Ford CEO Jim Farley recently told a podcaster that he was shocked by his company found when it tore apart a Tesla Model 3 and some Chinese EVs recently.
This comes from Monica Langley’s Office Hours: Business Edition podcast, where Farley sat for an interview.
“I was very humbled when we took apart the first Model 3 Tesla and started to take apart the Chinese vehicles. When we took them apart, it was shocking what we found,” Farley said on the episode.
For instance, Farley saw that the Model 3’s wiring was a mile shorter and weighed 70 pounds fewer than what Ford has in the Mustang Mach-E. That extra weight cost $200 per car in battery costs, because of the extra weight. Ford and Farley saw that perhaps the company could save money by spending more up front on lighter wiring — the extra cost would be offset by savings on the battery.
“We don’t do that [system-wide] way of looking at the cost in an internal combustion engine. All the math changes with an EV with that huge expensive battery,” Farley said in the interview.
This follows Ford’s creation of its Model E division for EVs and the announcement of a new EV platform.
It’s unclear if this is the first time Ford tore down a Model 3 or if Farley is referring to something that happened a while ago. Tearing down competitors’ cars is a fairly standard industry practice and if Ford waited until now to tear down a Tesla, that would seem to be an overly long delay, given how long the 3 has been on the market.
Either way, if Ford learns lessons that make its electric cars more competitive in terms of performance and price, that will obviously serve the company well as the rocky transition to heavier electrification continues.
[Images: Ford, Tesla]
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