What Scared Ford’s CEO in China

[Dude]

“Jim Farley is changing strategy to combat what he calls an ‘existential threat’ from China’s electric carmakers.

Jim Farley had just returned from China. What the Ford Motor chief executive found during the May visit made him anxious: The local automakers were pulling away in the electric-vehicle race. In an early-morning call with fellow board member John Thornton, an exasperated Farley unloaded.”

Wall Street Journal Article
By Mike Colias
Updated September 14, 2024, 12:00 am EDT

Here is the link to the article however you will need access to Wall Street Journal (e.g. your WSJ digital subscription, a subscription to Apple News+, or another method to access the article).

https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/ford-china-ev-competition-farley-ceo-50ded461

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[Jmuns]

Cheap EVs that they can’t compete with. China has an abundance of all the raw materials to build EVs on top of cheap labor. The Chinese also move very quickly to market with newer goods/products/models of anything tech.

 

[Sojourner]

Ford (and numerous other companies; looking at you, Tesla. And our own government, too) only has it/have themselves to blame.

They choose to do business in countries (like China) that are notorious for stealing IP rationalizing that it is a good long-term business strategy. But these companies are delusional; in reality it's for the sake of lower short-term costs and profit.

And now the chickens are coming home to roost.

 

[Major Kong]

"The US and Canada have also raised concerns over subsidies offered by Chinese government and proposed even higher- 100%- tariffs on Chinese-made EV imports."
https://mg.co.za/africa/2024-09-15-chinese-ev-brands-target-africa-amid-rising-trade-barriers-in-europe-north-america/

Not just Ford
North America

https://electrek.co/2024/09/13/us-100-tariffs-on-chinese-evs-will-begin-this-month/

 

[tjm73]

China EV's won't get sold here. They're about to ban China drones and they are no where near the threat to American jobs and corporations that EV's are. Allowing China EV's here would decimate the American auto industry and open us up to massive data collection by the Chinese government. So that's all just not going to happen.

 

[Dude]

Depends on how Chinese EVs are defined. China is setting up parts and vehicle manufacturing in Mexico which wants to welcome the investments. Easy route into the US. US is pressuring Mexico not to provide subsidies and other incentives. Let’s see how this plays out.

 

[Dude]

Key points from a new article (link below):

US is considering “prohibiting key Chinese software and hardware in connected vehicles that may potentially land on American roads, which would essentially ban almost all Chinese EVs from the U.S. on its own accord.”

China’s “largest EV automaker, BYD, has been eyeing Mexico as the potential site of its future North American plant, though it recently announced that it was delaying those plans until after the upcoming election.”

“Chinese automakers are considering building factories in Mexico to skirt higher US import tariffs.”

https://fordauthority.com/2024/09/biden-admin-to-take-more-action-against-chinese-evs/

 

[ScareCrow]

Key points from a new article (link below):

US is considering “prohibiting key Chinese software and hardware in connected vehicles that may potentially land on American roads, which would essentially ban almost all Chinese EVs from the U.S. on its own accord.”

China’s “largest EV automaker, BYD, has been eyeing Mexico as the potential site of its future North American plant, though it recently announced that it was delaying those plans until after the upcoming election.”

“Chinese automakers are considering building factories in Mexico to skirt higher US import tariffs.”

https://fordauthority.com/2024/09/biden-admin-to-take-more-action-against-chinese-evs/

Good video here showing hands-on with that BYD Seagull.

https://insideevs.com/news/710364/byd-detroit-import-seagull-caresoft/

 

[o0260o]

This might be crazy but perhaps the US is not competitive in making cars within the free market capitalist world economy.
China makes 30 million cars a year. That's 3 times more than US. It's more than every other country combined. They probably just got good at it.

 

[Dude]

This might be crazy but perhaps the US is not competitive in making cars within the free market capitalist world economy.
China makes 30 million cars a year. That's 3 times more than US. It's more than every other country combined. They probably just got good at it.

List goes on … TVs, microwaves, batteries, office machines, computers, cell phones, steel products, Clothing, machinery…
I’ll admit I would not list China with free market capitalist world economy. The China market is definitely not a free two way trade.

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