Ford CEO on plans to build cheaper and cost-efficient EVs

Jim, talk to me about this new Ford EV universal platform and you're going to make this new midsize pickup on that platform. How is it going to sort of change things for Ford, kind of a big departure for the company? It's a huge change for us. We're going to change the way we build vehicles, maybe the way the industry builds vehicles. We're going to build a vehicle in three separate pieces and join them at the end of the process. That allows us workers, our workers, to get inside the vehicle and to keep the parts not on the side of the assembly line, but in the vehicle. The whole vehicle has been engineered for radical simplification as well. We have 20-30% less parts depending on the vehicle. It's just a totally different approach for simplicity. And we have a new battery chemistry LFP that we'll make in Michigan. It's a $5 billion bet on U.S. manufacturing. We think this is the way to beat BYD. So Jim, that first vehicle will be a midsize pickup, I believe, with more space than a RAV4 apparently. Why do you think that's the best sort of footprint for that car now? And I understand that more cars will be coming after it. Yeah, we'll have different body styles. We want to start with the most universal car. This is what we think Henry Ford would have loved. Because a RAV4, let's say the best-selling passenger car in the U.S., great car. It's a hybrid. We have the Escape Hybrid. This has more room inside, but then you have lockable storage in the front. And then you don't need to carry your bikes and all your work equipment on the roof or, you know, with the tow hitch-mounted system. You can all put it in the bed of your truck. This is a more universal vehicle. And we have a lot of other innovations we haven't shown people yet where this midsize truck will really not be a truck anymore. It's more like the ultimate next-generation crossover. So, Jim, is this sort of the way that Ford and other, even Western automakers, can take on the Chinese, even Tesla, with sort of the smaller footprint, simpler manufacturing process? Yes, this is it. This is the way to go. Look, we can go like others do and make their affordable EV in South Korea and Japan and import, but that's not what we're doing at Ford. We challenged ourselves three years ago with the Skunk Works team to approach everything differently. Radical simplification, new battery chemistry. The battery is actually the vehicle structure itself. It's not put in the vehicle. It is the vehicle. We build the seats on the battery, build the front and the rear separately, and combine it. This radically reduces our cost, including a 30% cheaper battery chemistry. And the battery usage is much lower than a BYD, like 20% more efficient. And we think this is the way we can make money on EVs. We've learned a lot. We've been number two to Tesla for a couple years. We've been doing our homework for this next investment cycle, and this is the way for us to be competitive. Do you think the loss of the EV tax credit is something that might play into this and make it easier to sell cheaper EVs in general? Yes, absolutely. We've learned so much, but you know, that $7,500 is going to go away in September. You know, it's going to have a big impact on the market. And we didn't know that when we started designing this vehicle. We wanted to make a profitable vehicle at entry. But what we started to learn is, look, people want to commute. Really, the duty cycle that matches an EV on the retail side, not commercial side, is definitely short-term trips, someone who charges at home. They go no more than 300 miles on a charge, and they don't want to go to the gas station. And for them, you know, this vehicle will be cheaper to operate than a RAV4 hybrid or even a three-year-old Model Y, and there's a lot of those on sale. You know, this would be a lot cheaper for those customers, not for everyone. We have Super Duties and Broncos and Mustangs. But for that subset of people, this is a much cheaper, they can spend that money on vacations and a lot of other things. You know, policy sort of weighs in here, you mentioned with the EV tax, but also we're talking tariffs and that's sort of affecting the affordability question. What's your sort of big, high-level picture on what's happening here with, you know, preliminary trade deals with Japan and South Korea, but still higher tariffs on Canada and Mexico, where we build a lot of trucks and using U.S. parts. What's your take on that? Well, I think I'm optimistic that we'll find a way to work through the issues in Canada and Mexico. You know, we're disappointed. We want a level playing field, 15 percent tariff in South Korea and Japan, not a level playing field. That's still a $5,000 advantage to import. But we're not going to we're not going to focus on that. We have a great relationship with the Trump administration. They're totally aligned with us as the biggest car company in the U.S. They want us to make these billion-dollar investments like Louisville today. And they are going to we are going to find a way, working with Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, the president, his whole administration. We are going to find a way to minimize those parts tariffs on America's biggest car company. We don't we want we cannot be disadvantaged by betting on America. And we have confidence in the president that that will work this through. Betting on America is sort of thing that a lot of the big three has been been doing recently, especially Ford in particular. But I wanted to talk to you about America in general, the U.S. consumer. How does that consumer look to you at this at this juncture? And sort of the big picture, auto sector in general, where are we headed next? Well, no doubt, affordability is a big issue for the biggest issue for customers. Yes, they want modern drivetrains. They want hybrids. They want EREVs. They want electric. They want combustion, good diesel engines. They want all those things. What they really want is affordability. Our industry is getting close to seven to eight hundred dollars a month as a normal payment. More and more customers now buying 84 month financing, seven years now on the car. Quality is getting better, but we as an industry need to innovate, just like we are with this Ford Universal Electric platform to bring the cost down of our vehicles and also to make money. The customers aren't helped if we subsidize these cars. You know, that that's too risky for our workers, for our community and for the customer. And that's why we innovated here starting three years ago.