Ford Motor Firm CEO Jim Farley says Tesla’s value conflict technique for electrical automobiles is just not a brand new one.

Musk’s determination to slash costs and defend quantity over revenue margins reminds Farley of 1913, when Henry Ford used an analogous technique to spur Mannequin T gross sales. The manager advised reporters final week that Musk’s transfer is a play proper out of Henry Ford’s Mannequin Y playbook, in keeping with Insider.

“Go learn ‘1913.’ This has all occurred earlier than,” Farley stated referring to a guide that appears carefully on the yr Ford turned a mass-producer of automobiles. It is price noting that Henry Ford additionally defined the significance of value cuts for Mannequin T (and different subsequent fashions) in his 1922 autobiography titled “My Life and Work.”

In 1913, Henry Ford first began utilizing a conveyer belt on the Mannequin T meeting line, leading to a major manufacturing enhance. For the reason that firm was in a position to construct extra automobiles in a shorter time period, Ford started slashing the value of the Mannequin T.

Some 110 years later, Elon Musk has lowered the costs of the most well-liked Tesla fashions six occasions this yr alone. In contrast to Ford, although, the explanation for the value cuts is not a selected main manufacturing breakthrough – though Tesla is main on this space with improvements like giga castings, structural battery pack, and extra. 

77 Photographs

It is less complicated than that: Elon Musk desires Tesla to double 2022 manufacturing and construct 2 million automobiles in 2023 as the corporate’s latest vegetation in Berlin and Austin are ramping up capability.

The technique is clearly impacting Tesla’s revenue margins, which buyers understandably do not like, however Musk has stated he is aware of what he is doing. He advised buyers on the Q1 2023 earnings name that “it is higher to ship a lot of vehicles at a decrease margin, and, subsequently, harvest that margin sooner or later as we excellent autonomy.”

He even stated Tesla might technically “promote for zero revenue for every now and then yield truly great economics sooner or later by autonomy,” a remark that should have despatched shivers down the spines of rival auto executives.

That stated, Ford’s CEO does not suppose Musk’s technique is a profitable one in the long term, suggesting that Tesla ought to give attention to refreshing its fleet as a substitute. “I feel what he will study is product freshness means quite a bit. The product will get commoditized and you then lose your pricing premium. That is a very harmful factor,” Farley stated.

He used Ford’s historical past for example, noting that Henry Ford finally discovered that lesson, introducing totally different colours and the Mannequin A. However by then, Chevrolet had dethroned Ford as the highest automotive model in the USA. Is Farley attempting to say Ford is the brand new Chevrolet?