Ford's CEO admits to a 'reality check'
during F-150 Lightning Route 66 road trip
Fox News,
by
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten
Original Article
Posted By: Hazymac,
8/18/2023 9:07:18 AM
Ford CEO Jim Farley experienced a common complaint from electric vehicle owners during his cross-country road trip in the automobile maker's electric pickup truck, calling it a "reality check."
"Charging has been pretty challenging," Farley said on X, the social-media website formerly known as Twitter. "It was a really good reality check of the challenges of what our customers go through and the importance of fast charging and what we're going to have to do to improve the charging experience." (X) His comment came during his roundtrip across Route 66 in Ford's latest electrical vehicle venture, the F-150 Lighting. The CEO documented his experience on both X and LinkedIn.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Bur Oak 8/18/2023 9:37:43 AM (No. 1536992)
Before Ford committed to the design and production of the electric truck, Jim Farley could have tried a cross country trip in a Tesla. He could have been enlightened without wasting millions of not billions of shareholder stock value.
44 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Vitaman 8/18/2023 9:37:52 AM (No. 1536993)
OP, the answer is a resounding no. We now live in an era when good business practices don't matter if you just pander to the correct group with platitudes about "the environment," racism, sexism, "progressivism," etc.
Clown World.
39 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Mcscow sailor 8/18/2023 9:46:41 AM (No. 1537000)
The reality check is ford’s bottom line
24 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
felixcat 8/18/2023 9:46:53 AM (No. 1537001)
How long does it take to fill up, er, charge up, with a fast charger?
So now Ford, et al will be demanding that the US government start building fast charging stations. You know - infrastructure.
21 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Dipi 8/18/2023 10:01:07 AM (No. 1537012)
As I have stated in the past, and will continue to do so now, and in the future. Until such time as the automakers come up with a different source of energy, electric vehicles is not the way to go. The automakers need to get off their duff on their research in order to come up with a better system that electric.
18 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 8/18/2023 10:03:12 AM (No. 1537014)
FTA:he visited a popular charging depot on Interstate 5 in Coalinga, California, where there were forty readily available Tesla Superchargers.
Nothing against Coalinga but it's in the middle of nowhere and best know for frequent (but small) earthquakes. I'm not surprised the charging stations were sitting there unused.
15 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Flyball Dogs 8/18/2023 10:13:22 AM (No. 1537024)
I quit reading at “charging experience.”
I don’t currently have a “fill-up experience.” I’ll betcha I’m not going to have a “charging experience.”
I’ll bet this clown has a valet, too.
32 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
formerNYer 8/18/2023 10:26:05 AM (No. 1537037)
Ford's CEO admits electric trucks suck during F-150 Lightning Route 66 road trip.
There fixed it.
31 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
zephyrgirl 8/18/2023 10:39:19 AM (No. 1537053)
The message this idiot got was "we need more charging stations." The truth is that EVs are wildly impractical except for short drives to in cities.
28 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
jalo1951 8/18/2023 10:49:45 AM (No. 1537059)
I believe a talented movie script writer could turn these experiences into a Clark Griswold type of comedy. I see the potential for a lot of humor. Unfortunately, in reality, it isn't funny because these fools think this is an answer to a problem we really didn't have.
27 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
WinterParker 8/18/2023 10:58:32 AM (No. 1537067)
65 yr old grandma & under achiever in math and science here. I know more than this Ford CEO???
29 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 8/18/2023 11:06:32 AM (No. 1537069)
Your next "reality check," Mr. CEO, will come when that grossly overpriced truck's $20k battery spontaneously catches fire in your garage, and burns down your house. Buy back all your Ford Time-Bombs er Lightnings from the poor suckas who bought them OR offer a free V8 Conversion to buyers.
18 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Dodge Boy 8/18/2023 11:09:03 AM (No. 1537070)
Ok Farley. So how about abandon ship and go back to gas-powered cars and truck. Your emodels have proven to be a total joke.
21 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
virbots 8/18/2023 11:16:38 AM (No. 1537074)
As road trips go, Palo Alto to Las Vegas is what, 9 hours? Just one fill-up in a gas-powered car if you start with a full tank.
But if he was only getting a 40% charge, he would probably need to stop to re-charge 3 times.
Imagine trying to cross the country in that.
Even after partnering with Tesla, a supercharger takes half an hour and only gets you to 80%. So he'd probably still need to stop twice, I'm guessing, for that same road trip.
