In a candid revelation that sent ripples through the automotive world, Ford Motor Company's President and CEO, Jim Farley, admitted to being both "humbled" and "shocked" after his company's engineers took apart electric vehicles from rivals Tesla and Chinese manufacturers. This eye-opening experience, he stated, was the catalyst for a major strategic overhaul at the American auto giant.
The Shocking Discovery in the Teardown
Speaking on the Office Hours: Business Edition podcast, Farley detailed a standard industry practice that yielded non-standard results. When Ford's team disassembled a Tesla Model 3 and several Chinese EVs for analysis, they uncovered a staggering efficiency gap. The investigation revealed that the Tesla Model 3 used approximately 1.6 kilometres less wiring than Ford's own electric offering, the Mustang Mach-E.
Farley did not mince words, stating, "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." He added that the findings were similarly stark when compared to the products of Chinese electric vehicle makers, highlighting a critical area where Ford needed to catch up.
Ford's Billion-Dollar Response to the EV Challenge
This humbling discovery served as a direct call to action. Farley explained that the teardown findings galvanised immediate and significant changes within Ford, which has faced intense pressure in the evolving auto market. The company's answer was the creation of its dedicated Model E division in 2022, a unit focused solely on driving innovation in the electric vehicle space.
This commitment, however, comes at a substantial cost. A Fortune report indicates that the Model E division has cost the company $5 billion in 2024 alone. Farley, embracing the challenge, shared his philosophy: "My ethos is, take on the hardest problems as fast as you can and do it sometimes in public because you’ll solve them quicker that way."
Doubling Down on a Global Electric Future
Despite the financial hurdles, Farley made it clear that Ford is fully committed to the electric vehicle segment. For him, it's a matter of global relevance. "We can’t walk away from EVs, not just for the US, but if we want to be a global company, I’m not going to just cede that to the Chinese," he asserted on the podcast.
This resolve is already translating into concrete business moves. In a significant financial commitment, the company announced in August 2025 that it would allocate an additional $5 billion towards EV production. This massive investment will fund a comprehensive revamp of its manufacturing processes and a major transformation of its Kentucky plant, which currently produces the F-Series Super Duty trucks. The future plan for the facility is to manufacture Ford's highly anticipated $30,000 electric pickup truck, scheduled for release in 2027.
