The CEO of Ford has described the transition to electric cars as a “political football”, acknowledging the polarising views around zero emission vehicles.
The majority of major car brands have pledged to end production of petrol and diesel vehicles in the coming years and switch to mainly manufcaturing electric cars.
Ford announced a plan for all cars sold in Europe would be electric by 2030 and pledged to spend $1billion (£824.7million) by transforming a Cologne plant to become its first European EV facility.
Jim Farley, CEO of Ford Motor, has spoken about the brand’s movement to electric cars, indicating the struggles that come with embracing EVs.
WATCH NOW: Trump tells autoworkers EV push will kill jobs
He said: “And I want to say a few words about EVs. They have become a political football and that’s a shame.
“I drove an F-150 with my son across the western US this summer and I met so many people who love absolutely their EVs, like [F-150 EV] Lightning. Think about it.”
He went on to praise Tesla, saying they had become profitable, despite originally being seen as disruptors by prioritising electric vehicles at the start.
Ford and Tesla are collaborating to give Ford customers access to the Tesla Supercharger network, which has more than 12,000 charges across the US.
Farley, who has been CEO since 2020, said customers “loved their EVs” and would be “blown away” at the next generation of Ford models.
He added: “We’re also working on fantastic internal combustion vehicles, like Broncos and F-150s and F-150 hybrids and Expeditions. The bottom line is, customers are going to decide what kind of vehicle they buy from Ford, as they already do. Not all these people politicizing EVs.”
Donald Trump has come out attacking electric cars in recent weeks and months, saying they were “assassinating jobs”.
Commenting on the sweeping automotive strikes across America, he said: “Now they want to go all electric and put you all out of business. You know that right?”
The Republican party previously posted on X, known as Twitter at the time, saying “go woke, go broke” when discussing electric cars.
It claimed that Democrats were trying to persuade US motorists to buy an electric car as they wouldn’t have to spend money on fuel, branding this as “woke”.
However, the same post highlighted how California had previously asked residents to avoid charging EVs to minimise the risk of a blackout in 2022, resulting in people going "broke".
In April earlier this year, President Biden announced sweeping public and private commitments to support the transition to EVs.
One of Biden’s key goals to decarbonise is to have 50 per cent of all new vehicle sales be electric by the end of the decade.
The 80-year-old became the first US President to visit a United Auto Workers picket line and support their call for better working conditions in mid-September.
The UAW picket is continuing to gain support
REUTERS
The latest escalation of the strike action saw an Arlington, Texas assembly plant being shut down to support and join the UAW protest.
It is estimated that the new General Motors strikes will cost around $400million (£329.8million) a week.
