Ford CEO admits he drives a Chinese electric vehicle and doesn't want to give it up

Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, has made a surprising confession - he has been driving a Chinese-made electric vehicle, and he loves it.

"I don't like talking about the competition so much, but I drive the Xiaomi," he said in the Everything Electric Show. "We flew one from Shanghai to Chicago, and I've been driving it for six months now, and I don't want to give it up."

People have been talking about an Apple car for years, he said, but Chinese telco Xiaomi has already built one and it was a very nice ride. Xiaomi and Huawei are both major players in the electric vehicle market in a way that US companies have yet to emulate, Farley suggests.

Ford does have its finger in the electric car pie, with Farley pointing out it's the number two in the US marketplace. But when it comes to EVs, China is way ahead of Western manufacturers, he warned. Ten years ago, the Chinese government declared a policy on developing electric vehicles and batteries, and that's paying off, he opined.

"And they're starting to specialize where they have electric vehicles for long range travel, where the charging structure is not built out. One car goes 150 to 200 miles as an all electric car, and it has a small internal combustion engine that powers the batteries. One tank of gas gives a range of up to 1,000 to 1,200 kilometers."

Leave a Comment