Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. I'm Matt Miller and I'm Hannah Elliott and this is Hot Pursuit.
We have an incredible guest.
To honestly one of my favorite people in the industry to talk to. Yeah, he's a breath of fresh air.
Absolutely say the same thing. And what a career he's had as well. I mean he bought a Mustang when he was like sixteen, drove it across country. His grandfather worked at Ford. He went for to really build his chops at Lexus and then I'm not sure if it was Bill or Alan Molalley who brought him over, but now is the CEO of that company, So you know who we're talking about.
Jim Farley. Jim Farley, And I also have to say he's Chris Farley's cousin.
That is also true.
I just love that.
And he's a real racer. He has his own podcast which I've been listening to for about a year now. This is like the two point zero version of his podcast, and I learned so much about him there. But I knew he raced because I'd seen him testing out cars in Dearborn and he talks about it as well's.
I think he's a great driver, and he actually is a pretty humble guy, but he's a genius.
All right.
We've said too many good things about Jim. Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's get.
Into the interview without any further ado. Let's kick it off with GTD because you guys have been doing so much with that. I mean, obviously you're pumped, and I see they've started selling him in France. I love the suspension window in the back. Tell me about that car.
We just showed another version the production vehicle in France, and we went to the ring about a month ago just to see where we stand in terms of the vehicle's performance relative to the GT three RS. We're pretty much in the final throes of the engineering. We start production late this year early next year, depending on how the there's so many unique parts that you know, it's it's hard to predict exactly when you're ready to go
to mass production. We have the transaxle and the suspensions system is very new, as you said, and we've never put that into a production vehicle, no one has really, So there's still some final development to be done on the chassis and but the team's working through that and you know, we're heading to production here in a matter of months.
Are you taking cards yet?
We have applications pretty much the car sold out now based on the applications, we haven't told everyone exactly the final option pricing.
We have some special.
Versions that no one's seen before, and so you know that will ultimately kind of shake out with the orders, but we won't sell it until and and get the money, so to speak, until we're kind of in production.
Are you going to be racing it?
I mean, I know from listening to your podcast that you're a big fan of racing and you do a lot of racing yourself. Sure, I remember you testing out a Lola I think when I was with you in Detroita a few years back. Are you going to be racing this car yourself?
Last weekend at midd Ohio, we had our first Mustang Challenge with twenty seven cars, and I raced a Tilingua themed dark Horse are there and I think the dark Horse are and the GT four.
Kind of the right products for me. You know, if I.
Race the GTD or GT three depending on the class, whether it's in WEC or SRO or IMSA, I think it's pretty expensive and you really need to be doing practice and testing pretty much all year round. I don't have the luxury of that, and at sixty two, I just don't think it's a good fit for me to be racing all over the world with my job.
It just doesn't fit. The GT four.
Just to explain a little bit, we set up for the first time in Ford's history, at least, a kind of pyramid of racing from We put about ten thousand people through our experienced schools around the country, uh, and then they can graduate to a track car, a Raptor track, a dark Horse track car, and then we have the dark Horse r that we're racing now in our same
make series like Mazta Cup and Porsche Cup. And then we have the GT four beyond that, which is a you know, automatic gearbox or a sequential gearbox, and it's pretty different than the dork cars are the Doork course are is.
A manual shift vehicle.
And then we have the GT three slash GTD depending on the GTE PRO depending on the and all of that is within you know, the Mustang at the top of the pyramid. We also have Aussie supercars and we race Mustang Cobra R in a char and of course we have a NASCAR and lots of other series, but so we want to give people the opportunity to kind of move up in that try that triangle, that pyramid wherever they want. And the big thing is that we're selling the vehicles, so we're no longer racing as a
factory company. We're creating the dark Horse rs and the GT fours and GT three's for other teams like this.
As we speak. You know, the Proton team is in Lamar Racing.
Are you going to Lamar this weekend?
Jim Bill's Bill's covering it.
I'm going up to northern Michigan dirt biking with my daughter's, my two daughters, so and I promised him I do that, and so Bill and I try to cover marquee races like that. But this will be the first time that Mustang's at Lamar in the GT class, so it's pretty exciting. I think we qualify third, but qualifying doesn't matter much
in Lamar. I raced last year my GT forty at Lamar Classic, and a year before I finished second my GT forty, So I've raced the law several times in the vintage stuff, but I'm really focused on GT four and dark Horse are and and that's a little intimidating because we are customer. We build the race cars for other people, not forward and sell them. And you know, it's probably not a good idea to race a lot with my customers.
