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Cars 2012-Ford-Focus-Electric

Published on October 27th, 2014 | by Christopher DeMorro

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Ford CEO Says Ford Could Build A Tesla Too

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October 27th, 2014 by  

2012-Ford-Focus-Electric

Originally posted on GAS2

Having invested more into plug-in hybrids than battery electric cars, Ford seems to have ceded the market to more serious contenders for now. But new CEO Mark Fields told USA Today that Ford could built an electric car to compete with Tesla, and such a product would be “consistent with our product philosophy.”

Fields replaced Alan Mulally this summer after the former Boeing CEO gave Ford a top-to-bottom makeover that included shrugging off all but two brands and cutting down on the number of platforms to just a few. But one area Mulally seemed disinterested in was pure electric vehicles, giving the Focus Electric a tiny marketing budget but one of the highest MSRPs at $39,995. Ford has since slashed $10,000 off the price of its sole electric car, but it’s done measurably more to promote its two plug-in hybrid models, the Fusion Energi and C-Max Energi.

In a conference call to investors on Friday, Fields said his company could build a larger all-electric sedan with the performance to match the Model S, though it wouldn’t be a hatchback like the Tesla, but would fit Ford’s core mission of focusing on high-tech vehicles. While not confirming the company was working towards this goal, he did admit that Ford engineers had bought a Tesla Model S, driven it, and taken it apart before putting it back together. GM was also caught testing a Tesla against the Cadillac ELR, demonstrating that conventional automakers are just as intrigued by Elon Musk’s electric car as the general buying public.

Ford recently fought Tesla over the Model E trademark, though it’s hard to imagine any car in the current Ford lineup being easily converted into an EV. Perhaps the most promising idea is to build a battery electric vehicle for Lincoln on a dedicated platform, which would allow Ford to charge a premium price, fill the role of being a Tesla competitor, and give the droll Lincoln lineup a desperately needed halo model to give people something to talk about. Ford has taken a lot of steps in the name of going green, but its vehicle lineup is still overly reliant on fossil fuels.

With a new CEO at its head, might Ford find a renewed focus on electric vehicles? That’d be one way to win my favor back.

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About the Author

A writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMIs, can be found wrenching or writing- or esle, he's running, because he's one of those crazy people who gets enjoyment from running insane distances.


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  • Joseph Dubeau

    “With a new CEO at its head, might Ford find a renewed focus on electric vehicles?”
    Not likely, Ford is focused on their hybrids technology!

    • Kyle Field

      The way they have their hybrids stacked, it looks like they are building a bridge to EVs…first the Gas Cmax…then the hybrid Cmax…then the Plug in Hybrid Cmax. Granted, their only EV is the Focus but with the recent price reduction (with timing arriving right after the arrival of the new CEO), it looks like they are getting serious about EVs.

      • Joseph Dubeau

        I sure hope so. But there is no EV product announcements.

      • Adrian

        The Focus EV isn’t actually theirs, Magna developed and offered them a drivetrain and control electronics package and last I heard was building them, though that may have been brought in-house now.

  • Matt

    I could get an A on the test if I wanted to. But I don’t want to.

  • one.second

    The Model S sells like a hot loaf of bread and you could join in but you prefer not to? Really? Doubt it. You just can’t. It takes conventional carmakers at least three years to come up with a new model built from the ground up and you may have a lot gas engine engineers but not enough skilled specialists and a supply chain for a battery pack that is competitive with Tesla’s at price.
    Feel free to prove me wrong, I would applaud.

  • junkyardnut

    have you heard about Phinergy’s prototype car? 1000 mile (throw away) battery range this is precisely the Pink Bunny car we want but couldnt find !

  • Adrian

    Lion battery prices are dropping 16%/year. In 4 years the Focus EV can have a 200 mile pack for the same price as today, and in 8 years it can stay at 200 miles but be half the price. They’re not only going to have to do this, but do it across the entire model range. If not, their products by 2020-ish will be utterly uncompetitive with those who did build a Tesla.

