Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley dismissed Tesla’s electric pickup Cybertruck in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, saying it was only designed for “Silicon Valley people.”, rather than serving “people who really do practical things”. Jim Farley said Tesla’s pickup can’t compete with Ford’s electric F-150 Lightning.
The Cybertruck, Tesla’s first electric pickup, is expected to be delivered later this year but has been delayed multiple times. And Ford is one of the few automakers that already produces an electric pickup. Last year, Ford said it had delivered more than 13,000 electric F-150 pickups and was ramping up production to meet about 200,000 pre-orders. While Tesla dominates the overall electric vehicle market in the U.S., the pickup truck segment is one of the most lucrative in the country.
Jim Farley said in the interview: “The reality is, Americans like losers — and we are the market leader in electric pickups and vans, and we know these customers better than anyone. If he (referring to the Tesla CEO Elon Musk) wants to design a Cybertruck for the people of Silicon Valley, so let him do it.” Jim Farley also described Tesla’s pickup as “a cool, high-end product parked in front of a hotel,” and said: : “I don’t make cars like that, I make cars for people who actually do things, and that’s a different kind of car.”
Tesla has not announced the official price of Cybertruck, but Kelly Blue Book estimates that its starting price will be around US$50,000 —about US$10,000 lower than the F-150 Lightning launched in 2023. Elon Musk has said that Tesla plans to deliver the Cybertruck later this year, and confirmed on a quarterly earnings call in April that deliveries are expected to begin by the end of the year. The billionaire has changed the car’s delivery date several times since first revealing it in 2019, putting it two years later than he originally predicted.
After Ford announced plans to adopt Tesla’s charging standard and start using the company’s Supercharger network, Jim Farley said he had no hesitation in the partnership because it would benefit users.
