The CEO of Ford drives a Chinese electric vehicle and does not plan on exchanging it for an American-made car anytime soon.
Ford CEO Jim Farley spoke about the company’s EV competition last week and admitted to enjoying a Chinese-made electric vehicle — so much so that he had one flown from Shanghai to Chicago.
“I don’t like talking about the competition so much, but I drive the Xiaomi,” Farley said on the Fully Charged Podcast with British actor Robert Llewellyn. “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.”
Farley later explained that he likes to drive all of Ford’s competition to better understand what the company is up against.
“I try to drive everything we compete against. Have done it my whole career. Specs can tell part of a story, but you’ve got to get behind the wheel to truly understand and beat the competition,” Farley said on X.
“Per the tweet (X), Jim drives all of our competition (from all over the world) – in this hugely competitive landscape getting deep into the product of our competition is essential (and normal) business practice,” a spokesperson for Ford told NR after publication.
“His daily driver continues to be an electric Ford F-150 Lightning.”
Xiaomi, a Chinese electronics manufacturer, makes the Xiaomi SU7 electric vehicle, a sedan with a $30,000 starting price. The Trump administration blacklisted Xiaomi for being a Chinese Communist Party military company, though the Biden administration later reversed that decision after Xiaomi challenged it in court.
“Jim Farley’s recent admission that he drives a Chinese-made electric vehicle is a slap in the face to the thousands of hardworking employees at Ford Motor Company,” said Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute.
“At a time when Ford is receiving billions of dollars in subsidies from American taxpayers to support domestic EV production, it is deeply troubling that the company’s chief executive would choose a Chinese product over an American vehicle his own company manufactures,” he added.
Chinese-made electric vehicles are typically cheaper than their American counterparts because China allows companies to pay workers much lower wages and Chinese firms dominate critical mineral supply chains.
“Of course China has massive advantages when it comes to producing electric vehicles. The lion’s share of critical minerals necessary for EVs are mined in China, the majority of processing of those minerals occurs in China, and Chinese companies pay their workers slave wages,” said James Taylor, president of the Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank.
“Instead of trying to compete with China for loser vehicles that nobody wants to buy anyway, American policymakers should be championing the gasoline powered cars that Americans have always loved and continue to love,” Taylor added.
In August, Ford announced it would be canceling its plan to produce a three-row electric sport-utility vehicle and delayed its production of its latest electric truck model. Waning consumer demand for electric vehicles and increased competition have contributed to Ford’s loss of billions of dollars on its significant EV investments.
The Biden administration has made electric vehicles a priority of its climate agenda through increased subsidies and multi-billion dollar investments paired with stringent environmental regulations of gas-powered cars.
As a large American electric vehicle manufacturer, Ford has benefited from those tax credits and investments. Individual Ford customers and businesses and governments are eligible for incentives under the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act to subsidize the purchase of electric vehicles and chargers.
Last year, the Department of Energy announced a $9.2 billion loan commitment for BlueOval SK LLC to manufacture three battery plants to produce batteries for future Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles. BlueOval SK is a joint venture between Ford and SK On, a Korean battery manufacturing firm.
The loan is being managed by the DoE’s Loan Programs Office, a program that finances climate-related projects and energy startups in need of early-stage capital.
“Ford has US-made EVs stacking up in car lots while the Biden-Harris Administration is busy trying to wipe away the majority of cars we drive, propping up the Chinese Communist Party at the expense of American jobs and consumers,” said O. H. Skinner, executive director of Alliance for Consumers.
The combination of environmental regulations, subsidies, and investments is collectively known as the Biden administration’s electric vehicle mandate. Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats have attempted to distance themselves from the mandate because of its negative political consequences in must-win states like Michigan with large automotive and energy sectors.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated after publication upon receiving comment from a Ford spokesperson.