  • David in Bushwick

    In just 10 short years, CAFE standards require passenger cars to get 60 mpg and light pickup trucks 50 mpg. The 2015 Chevy S10 only gets 27 mpg. Unless the weight of vehicles is cut in half, the limits of the gas engine will be a problem with a 60 miles per gallon average.
    Car manufacturers’ only choice is to go with plug-in hybrids and EVs. But they’ll drag their feet as long as possible and Ford doesn’t currently seem to be in a hurry to get moving.

    • Mint

      You’re apparently unaware of how CAFE calculations work. MPG requirements are scaled inversely to vehicle footprint (track*wheelbase), so trucks don’t need to actually hit 50 MPG. It’s closer to 35 MPG on average, and on top of that, CAFE uses the two-cycle EPA test instead of the 5-cycle. That can add 20%+ to MPG.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Average_Fuel_Economy#Agreed_standards_by_model_year.2C_2011-2025

      A big F150 would only need an estimated 23 MPG combined EPA rating to meet the 50 MPG CAFE requirement. Something a bit smaller than an S10 would need 37 MPG EPA. For cars, a Merc S-Class would need to get only 34 MPG EPA (granted, that’s a big improvement over the current 20 MPG) to comply with the 60 MPG mandate.

      On top of that, the penalties for non-compliance are quite low.

      I fully expect Toyota to meet the standards with a 95% non-EV fleet.

      • Kyle Field

        Dude, be nice.

    • Kyle Field

      Dropping a hybrid drivetrain would do this very quickly…though so would a few 99mpge EV trucks/cars…

  • Shiggity

    I won’t take any ICE company seriously until they dedicate a proper budget to the production of a car from the ground up to be electric. Every single EV made by an ICE car company was first an ICE car that has EV components jammed into it.

    • Tom Capon

      Where does the Leaf fall in your judgement? I know it probably shares some parts with the Versa (as well as some styling), but they did a lot more than just swap out the engine.

    • Kyle Field

      Exactly why I’m a fan of Tesla (obviously), Nissan and BMW – all who seem to me to be making real commitments to the EV market.

  • jonesey

    For some reason, auto industry reporters love to report on two things that make no difference to actual humans: concept cars, and things CEOs say.

    Real news would be a car that I can drive off the showroom floor.

    • http://gas2.org/ Christopher DeMorro

      You’re right, there’s a tendency to over-analyze what the suits say.

      In a lot of cases though, executives will say something somewhere to gauge consumer reaction. It’s an old political trick, often done through a proxy or anonymous source that a politician can quickly disavow. Since CEOs don’t have to worry about voters, they are sometimes a little more candid.

      It’s also worth consider Mark Fields has been on the job for just a handful of months. There’s a new leader at Ford, and Alan Mulally always seemed more interested in fuel cells than electric vehicles. Fields, however, might be watching Tesla and thinking “This is a way to make Lincoln interesting to consumers again.”

      I mean, that’s what I would do. But I’m not in charge of Ford either, so the best I can do is write about it, and hope maybe one of these times, I’m right.

      Personally, I’d love to see Ford bully it’s way into the EV market. That might be wishful thinking, it might not be. Stay tuned.

      • Offgridman

        “This is the way to make Lincoln interesting to consumers again”
        So true saw an advertisement a couple days ago and thought I was looking at a Lexus, turned out to be the new Lincoln.
        Or bring back the Mercury brand as an all EV platform. Loved riding in my great grandfather’s ’57 and grandfather’s’ 76 models, all the latest accessories for the eras, big, comfortable, and smooth riding. Grandpa’s even went over 350,000 miles with the help of a new paint job and seats after the first couple hundred thousand with just basic maintenance otherwise.
        If Ford is going to put out a long distance EV, they might as well do it as a high quality luxury vehicle. I know some people do the long road trips in economy cars, but if we are going to convert the older generations that can afford to buy new cars to an EV format, it will go much easier if they are cars that they would want anyways, no matter the power source.
        It would be very interesting to see the sales stats on the Model S as to the ages of purchasers, I bet in the US more than half are over 45.