You don't want to beat them or but or like at midd Ohio we had a few little dense and dings.
Yeah, that's that's normal, that's expected.
But but Jim, you guys are doing are you doing a lot more of supplying cars to race teams because you're also in the Bronco you have the dr which I'm fast before.
Yeah, we never did anything before. We always raced ourselves. This is the first time we really I think I explained about a year ago. We changed our strategy and this is all new for us. And we started on the off road side. You know, there's no Porsche of off roads, so we really believe that forward with Raptor and Bronco, we can be a global brand for off road.
Performance and on the on road.
We want to use Mustang in that pyramid to kind of you know, make racing sustainable and a business tied to these derivatives like GTD at the top of Mustang and build out the Mustang brand on the off road side. That's really the biggest, the biggest impact on our business. Raptor is like ten percent of a global prime. I mean, it's a very profitable vehicle. We now have Tremor below it. We have Raptor on Bronco Ranger and F one fifty.
Now we also have Raptor R So we're starting to develop different derivatives of Raptor and that's just the beginning. And we also have the off road rodeo and a Raptor experience that you can buy when you buy your Raptor, you just you just go to the school and then we'll have a similar pyramid for off road. Probably the middle part won't be race and maybe more social activities and more club stuff like like bmwgs, you know, more experiences.
But both off road and on road, we were following the same formula.
Jim, you mentioned earlier. You mentioned manual and I'm just so curious how vital you think a manual transmission still is at Ford and specifically in Mustang, especially in light of you know, with the nine to eleven hybrid not having a manual option is what is Ford's philosophy on the manual transmission.
Our belief is that each car company has its own unique DNA, and ours is a V eight manual and a coup And part of the reasons why we did the makey is because we could stay in that category and offer a V eight and offer a manual. I don't think Porsche should have all the fun and I think, you know, they're kind of the establishment now and we could be the disruptor, and so we're trying to learn as.
Much as we can.
I've always admired Masta and Porsche, and I think that Ford can do the same thing and kind of what We globalized a Mustang a couple of years ago, and some of our biggest dealers are in Australian, in Sweden, not in the US. Interesting Mustang is now the best selling sports coup in the world.
We don't really talk about it.
Well we talk about it, Yeah, we talk about it.
And I think Matt needs like a Mustang raptor can we combine the two things.
Well, I have to say I was in a Lamborghini Hurrican Strato a couple weeks ago and it was so much fun and not just for off road, but for commuting in New York.
It'd be great to have a Mustang.
It was just a little bit lifted with off road tires and a stick.
Do you think it would sell?
I don't know.
I mean I would people like me would buy one. But do you think it wouldn't sell?
What would you call it?
Well, there's been at least an internet buzz for a Mustang Raptor for a long time, a raptor version of the Mustang.
I don't know what I would call it.
I would just call it the Mustang Raptor.
With a Bronco, you just called it the Raptor, right, So.
Yeah, yeah, so you know this.
Anyways, I'm not going to make any future announcements on products at the show.
But the triangles were overlap.
That's not a no.
That's not a no no, not noing, not a yes.
That's why I was asking about the name.
Well, yeah, I liked there. For a while.
There was a wart Hog name floating around, which I thought was such a cool idea for the Bronco. In the Bronco, you can get a manual, at least you could. A buddy mine bought one in Colorado with the two point three. Is there ever going to be the chance of a bigger motor with a manual transmissioner with a Bronco or is that just you didn't think the take rate was going to be high enough.
It's not so much the take rate.
I mean, we're not doing it on a Mustang for the take grade or the sales. It's more for that people really love it or really passionate about that experience, Like I am, like billis we like shifting our car? You know, I love to the GT three touring. I thought it was a really good move by Portie, and you know, we really like so we're really looking at it more as an image thing and as an experienced thing that the company gets it more than you know,
we could sell or not on a Bronco. We were really committed to an affordable Bronco and doing a two door. We didn't have to do a two door. We would sell all the Broncos we we had if we had a four door. But we did a two door, and we did a steel wheel Bronco and we did a manual. For that reason, the platform for Bronco is a ranger platform and it's very difficult for us to develop a
high power engine with the manual transmission. We have a long history and there's a lot of great supplies like Tremic on the manual on the manual side from us Stang, but there's not as many. There's really no suppliers, so we have to do it ourselves and that requires a lot of engineering right now. You know, for Bronco, we're building out our derivatives and we have more to come, which you'll see. And I think the priority is, you know, more like a commercial vehicle or a high end luxury Bronco,
which a lot of customers are asking for. That that's probably a higher priority for us from an image standpoint.
