https://www.carpro.com/blog/an-open-letter-to-ford-ceo-jim-farley#:~:text=If%20you%20take%20anything%20away,then%20go%20full%20speed%20ahead.
4 replies (most recent on top)
Jim Farley = Dodo bird
Not disagreeing with the writers logic that customer should drive product but imo the letter should have been written to the EPA. They are the ones forcing automakers to develop EVs, hybrids, etc because if they don’t they won’t meet emissions regulations later this decade. If they don’t meet those standards they can’t sell cars.
I suspect the Ford CEO is proposing smaller electronic cars because the battery is the biggest cost hurdle and smaller car means battery.
Again I’m all for free choice and consumer driven products but imo people need to understand regulations down the road are driving these decisions so the companies can keep selling cars and trucks. Keep that in mind when you vote this November.
The letter is spot on. Unfortunately, Fords infatuation with popular social and political agendas, and public opinion will prevent it from moving forward in any meaningful direction long enough to benefit the company. If my department is any indication of what's happening elsewhere in the company, the majority of people making the decisions at Ford are apparently turning to social media for advice.
Ok, I debated entering the fray, but here goes. The US consumes 376,000,000 gallons of gasoline per day. Check it out for yourself, eia is one place to look. If you are going to kick the gas habit and go "electric" you need to figure out some basic stuff about energy. At the risk of making everybody roll their eyes here goes; there are 132,000 BTU's in each gallon of the stuff at the pump. That is 132,000 BTU X 376,000,000 gal = 4.9E13 (a 5 with 13 zeros behind it BTUs). That is an enormous amount of energy that has to be replaced by something else on a daily basis. That's every 24 hrs.
So what you say? well 4.9E13 BTUs is equal to 2,068,000 TONS of mined coal for example. So doing the EV thing isn't green or carbon neutral it's simply shifting energy from one depleting (finite) resource to another. Wave good bye to gasoline and then start mining, refining and delivering two million tons of coal every single day to some power plant somewhere to supply the energy currently being consumed on a daily basis. Doesn't make any sense to me, but what do I know? What do YOU think?
So, my two cents on the matter, so as not to gripe and offer no solutions... If cheap energy is in a significant depletion rate we should slowly shift to other feedstocks of energy - but wait! That's not all. Lighter vehicles and stuff like super caps in hybrids that absorb braking energy and dump it back as launch energy can extend out the reserves we have significantly.
Intelligent movement towards a solution the public can get behind starts with an honest national discussion of why this makes strategic sense. As the open letter suggests - just imposing your will with no rational explanation ain't gonna work. BEVs not so much either. Invest in coal mines, natural gas plays and uranium 'cause the energy has to come from somewhere unless the demand is destroyed.