Still, Tesla superchargers are pretty impressive. And some Teslas can go further on a full charge than my car can on a full tank.
8 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
DVC 8/18/2023 11:29:49 AM (No. 1537082)
Gee, I'm just thrilled.....a "40% charge in 40 minutes." Let's see this is like putting about 2 gallons into your tank with a teaspoon.
And he was really thrilled about a 350 kilowatt fast charging station? Holy COW, that is over 1/3 of a megawatt for charging ONE vehicle! That's crazy.
A good sized nuclear power plant puts out 500 megawatts, so a nuclear power plant could simultaneously charge 1428 of these trucks with those "nice" 350 kW chargers. So, for the 290 million cars in the US, if only 10% were charging, we'd only need to have 2,100 new nuclear power plants put in place......JUST for charging 10% of the EVs, if we fully switch. Fitting Rhode Island's required 42 nuclear power plants is going to be a challenge, too, since a nuke plant typically takes more than a square mile, and they only have about 1200 of them. Every 28 square miles of RI would have a new $20 billion nuke plant. So, if evenly spaced, they'd be spaced about every five miles in a grid pattern. Would everyone like a nice nuke plant just down the road - just for EV charging? And at $20 billion or so per nuke plant, the power to fast charge 10% of the cars in the USA would cost an added $8.4 trillion cost. Multiply times 10 if every one wants to charge at once.
So, what about windmills? If you had one of those giant bird killing 300 foot diameter windmills, on a windy day, running at full rated power you could charge 3 Ford trucks with one windmill. So, for 10% of the 290 million cars in the USA to be charging like this WITH no other electrical power demand besides the EV charging, you'd only need 100,000 of those giant bird strainers running a full power. But, since they ACTUALLY average putting out about 1/3 of their "rated" power, you'd really need to have 300,000 new windmills to charge 10% of cars at these nice 350kW chargers. Again, if everyone wants to charge at once....all the numbers are 10X.
300,000 new windmills, that's "only" 6,000 new per state. And this would dedicated to charge up these overgrown golf carts, NOTHING else. Kansas isn't a particularly small state, but it would need to have one of those giant windmills spaced on a 3 mile grid pattern over the entire state. And Rhode Island, with an area of 1200 square miles would need to have only 5 on every square mile....which is likely physically impossible given blade clearance requirements, no matter how impractical. New Hampshire and Vermont are kind in a bind, too.
Cost? Online sources say "$2 million to $4 million each" for giant windmills. So, 300,000 new windmills, at $3 million each would be only $900 billion in ADDED windmills. Install 100 per day, and you'd have it done in 8 years, working 7 days a week, no vacations. But if the wind doesn't blow - you don't drive.
This is mass insanity. Absolutely unworkable.
31 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Quigley 8/18/2023 11:36:07 AM (No. 1537089)
Can’t the DoJ just arrest everyone who fails to buy an EV?
The charge: conspiracy to destroy the planet.
15 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
planetgeo 8/18/2023 11:55:32 AM (No. 1537108)
Truly mind-boggling stupidity ("Occam's Chainsaw"). You could build out 300,000,000 charging stations and it wouldn't do any good if our electrical grid couldn't generate enough power to serve those stations using the fake energy wind and solar sources. Which they never will. Total scam.
9 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Strike3 8/18/2023 11:59:03 AM (No. 1537110)
He is assuming that Ford can stay in business long enough to be able to make aforementioned improvements and even then he can't force people to buy them. As long as the corrupt federal government keeps pouring our tax money into Ford and GM they can stay afloat. Ford piled dumb onto dumber by transforming the most popular pickup truck in the country into an electric toy. How do you spell F-A-I-L-U-R-E?
8 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
thomthomp 8/18/2023 12:57:25 PM (No. 1537144)
Palo Alto to Las Vegas wearing short sleeves, NOT Denver to Salt Lake City in the winter...pulling a trailer.
8 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
cor-vet 8/18/2023 2:18:41 PM (No. 1537195)
I believe I'm going to hold on to my pristine 2003 Ford Lighting, with its real engine, until they pry me off the seat!
4 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
JimJr 8/18/2023 9:14:12 PM (No. 1537479)
He needs to drive Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica then tell us what he thinks.
0 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
MickTurn 8/19/2023 8:45:44 AM (No. 1537764)
The FORD EV Truck is a Rolling POS, it belongs in a Junk Yard, not a dealership or garage!
0 people like this.
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