I will preface this next question by saying the Bronco was one of the first turbocharge V six.
As I drove where I was like, I like this.
It really works and the and the car feels light enough and it's it's peppy, and I don't think you need more. However, when I'm in a V eight, I love the sound, I love the warmth, I love the vibes, and you can do that with the Bronco by as evidenced by the dr platform, Is there ever any chance that a V eight could go in a Bronco.
It could, but I don't think that's going to be our priority. When we developed the Bronco in the mid six in the early sixties, it was proved in sixty two at the same meeting as a Mustang was approved, and it was the same Mustang. It was the same horse. One was a Bronco and one was a Mustang. But the designer designed the same horse doing two different things, and the whole concept of the Bronco. I have the approval paper Lei Cocoa proved it in my office right now,
just you know, twenty feet from here. And the Bronco was an off road Mustang. That was the concept of the vehicle. So it does make sense to you know, kind of mix and match a little bit, but you know, that's that's really not our priority right now in Bronco. We really want to. Yeah, I think things are changing a lot for the auto industry. The best selling vehicle in the US for forty years has been the F series.
We have an electric Mustang. We have an electric F one fifty hybrid is twenty five percent of all F one fifty sales. Now, the most popular combustion engine is a twin turbo VS six not a V eight.
You know, things are changing.
As fascinating the whole alone.
I mean, I would say that maybe because you don't offer the big V eight, like my Raptor has a six point two liter V eight and it never gets old or disappointing, but can get.
I guess, I guess, I guess what maybe you'll get in between the lines here I'll be explicit about it is We're just kind of an irreverent company in a way, and we want to we want to do things that surprise people. And I think a V eight Bronco wouldn't surprise a lot of people.
And I think.
You know, and I think a manual V eight will continue to surprise people in the Mustang even though it's kind of conventional. I mean, if we were doing a super high end raped or should we do it on Ranger or should we do it on F one fifty, there's an argument to be made there. We are the leader in the off road performance space and pickups where the number one producer pickups in the world, not just
in the US. Rangers now number two to Toyota. When I came to the company was fourteenthers, it's really like twenty percent. It's our second highest following vehicle in the company is Ranger. We build in five plants around the world, and it is Ford in Australia and South Africa and South America, and we're number one in pickups in Europe now and we're just launching the Ranger in China and one of the fastest segments in China is a pickup market. So you know, we we have to think about the
globe now because both Mustang and Raptor Global brands. We sell the Raptor not even the Raptor are the Raptor F one fifty in China for one hundred and sixty thousand dollars and we sell everyone we make.
I mean, that's so interesting. And I watched the great package that our colleague David Weston did with you recently, and you in that package you did say that you've never seen a competition before like what you're seeing in China. Now, can you talk a little bit more about what Ford needs to do. I think you even called it the ultimate test for Ford in for the next few decades. Can you just walk us through what exactly needs to happen at Ford to be competitive.
It's a great question. Thank you for asking it, because it is the most on the commercial side's the most important question to ask for Look the whole global industry's ninety million units. The installed capacity currently in China at an eight hour shift is fifty three million units, So fifty three percent of all the global production for automobiles can be satisfied with all the plants in China working at eight hour shifts.
Their local market is twenty nine million.
That means, yes, the capacity that they have to serve the rest of the world. I won't call it over capacity because it isn't They have enough capacity in China with just working eight hour shifts, not building one more plant, to satisfying the entire North American market, and and all of us not to.
Have to build one va.
So they are now twenty five percent of the Mexico market, the Chinese. They're more than seventy percent of the Russian market, which most people don't watch anymore, but it's a big market. They are almost twenty percent of the Thai market, which is really critical for Southeast Asia because you can export from Thailand to Australia. New Zealand with no tariffs. Now they're setting up their supply chain globally, including Mexico. There's like three hundred Chinese auto suppliers in Mexico.
Now. Mexico is such.
A large market for BYD and all the companies they are that export that it's big enough that they can start to justify their own plant just from Mexico. And of course with NAFTA, they can clearly import to the US. The Chinese evs or a small part of what they export, but they're a big part of what they export to Europe. There are already ten percent market share of all evs sold in Europe. They have brands like MG that are the top selling among the top selling evs in UK.
