Ford CEO road-tripping F-150 Lightning throughout American West

Ford CEO Jim Farley launched into an EV street journey in an F-150 Lightning pickup truck to realize perception into the experiences of Ford’s EV clients.

Farley and his occasion set off this week from Silicon Valley, driving south to Los Angeles after which west to Las Vegas, traversing elements of the long-lasting Route 66 alongside the way in which, the Ford CEO wrote in a LinkedIn post. Among the many deliberate stops can be a charging station that Farley says prompted Ford’s deal to undertake the Tesla cost port, generally known as the North American Charging Commonplace (NACS), for future EVs.

2023 Ford F-150 Lightning

Alongside the way in which, Farley plans to go to “researchers, companies, sellers, salespeople, EV conversion retailers, EV drivers, and communities” and use the identical roads and charging infrastructure as bizarre EV drivers, with the intention to be taught concerning the real-world expertise of EV use. Farley famous that earlier in his profession at Toyota, he utilized insights from one other street journey to bettering the automaker’s bread-and-butter Camry midsize sedan.

“Listening is how we be taught,” Farley mentioned, “and that is what we’ll be doing from the street.”

Ford F-150 Lightning at Tesla Supercharger

Farley might already pay attention to one of many greatest points within the present EV local weather. In a dialogue of Ford’s quarterly earnings report final week, he confirmed the automaker is decreasing its 2023 EV manufacturing targets. Farley pointed to value as the primary cause, saying that greater than 30% of customers intend to purchase an EV, however that prime buy costs are holding many potential clients again. He beforehand pointed to the beginning of an EV worth battle earlier this 12 months.

The F-150 Lightning has received the approval of truck consumers and media—in a primary drive we discovered it to be nothing in need of revolutionary—nevertheless it’s additionally a poster little one for EV worth inflation. Whereas Ford in July lowered the value of the Lightning by $9,979 on the bottom Professional mannequin, it had beforehand raised costs 4 instances for the reason that truck’s launch in April 2022. Even with the value reduce, the present base worth of $51,990 (together with a $1,995 vacation spot cost) continues to be 25% larger than the $41,669 base worth from the time of its introduction.