Running a car company is already hard, but Ford (F) Executive Chairman Bill Ford says that the current political landscape is making it hard to balance Ford's offerings of electric, internal combustion and hybrid-electric vehicles.
Speaking to journalist Carol Cain at a recent Detroit Free Press event, the Ford executive said that the Blue Oval expects the move to electrification to have its hurdles, but unclear policy decisions by made it hard to envision a clear path for the industry at large.
“Our planning timeframe as a company is a lot longer than election cycles,” Ford said. “The problem is when we’re whipsawed back and forth… we can’t turn on a dime.”
Ford calls these policy issues political 'hurricanes,' as the stormy weather impedes on the ability of not only his car company, but also the competition's ability to determine what products are right to pursue.
However, Ford says that instead of looking at policy and the politicians that draw them up, he allows the free market and the buying power of consumers to guide them.
“The one thing that drives us crazy, we really can’t deal with is this yes-no, back-and-forth kind of thing,” Ford said. “As long as we’re in an election cycle, it just becomes harder. We shouldn’t let Washington decide, we should let customers decide.”
Despite what many detractors would like to believe, Ford strongly insists that car companies, like the one that bears his last name, are not trying to force you into an electric car.
“We’re not shoving anything down anybody’s throat,” Ford said during the event.
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Additionally, the Blue Oval chair said that he does not believe EVs are going to be a key issue during this presidential election cycle.
“I don’t believe that the average voter is going to have [EVs] on their top three list,” he said.
Bill Ford has made comments in the past about how cars bearing his family name are politicized. In an October 2023 interview with the New York Times, he called the debacle surrounding American car buyer’s adoption of electric cars to be “politicized” and compared it to the politically-motivated hysteria associated with the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Blue states say EVs are great and we need to adopt them as soon as possible for climate reasons. Some of the red states say this is just like the vaccine, and it’s being shoved down our throat by the government, and we don’t want it," Ford said. “I never thought I would see the day when our products were so heavily politicized, but they are.”
Politics aside, Ford is shifting its EV strategy towards a "small vehicle platform" underpinning three new models. The first of these models is due in 2026 and is anticipated to sell for around $25,000.
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