  • Kyle Field

    woulda…coulda…shoulda…but didnt.

    • Kyle Field

      The price cut of the FFEV shows that they are at least taking this EV thing seriously now, which is good. As noted, their lineup is not conducive to electrifying…big trucks, bigger SUVs (Ford Excursion anyone?), etc. Having said that, the Fiesta, Focus and maybe even the Edge (crossover/small SUV) could be good candidates. I personally prefer BMWs approach of taking the vehicle and designing it fresh from the ground up – EVs are substantially different afterall – and rolling that up with some fresh design. It just makes sense to me…but is definitely more of an up front investment than just pulling out the gas drivetrain and putting in an EV package.

      • Mint

        Big, powerful trucks/cars are more conducive to electrification, not less. Look at how small Tesla’s 470hp motor is, and how much room there is in the car when you have a long, thin battery pack.

        The mentality you have is exactly why everyone but Tesla is failing with EVs (in terms of sales relative to gas competitors). EVs biggest strengths are:
        -high power density for the motor
        -high torque at low revs
        -silent operation
        Those are all things valued by luxury/performance sedans, and the first two are important for SUVs, but none are valued in econoboxes. Even the gas savings are much bigger for these types of cars as opposed to compacts. Yeah, bigger cars need a bigger battery, but they also fetch a much bigger price tag, so that point is moot.

        • Kyle Field

          Economics will take care of things that just make sense. The downside of heavy vehicles is that they require high power density motors (as you noted, good for EVs) that put out high torque (also good) to move a huge vehicle also requires a HUGE battery pack (just look at the RAV4 EV and its HUGE ie, expensive 41.8kwh battery pack). As battery weight/capacity/cost are really the only constraint with EVs today, putting these components in a larger, heavier vehicle meant to carry lots of people/stuff (read: more weight), the cost just goes up higher and higher, pricing what would be a $30k truck out of the market. the RAV4, for instance starts at $50k and that’s a compact SUV (similar to Ford’s Edge). I shudder to think what the Excursion would require.

          I do appreciate that EVs strengths pair well with these vehicles which should help to make electrification of these lines VERY attractive as the battery economics improve.

          • Mint

            You’re not thinking relatively. SUVs with big ICEs are expensive, so you can sell an EV competitively with a proportionally bigger battery pack. A-, B-, and C-segment ICE cars are cheap, and even small battery pack.

            (BTW, the RAV4 EV has a lot more range and is an older vehicle than typical EVs today, so the 41.8kWh comparison needs context, and the RAV4 is not a powerful SUV anyway so the example doesn’t really apply.)

          • Kyle Field

            The RAV4 EV had a range of 103mi which is definitely more but not enough to justify almost 2X the battery (Honda Fit = 20kwh/82mi range, Chevy Spark = 19kwh/82mi range).

            I was comparing the virtual EV truck to something like an F150 (starting at $25k USD). At that pricing…or comparable, they have to come in pretty close to the current EVs in terms of motor size, battery capacity and range which I don’t think is sufficient. Yes – trucks are priced all the way up to $50k+ and there might be a premium truck/SUV EV market, but that’s not the mainstream “work truck” market (at least in the US).

        • Bob_Wallace

          A pickup that had a lockable forward “trunk” instead of an engine would be a big hit with a lot of people who need a work truck. That would leave the bed free for cargo and the cab free of tools.

  • CU

    Why don’t they?

    • Offgridman

      Yes Ford or the other manufacturers “could” produce a similar quality product as Tesla, GM showed this with the EV1 back in the 90’s. But the real questions as you say are why don’t they, will they, and when. Which none of them seem willing to answer.
      I think it is as others have stated a fear of losing the profit model from parts and repairs that ICE vehicles provide. But if consumers keep talking with their dollars and buying the EV’s the manufacturers will have to follow suit with Tesla, BMW, and the others that have started this change.