They obviously own Vovo brand and post Our brand globally, so they're you know, they're very successful outside of China. And their biggest advantage is a new supply chain that's emerging, you know, that will compete against the Churbil and the corret Zu and of course the North America slash Western supply chain is very fit. They're building ground up, very efficient manufacturing plans for their supply chain and they have very established rules in China about how forward can compete
with autonomous technology or data privacy. Our data can't leave China, and yet most of the countries in the world haven't really developed policies around data privacy and autonomy outside of China. For the Chinese, Huawei and Shaomi, their two big cell phone companies, have bet on automobiles, unlike Google and Apple. So when you drive the vehicles, they work great with your cell phone, especially if you own a Shaw or
a Huawei phone. So the technology inside the vehicle has facial recognition AI assistance.
In the vehicle, they have.
Incredible mirroring with your phone. You can you know, you can find in China small brands that are micro targeted, like Li Auto, one of the fastest growing brands. They focused on erevs, which is a new kind of ev which we can go into. Leato focuses on Chinese large families. They have gravity seeds, projector screens in the rear seat, and their focus is to use the car as a
stationary space. So they want to make the interior so digital and so attractive that there's really the most attractive way to use a Liauto car or stationary and so you know.
They're really competitive on costs.
They're getting really good on micro targeting, and for four to win, handed to your question, we have to be fully competitive on cost and we have to have vehicle concept that are very narrow, that are very specific to specific groups of people.
And I think, what is that the first part? It looks like our future.
When you say narrow car concepts, does that mean very specific variants of Mustang raptor all the things we've been talking about.
No, it really means vehicles that are that are more narrow than an Explorer. What I mean, not physically narrow or but aimed at a much more specific client. Like for example, today we make we're the number one three row crossover you know, unibody crossover in the US with Explore. But that's not narrow. That's a very broad audience. We sell them as police interceptors, and we sell them to suburban families and everywhere in between. And we have an st version and it's like a really broad product.
Get it.
What that means for us if we were to be micro target is, let's say we only go after suburban families with kids in high schooler below who want to use the car for the parents as a relaxation pod and for the for the kids as a content content machine's so yeah.
So instead of like watching.
A movie in your home or your home theater, you go in your car in the parking lot, and that's the best movie experience you have.
Right or I've I always lately have been trying to find vehicles that fit rear facing car seats because my wife insists on rear facing car set.
The struggle is real.
There you go.
Yeah, Now you didn't mention EVS in that, like when as a way to compete again, you did mention e revs.
And I'd like to hear more about that because I think that's fascinating. For example, I'd spend a week in the in the lightning. I have a lightning tie on right now.
By the way, can you see this.
Lightning time in your honor? It's not great that it was.
It was it was.
It was awesome as a family vehicle, it's great as a truck, it's great. It's luxurious, it's a utility, and everything about it for me was perfect and for a lot of people. That's a broad vehicle. But it's electric, so charging it. I mean, if you in the right situation, it's great. In the wrong situation, it's not. And I was thinking, man, if there was like a little range extender in the front, it would just change the game completely.
Is that what an e rev is?
Yes, exactly. So an EREV is only really offered in China today. It's very popular among larger vehicles in China. Obviously in China they don't drive as long distance as we all the three of us do, but they do go home for New Year's every year. So what an EREV is it's an all electric vehicle, so it only drives an electric mode, never is in the combustion engine, never drives the wheels, so it always feels like an EV.
Good acceleration, very quiet, and you basically you have a battery system that powers the vehicle for about one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty mile, so some e revs down to eighty and for ninety seven percent
of your trips. So three of us would take You're all electric using the batteries, and then it has a gas tank and an industrial motor that just charges the batteries and that is capable of propelling the vehicle in electric mode up to seven hundred miles and so when you take a long trip, your body will probably maybe hold out for three hundred miles before you have to stop. The combustion engine in China's used maybe once or twice a year, so they fill up once or twice a year.
They use it as an electric vehicle, and they don't have to worry about charging on the road when they take their long trip. And you know, that's a very interesting it's the fastest growing electric vehicle segment in China. It's growing faster than the pure electric vehicles like the Lightning or the Machi. And I think we're going to see a lot I mean, our hybrid business in the US is up fifty percent this year. At four our
EV business is up ninety. But you know that era, we're just going to see a lot more options in the middle where people's duty cycle, how they drive will be you know that the engineers will solve for those.
Does the rise of hybrids mean that pure electric vehicles are receding?
No, yeah, that's a thank you. No, I don't think so.
