Ford CEO says Tesla's Cybertruck is only for 'Silicon Valley people' and he's not threatened by it: 'I make trucks for real people who do real work'

3 years ago by llama to c/technology

Jim Farley described Tesla's futuristic pickup truck as "a cool high-end product parked in front of a hotel."

SS: Tesla isn't a brand or aesthetic for the everyman, and Ford thinks it can do much better brining electric vehicles to the mainstream American market

TurtleTourParty 12 points 3 years ago

And I though Ford make $60k trucks for people who might need to move something once year.

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CmdrShepard 3 points 3 years ago

No they make $100k luxury trucks with badge names like "King Ranch" so they can pander to 'rugged' suburbanites who work an office job and use their truck to haul big purchases home from Costco.

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scutiger 1 point 3 years ago

Move things? Don't you dare scuff up my truck bed!

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anachronist 8 points 3 years ago

Trucks for "working people":

Absurdly high bed height that makes it hard to get anything heavy in or out
Really short beds in pretty much all trucks. 8 foot beds are becoming a special order option
Crew cab "for your crew."
The new Ford Ranger: basically a very tall heavy suv where your groceries get wet when it rains "starting at $28k"
Base model lowest trim F-150: "starting at $34k"

If he was talking about a Ford Transit then sure, those are for working people (still absurdly expensive). But Ford trucks are for suburban wine moms.

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archomrade 4 points 3 years ago

If he was talking about a Ford Transit then sure, those are for working people (still absurdly expensive). But Ford trucks are for suburban wine moms.

And suburban beer dads

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atp2112 7 points 3 years ago

I mean, he could basically just stop at "I make trucks"

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downhomechunk 3 points 3 years ago

I've seen a couple rivians recently. They look truck-like.

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Timmy 3 points 3 years ago

Traditional automakers are coming to give Elon a wedgie. Their experience and cautious approach moves slowly and doesn’t break things.

All that said, the inside baseball on the F150 lightning is that ford didn’t expect to sell nearly as many as they are going to. They expected to dip a toe in the electric truck market but consumers (probably not the workers that Farley refers to) really want their product

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CmdrShepard 1 point 3 years ago

Legacy manufacturers break stuff all the time. They wouldn't be taking shots at Tesla if they didn't see them as a threat.

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Timmy 1 point 3 years ago

They do, but never at the scale Tesla does. No legacy automaker would be fucking around with “autopilot” marketing language and overselling it so extensively, for example. They also tend to have a pretty good idea when their products will become available, unlike the cyber truck thus far

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darknavi 2 points 3 years ago

Bad truck but good charge port.

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KillaBeez 1 point 3 years ago

Nice ad

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