market value approaching $1 trillion.
But splitting the company, which Ford says it isn’t planning, may prove too difficult, so Farley instead may simply separate the EV business internally as its own unit as part of a broad reorganization that seeks to give Ford an edge in the electric age.