I think, first of all, we should be very encouraged by the rise of the hybrid because, and more than anything, the rise in the hybrid pricing power in the past, you know, for It's been offering hybrids for twenty five years, when we did that, because it has duplicate powertrain, you know, the customer never paid for both power trains.
Today they do, so we in.
Many of our hybrids, we make more money than the combustion alternative.
Interesting, that's the first.
Time that's ever happened in my twenty five career of hybrids. Twenty five years of selling hybrids, and no, I think what we're going to see is just a lot of people don't have to do complicated math on a hybrid versus a pure.
EV you don't know about.
You don't have to do the resale calculation, the insurance calculation. You could just say, hey, here's how much fuel I save, or in the lightning, how much propower the F one fifty, how much pro power on board is worth for you as a generator. But I think you'll see hybrids diversifying to high performance hybrids into sports cars like we're seeing
with nine to eleven. That's just the beginning. There'll be many more, and then you're going to see more kind of electric experiences that aren't three hundred and twenty five miles because the batteries are so big.
Yeah, Is that that's still the restrictive factor really with evs. Yeah, the size of the size and weight.
Yes, Yes, the larger vehicles require just enormous batteries that cost thirty to fifty thousand dollars.
Some are even more expensive.
And an EREV has half the battery size because it only has to go on.
Are you going to is the ram charger in e rev? And are you going to build a EVS at Blue Level City or.
I'm not going to go into that.
All I'd say is, you know, if you if you toe with an e REV, it doesn't work. As soon as you start towing. It's not a good solution because you need big batteries to toe.
So the key.
Thing is anyways, you know, I'm just explaining what's available in China, and it seems very interesting to us.
Are hybrids less politically charged in the US than EV's and do you see that changing after the election? Potentially?
I don't know. I mean, I haven't seen the latest data.
On Democrats and Republicans and how they look at hybrids versus pure EV versus ICE.
Don't I don't know the data so I can't answer the question.
But all I know is that our EV business is up now twenty percent through June eleventh.
I checked the numbers before I came on with you guys too.
Yesterday noted and appreciated.
Hybrid's up fifty one percent for US constrained by our production and our combustion business is up two percent year of the year.
Is the EV business driven in large part by ford Pro because that's I've heard that Ford Pro like just can't make enough.
It's true when people think about electric, they don't really think about commercial and the commercial electric journey for US, because we're like seventy percent market share with E transit and we're the leader in commercial in the US, has gone much faster than we thought. And the reason is because people have they have regular roots that they're commercial plumbers and electricians. That kind of tradesmen really drive the
US commercial market. And you know it doesn't work for super duty someone towing, but a transit van customers are really good fit for electric if they go back to the same place that they start every night and they have a repeatable route and what they can install depot charging and they don't need any charging on the road, and they don't also over buy batteries, so they buy smaller battery solutions in smaller range because they.
Know exactly their drive cycle.
And so we've seen a lot more customers like Eco Labs, some other customers go almost all electric now and they had no intention a couple of years ago. So it's interesting. No, you know, we sell ten to fifteen thousand on EV in the US. We've been number two for two years now to Tesla. People don't, I think realize.
That doesn't seem like a known fact, is that in the US.
Yeah, we've been number two to Tesla as a manufacturer for two years. Number three is usually Hyundai Kia combined. They're coming out with new vehicles like the EV nine, and so they're coming out with more choice. And yeah, we're up ninety percent year of the year. We had a kind of an interesting first quarter last year, so the comps are easy. But but you know, we'll we're projecting loose five billion dollars on EV's this year.
So the real issue is no, the opposite's case, it's not. I don't really get worried.
I get worried about our execution, but I don't get worried about the marketplace. The marketplace is the marketplace what I It motivates us because we report it separately. It's very motivational for the whole Forward team to turn that five billion dollar around. We're going to do it with the next generation of products EV's and improving the Gen one cost. We got out there in front of others,
witnessed by being number two for the last two years. Now, some of our competitors are starting to scale their EV business, maybe behind beyond Ford. We're already working and landing our second generation products, while most of our competitors are kind of landing their first gen products. And that's why Doug Fields came from Apple to us, and why Alan Clark from Tesla came to Ford. They've been working on those vehicles for a couple of years now.
And it does seem like you're saying it's very important for four to be competitive and even beat everyone else when it comes to price in the EV sector. And you've decided not to electrify the Lincoln the Lincoln line, right am? I remembering that?
Right?
That seems like part of the strategy.