      • Mint

        Repairs and parts give a lot more profit to dealers than the manufacturers. Almost all the parts aside from the body/frame and engine block are produced by third parties, and dealers mark up the prices a LOT.

        That’s why Tesla doesn’t want to sell EVs through a dealer that also sells ICEs. They’re going to push the customer to the latter for the service revenue.

        • Offgridman

          Yes quite a chunk of those profits go to the dealers, but also the manufacturers as they are the ones running the supply networks accessing the third party producers. Along with a lot of other kickbacks on training, repair information, returns from insurance claims on recalls, and etc. It is the established model, and like any static industry it doesn’t want to change.
          But the money supplying that industry still comes from the customers, and it is their desires that will cause it to change.

          • Mint

            I’d guess manufacturers get well under 10% of the total that consumers (and insurance) spend on repairs. I know people in automotive parts distribution, and parts not only cost far less than dealers say (who also charge labor on top), but there are so many suppliers producing them.

          • Offgridman

            Yes the manufacturers get a tiny percentage on the profits from parts or repairs, but when you multiply that times tens of millions it does add up..
            I didn’t start out to try and explain the business or profit model that keeps the big manufacturers viable. Just repeated a theory that has been stated by many as to why they don’t get into the serious production of good quality, long range EV’s. If you know of another reason why they don’t, then I definitely, and many others probably would love to hear it.
            From what GM did with the EV 1 almost twenty years ago, we know that it is possible, even before lithium batteries. But since then none of the other manufacturers including GM have even tried, except for Tesla, and part of their purpose is supposed to be to encourage the other companies to follow suit, to even giving them the patents this past spring.
            If you know the specific reason that Ford and the others are not trying to produce usable EV’s, please tell us so that maybe we can do something about it. Because I am just guessing.

    • Ed_Luva

      It’s pretty clear that Big Oil is to blame. Daily automobile commuting represents the majority of gas consumed in the US every day, consequently widespread adoption of totally electric cars would devastate Big Oil. In 2007, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Americans consumed 371.2 million gallons of gas PER DAY. At $3 to $4 per gallon, that’s over a billion dollars a day. Big Oil is perfectly willing to bribe, kill, or poison the planet to keep this money flowing. Killing alternative fuel vehicles is part of this agenda.

      For a real-world example, look at the award-winning documentary, “Who Killed the Electric Car?”, which is about GM’s EV-1, an electric car. Notice how even when ultra-wealthy people begged, yes BEGGED, to pay ANY price to keep the cars, GM refused to sell the EV-1’s it had already leased to these customers! What did GM do with the returned EV-1’s? It literally had the perfectly good cars crushed at a scrap yard–all caught on film–instead of selling them for profit!

      The EV-1 happened in the 1990’s, so Big Oil set us back about 20 years.

    • Mint

      I don’t think Lincoln has the image to sell a premium EV (and Ford certainly doesn’t).

      Lincoln sold only ~80k cars the last two years, and half of them were light trucks:
      https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North%20America/US/2014/01/december13sales.pdf
      The Lincoln Navigator was the poster child for gas-guzzling SUVs. How are they going to market themselves to the EV crowd?

      The image that Tesla crafted for itself is nothing short of miraculous. You need decades of history to sell $100k cars in the volumes that BMW, Merc, Porsche, etc do.

    • Matthew Rose

      It is weird that they don’t. However, since the 70’s, the big three haven’t seemed interested in competing for their home market.

      • Bob_Wallace

        I think most of the failure for the Big Three to stay at the top of the game is due to them being located away from where most Americans live. Stuff happens early on the coasts and takes years to move to the heartland. Many of the brightest younger people leave for the coasts.

        Detroit is building for an older, slower market so the 80% or so who live close to an ocean are looking elsewhere for cars that suit them.

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