Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, said on Friday that the Chinese EV industry poses a serious threat to the American automaker.
Farley was speaking to author Walter Isaacson during a panel at the Aspen Ideas Festival when he was asked about China’s EV market. Farley said he had made about six to seven trips to China in the past year.
“It’s the most humbling thing I have ever seen. 70% of all EVs in the world, electric vehicles, are made in China,” Farley said.
“They have far superior in-vehicle technology. Huawei and Xiaomi are in every car,” Farley added. “You get in, you don’t have to pair your phone. Automatically, your whole digital life is mirrored in the car.”
Farley told Isaacson that part of the reason Ford could not offer something similar was because tech giants like Google and Apple “decided not to go in the car business.”
“Beyond that, their cost, their quality of their vehicles is far superior to what I see in the West,” Farley said.
“We are in a global competition with China, and it’s not just EVs. And if we lose this, we do not have a future Ford,” he added.
This isn’t the first time Farley has praised his Chinese competition.
Last year, Farley said the Chinese tech giant Xiaomi was an “industry juggernaut and a consumer brand that is much stronger than car companies.” Farley had praised the tech company during an appearance on “The Fully Charged Podcast” that aired in October.
“I don’t like talking about the competition so much, but I drive the Xiaomi,” Farley said of the Xiaomi Speed Ultra 7. The SU7 is Xiaomi’s maiden electric vehicle.
“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,” he added.
Last month, Xiaomi unveiled its second EV, the YU7. The company called the YU7 a “luxury high-performance SUV” and pitched it as a cheaper alternative to Tesla’s Model Y.
Xiaomi said last week that it had received over 200,000 orders for the YU7, which is priced at $35,000 compared to the Model Y’s $36,760.
In August, Ford’s chief financial officer, John Lawler, said the company was changing its EV strategy. Lawler said Ford would replace its planned electric SUVs with hybrid models instead. The switch will cost Ford nearly $2 billion.
Ford shares are up by over 9% year to date.
Ford did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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