We really, we really, We've learned a couple of things. By being number two for a long time, we've learned two things. The first is there are really two classes of vehicles that lend themselves to electrification in the US, work vehicles and small vehicles. Small vehicles travel less distance and they tend to have other vehicles in the household
that can take long trips. And we feel we really like our next cycle of products to be very focused on affordability, and we think that's also the right thing to do anyways, and that's why we set up a Skunkworks team in California to develop that product, that that platform. We didn't really think that the core for a team could really compete with by D in a way, and so that team has been working for two years on that affordable platform and then the work vehicles and the
work vehicles, we've learned a lot. We're also very very popular with the E transit in Europe. Unlike some of our competitors, we are still in Europe. We are very profitable in Europe with our commercial vehicles, and so you know, that's that's really important for us. So the electric journey is very motivational. We don't like losing any money, but we also are inspired by the fact that the customer surprised us.
So usually Hannah reports on the luxury stuff and I do all the finance stuff, and now she's like, she's going for the finance news scoops.
And I want to.
Talk about just cars, Like, yes, so Jim your famous you famously got a Mustang when you were a kid and drove out to California with it.
I want to talk.
About your your car guy inside you, not like a Chinese competition in the EV space, Like what what gets you pumped in your garage? Not like the new products you're making. Obviously you've got the dark Horse are is totally cool, and the must and the Bronco. I mean I desperately want one, But what about the older stuff or what do you what do you like to drive and collect?
You know, it's changed over the years. So I'm in my sixties now and I really you know, and I've I'm fortunate enough to flip maybe more than an cars, including race cars. So I've kind of owned pretty much everything I've ever wanted to, and I kind of settled down to maybe in the golden part of my har person life. You know, the cars I really love. I love my seventy three Bronco because I work on it all winter, so.
You like to wrench it basically, yeah, I do.
I'm on the floor with my buddy, Jim Camp, and you know, it's not uncommon for me to be in a boardroom and my nails to be filthy because I just can't clean them. And I have a ninety Selene Mustang, which I really like working on. We got a supercharger on that and all new suspension, but it's all bone stock and outside. I have a K Lincoln in nineteen thirty seven K Lincoln, a LeBaron coop, which I really like.
I'm starting to like the older cars more. I have a nineteen twenty eight Bentley that I do a road trip with my son. We drove all the way through Colorado last year on my vacation. He's seventy. He works at a dealership in London, and he's a car person. He's in high school and very much like me, and he loves making fun of me, and so we try to take.
As many road trips as we can.
We're going to take the Bentley from the Oregon border down to Monterey this year in July.
Nice that's an open top. I imagine it's like a bar.
It's a it's a Lama.
It's not a bower, but it's a Lama four and a half liter, totally exposed. And he's got to work the fuel pressure pump and the fans, and I'm working the you know, the distributor advance and the fuel mixture and and then we always have, you know, things that happen. We're going to go with five or six other Bentley people, so that that's what I like to do.
I like cars that I drive.
I have a GT forty and a Cobra that I race, but I more than anything, I'm starting to like racing the modern stuff more. I really love cars that I get my hands dirty, that require that that when you drive them, it's a full experience, shifting, breaking, I like that whole emerging, just being immersed in a vehicle that you really don't have a lot of and you could just enjoy even going slow.
Yes, that too.
What's the main mechanical issue with it? Bentley? I'm so curious, like, what are you constantly against?
What a awesome question.
Okay, so the Bentley was engineered with no gaskets, so it is like weeping oil all the time, like all the time, oil coming out of every possible place, and so it's a constant kind of tightening, you know, silicon journey of trying to eradicate the oil. The good thing is you got to replace the oil, so there's always clean oil in it because it loses something naturally.
Okay, the other thing, I'm really sorry, go ahead, is there a list of I must be a list.
Oh oh no, there's so many things on the Bentley That Bentley has an accelerator in the middle of the three pedals.
Wow, that seems counterintuitive.
Sorry. Sorry.
The break is in the middle, and so it's not a mechanical issue. It's just like every time I drive to Bentley, I got to remember the brakes.
Uh, you know, not not in the middle.
The break is on the far right where the accelerators and the accelerators, the accelerators in the middle, the clutches on the left. And so that's the biggest challenge that anyone has in driving an old Bentley, you know. And we got so much to talk about still like Formula one, but I want to get to the essence. I you know, look, I'm fortunate enough to be a CEO I'm like you guys, we're all part of the same car loving people, but I don't let that kind of contaminate my thinking as the CEO.
