Ford CEO: No plans to split electric or fuel vehicle business, must surpass NIO and Tesla

Beijing time, February 24th morning news, it was reported that on Wednesday local time, Ford CEO Jim Farley said at the Wolf Research Conference broadcast live on the Internet that there are no plans to split the electric vehicle or gasoline vehicle business.

He added: “We know that NIO and Tesla are our competitors and we have to beat them, not just be on par with them. And we have to beat our competitors in the internal combustion engine space as well.”

Some investors have pushed Ford and rival General Motors to split off their electric vehicle businesses as a way to better tap the full value of those businesses. Currently, Tesla is not only the leader in electric vehicles, but also the world's most valuable automaker.

Ford has previously denied reports that it is considering spinning off its electric or combustion engine vehicle businesses. The U.S. automaker said last month that it would have global production capacity for 600,000 electric vehicles per year within 24 months.

Farley said the company's management team believes that their electric and internal combustion engine vehicle businesses are underperforming in terms of profitability. He also said Ford believes it can make operating costs in its traditional internal combustion engine vehicle business much lower through better quality, lower structural costs and reduced vehicle complexity.

Speaking about the internal combustion engine business, he said: "We have too many people, too much investment, too much complexity and no expertise in transformational assets. Simply put, it's a waste. To get the profit margins in electric vehicles like we've seen at companies like Tesla, we need to have real experts to drive this scale." He also added that Ford needs to hire more professionals in the areas of electrical components, advanced electrical architecture and digital customer experience.

On the electric vehicle business, Farley said Ford is working with suppliers to minimize risks by securing supplies of key raw materials for batteries, such as lithium, nickel, rare earths and copper.

On vehicle distribution, he said Ford needs to eliminate "expensive inventory" from its sales system and make it easier for consumers to reserve and track the assembly process of vehicles before they are delivered.