Ford Motor Company Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley shared on 11 November 2025 that a detailed teardown of a Tesla Model 3 and several electric vehicles from key Chinese automakers revealed significant architectural, cost, and efficiency advantages that forced the leadership of Ford to accelerate internal restructuring efforts and strategic reforms.
The executive explained during an appearance on the podcast Office Hours Business Edition that engineers discovered roughly 1.6 kilometers of additional wiring inside the Ford Mustang Mach-E compared with the Tesla Model 3. This difference increases vehicle weight, reduces efficiency, and raises battery system costs in measurable and concerning ways.
Farley further said that his teardown analysis of Chinese models, including units produced by leading firms such as BYD and Xiaomi, exposed engineering approaches that prioritized simplified layouts, reduced component counts, and optimized packaging, which resulted in lower production costs and faster assembly times that challenged their assumptions.
He confirmed that Ford Motor Company created the Model E Business Unit in March 2022 to centralize electric vehicle development after internal reviews revealed that legacy organizational structures slowed decision-making and weakened cost discipline. Model E recorded losses exceeding 5 billion U.S. dollars in 2024 and may record similar totals in 2025.
The executive warned that fast growth among Chinese manufacturers poses an existential threat to established U.S. automakers because the Chinese domestic market reached nearly 50 percent EV penetration, compared with about 10 percent in the U.S., enabling Chinese firms to scale technology and manufacturing capabilities more rapidly than competitors.
Farley noted that American consumers shifted demand toward lower-priced electric vehicles rather than premium units above 70,000 U.S. dollars, which changed the financial outlook for Ford Motor Company. He added that future planning assumes electric vehicles may account for only 5 percent of near-term market demand across the United States and the entire auto market.
In response to these conditions, Ford announced development of a 30K-dollar midsize electric truck scheduled for release in 2027, which aims to reduce material complexity, streamline manufacturing, and improve affordability. Rapid action is essential because rivals have superior cost structures during the teardown evaluations conducted by Ford engineers.