That's harder.
Yeah, that's harder than you think. Actually, I don't want to be that person who makes more decisions because I love cars. I actually put more pressure on a racing team to make good decisions on racing because I race, because I know how expensive it is, and I know how much you can waste racing. And I think on the same thing. You know, if we're going to do a Mustang GT three RS competitor, I'm not going to just be happy that it's good. It has to be better or else we shouldn't even try, right.
I also think it's fascinating. I mean, your job as CEO is something that we'll talk to you about on Bloomberg TV, but I really want to hear more about. Like I remember when you first told me about the Predator, you know, the flat plane crank, and you are so pumped about the sound the scream. And I've recently got to drive a Trinity, which was also like awesome. So I was thinking to ask, what's your favorite Mustang power train?
You know, not including the current one because I know all CEOs will be like the one we make now please go buy it.
But the COYOTEA.
This is going to sound totally unconventional, but when that five Leader came out in the Fox body, it really was something. And I still love driving my five Leader GT. You know, my Selene, it's not it's not super high technology anymore. But in the mid eighties when we came out with the five Leader, it was really something special. I have to say that five Lider was enjoyed by millions of people around the globe. We put it in
so many different cars. People are still racing them and NHRA or you know, twenty five hours of Lemons.
You know, it's just a great powertrain.
And I guess maybe I'll surprise you a little bit, Matt with my answers. I just love that powertrain because it was a V eight that everyone could enjoy at affordable price, that had a manual, and I thought that was really cool.
No, it was awesome.
When when I was in high school and I was like a freshman, the kid who was the senior who was like the prom king he.
Had you know, it wasn't you. I'm actually shocked.
This guy, Brad, he had one and we were up to now I don't know, but at that time he was the coolest in all of Grandville, Ohio.
Like, wow, yeah, wow, that's actually very cool. Yeah, Jim, I have to I can't let you go without asking you. You mentioned briefly Formula one, and it is really exciting that Ford's getting so exact. Yet I'm curious to know why that was so important for Ford And does this mean it's the start of something really big, you know, bigger than I know. Obviously you're partnering to develop engines until twenty thirty, but could we ultimately see a Ford racing team in F one?
And now this is a good example of being a racer knowing what Formula is and Formula one is in and knowing the background of the company. You know, we have no aspiration own a team. We have no aspiration to build a Ford Formula one car. Why not, because because we believe the value in Formula one is the tech transfer, and the tech transfer that really matters is software, telemetry,
arrow and battery tech. In twenty six Formula one will go to approximately fifty percent of electric and they're also going to a low carbon fuel, so they have a great need for high discharge batteries, which we actually have a lot of experience within nhr A electric racing, and we really are interested in low carbon fuel. Look at what Porsche is doing their first fuel for their high end nine to elevens, they go to a green fuel.
I'm very interested in whether we should do a synthetic green fuel for Mustang in the first fuel at the plant, and I want to learn and I want to learn more. We want to learn more about that low carbon synthetic fuel. We will at Formula one because all of our combustion engineers are having to design an engine for it, and we're working closely with Exxon to learn more about the
fuel's characteristic On the ero side. It turns out these very expensive batteries totally change the math on weight and arrow, and so for these smaller vehicles we have to have a radical approach to arrow, and the best erodynamicist in the world are in Formula one, and so we need to learn from them. Our arrow is great, but we do not have the advanced understanding of arrow that Formula one has, and the telemetry and the software for our
commercial customers is getting more more important. Imagine if you're a plumber electrician and I can go to you as a forward customer, a customer to a customer and say, you will never be off the road, will predict failure of all components on your van, and we're going to use AI and sensors in the vehicle and they will never You will never be off the road. You just have to pay attention when there's a warning, you have
to do something. And Formula one is already developing those AI models and all the telemetry to do predictive failure of all components. They are way ahead of the rest of the world on predictive failure. So for our pro business, you know, Formula one is really attractive on the software side, and that's the only reason why I went on to Formula one. They need us on hydus charged batteries, We
need them on software. And hydro charged batteries are fun to work on because maybe we'll have a partially electric really a high performance vehicle and if we have the best dis charged battery, maybe the Ford works better than Porsche or anyone else.
And the software is super important for pro.
But we have no interest in owning a team We've done that in the past that really didn't work out. We're not good at running Formula one teas we tried, you know, we wound up, you know, kind of leaving a sport with our tail between our legs. We don't want to do that again. It's a totally practical relationship.
But that's it.
