Ford CEO says the company will benchmark against BYD, not Tesla, in the electric vehicle sector

Glonghui, April 21 — On a podcast last Friday, Ford CEO Jim Farley explained why he chose to drive a Xiaomi SU7 rather than a car made by an American company like Tesla. “I’m not targeting Tesla. They’ve always done well, but you know, they really don’t have completely new generation models,” he said. Farley believes that if Ford wants to be the best in the world, it must pay attention to overseas competitors. He described BYD as “the industry’s best” in cost, supply chain, manufacturing, and intellectual property, and hopes Ford can emulate BYD by leveraging America’s strengths: “using innovation to compete with world-class companies.” Farley said Ford should learn from BYD and build cars that can meet the needs of the next generation of American car buyers. “If we are smart enough, we should draw on BYD’s cost advantages and then use BYD’s platform to compete in the market segments where we understand customers’ needs best,” he said.