Ford CEO: Tesla Truck For Silicon Valley, Our Electric Truck For Real Workers
JAKARTA - Ford CEO Jim Farley said he was not worried about the electric pickup truck competition with Tesla Cybertruck. He made this statement in his latest interview with international CNBC regarding Tesla trucks that were eagerly awaited and discussed.
The reason for this calm is his belief that the Ford F-150 Lightning and Cybertruck are not competitors comparable.
"Tesla Cybertruck is aimed at 'Silicon Valley people', while Lightning is aimed at real people working," Farley told CNBC's Jim Cramer.
In a Business Insider report on June 21, during the interview, Cramer teased Farley by saying that the Cybertruck might make Ford anxious about future electric truck competition.
Farley firmly rejected this notion by revealing, "The reality is, America likes black horses - and we are the market leader of trucks and electric vans, and we know our customers better than anyone else," said Farley.
"If they want to design a Cybertruck for Silicon Valley people, that's fine. We don't build trucks like that. We build trucks for real people who do real work, and that's a different type of truck," he added.
Cybertruck will be Tesla's first electric pickup truck. Currently, Ford is one of the few automakers to produce electric pickup trucks. Last year, Ford announced it had delivered more than 13,000 units of F-150 Lightning trucks while continuing to increase production to meet about 200,000 orders.
As is well known, Tesla is the overall electric vehicle market leader in the US, but the pickup truck market is one of the most profitable in the country.
"The marketing of pickup trucks is based on the idea that owning a truck will allow you to do a tough job with it. What was sold was the idea," concluded Farley.