I mean, that's so amazing when you think about it. Jim Farley, Jim Farley says that they're going to Formula one to benefit the Ford Pro Unit.
I mean, think about so that it makes to hear you actually articulate it, just like that makes total sense, and it's so refreshing just to hear you say. Honestly, it's not for we don't this is this is our practicality. This is the use and that's it, and we don't need anything more for our ego or anything that's rare.
We're going into the weekend happy, Jim, thank you, thank you so much for joining us.
So I'm going to the plan. I'm going for a full inspection on one of our plants here in Michigan.
I love you guys. Both of you are amazing.
Thanks funny.
So I'm so thankful that there are car people like you who are in the mass media kind of educating customers about this transition. It's going to be scary for a lot of customers, and you're there for them. And I've known both of you for a while and I'm just so thankful to spend time with both of you.
Me too, Jim, thank you so much.
That was Jim Farling. He was just as good as we expected.
Yeah, I have to say, David Weston did this great package with Jim that I just watched, and it's all about Detroit. But in the package, Jim made this comment that he's like, we're well into the messy middle of the most transformational time at Ford since the Model T. And after talking with him, I actually can see that. I mean you can see where he's like, this is where we are, this is where we are headed. It's great.
I forgot.
Now I'm kicking myself because I forgot to ask him about something Weston told me this morning. He said, you know, there's only one sports car that's made in America, and he's talking about the Corvette because David Weston has a C one Corvette.
Yeah.
He always says this to me.
Yeah, because he thinks still of Mustang and Camaro, you know as muscle cars.
But Mustang is definitely a sports car.
Yeah great, No one in their right mind would argue that a Mustang isn't this. Of course it's a sports car.
Of course, even though it has four seats and the same as obviously true of Camaro. That not your your very good point. I'm gonna tell Weston that next time. I was gonna ask Jim, but I didn't want to. No shame exactly.
So very good stuff from Jim Farley.
We didn't expect any less. And what else have you got going on right now? What's what's happening in Hannah Elliott's world?
Well, it's great to be in the studio with you, Matt. That is my most favorite thing. I'm back in New York. It's the Mothership. It makes me so happy to be here and see all of these faces that I know and love and be in this amazing space. I'm going to take a week off. I'm going to be in the city. I'm going to be around. If you see me, come say hello. I'm excited to be here.
Shoot Hannah an email.
That way, shoot us an email. Both of us pursue a hot.
Pursuit at Bloomberg dot net.
That's it and now I know it by heart at Hot Pursuit at Bloomberg dot net.
And are you driving anything fun? Have you been driving anything?
No? I am. Actually I did drive a couple Mercedes last week that I'll talk about later. I think they're under embargo. I'm gonna go drive that hybrid nine to eleven next.
Week in Sevilla.
Yeah.
Nice, so we'll.
Talk about that, but no, this week it's pure foot foot traffic.
Nice.
So the nine to eleven We've talked about it, but I'm excited to get your take. Also, Sevilla an amazing city.
Kind of your homeland. I adore it Germany.
And I would recommend going to Cordoba and also to Granada.
I mean, what an amazing part of Spain.
I have been driving. So I drove last week the Kia Sorrento.
I remember that awesome vehicle.
I really liked it.
I'm just always blown away because when that brand came out, I was like, ugh, like you go, you know, and now they continue to hit homeruns. I love the EV nine, as I talk about all the time, but the Sorrento was actually fun to drive and it's like a mid size suv.
I love that for you. Also, are you getting a Mustang soon?
I am speaking of it.
I am gonna get a Mustang at the end of the week, I think next week. Right now, I'm driving a BMW Z four. I just started driving it, so I will tell you more about it next week. I gotta say it feels like heavy in the wrong places. Also, the breaks are not confidence inspiring. And for someone over six feet tall as I am, it's a tight fit. But I'm just happy that it has a stick shift comes down and I think it's gorgeous also, but we'll see.
I gotta spend some more time driving it's I think they call it frozen forest green or something like that. I love green, but it's a matte color and I feel like car makers are all coming out. Ford is doing this too, like ten years too late with the matt colors, right, I would rather just be the glossy like metallic paint. But it's a beautiful car. I'll put it out on Instagram. I'll put it out on YouTube as well.
I can't wait to see it. All.
Right, Well, that's all we got for you this week. We'll be back, same time, same place next week. Remember to shoot us an email at hot Pursuit at bloomberg dot net.
I'm Matt Miller, and
I'm Hannah Elliott, and this is Bloomberg