Speaker 1: M This is Mesters in Business with Very Results on
Speaker 1: Bluebird Radio. This week on the podcasts, I say it
Speaker 1: every week, but it's true. I have an extra special guest.
Speaker 1: His name is Darren Palmer. He is the head of
Speaker 1: Electric Vehicle Development at Ford, where he helped to introduce
Speaker 1: such vehicles as the Mustang Maki, the F one fifty Lightning,
Speaker 1: the transit van. They are working on everything from an
Speaker 1: electric explorer. If you would like to get your hands
Speaker 1: on an electrified Bronco, well you better listen to this
Speaker 1: because this is absolutely a fascinating conversation, not just about cars,
Speaker 1: but about technology and software and consumer relations and design
Speaker 1: and really I don't think there's an area we didn't
Speaker 1: touch on. I found it utterly, utterly intriguing, and I
Speaker 1: think you will also, so, with no further ado, this
Speaker 1: is Ford's director of Electric Vehicle Development, Darren Palmer. This
Speaker 1: is Mesters in Business with very Renaults on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: My extra special guest this week is Darren Palmer. He
Speaker 1: is the General manager of Battery electric Vehicles at Board.
Speaker 1: He is overseeing Ford's thirty billion dollars shift to electrification.
Speaker 1: He helped launch the Mustang mach e, the Transit and
Speaker 1: the F one fifty Lightning. He holds an MBA from
Speaker 1: Henley Management College in the UK, as well as an
Speaker 1: electrical Electronics and Technology degree from Birmingham University. Darren Palmer,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Bloomberg. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1: So let's start with your background. You you get an
Speaker 1: engineering degree in the ninety nineties. Was the plan always
Speaker 1: to go into automobile manufacturing or or or were you
Speaker 1: focused on a different sector? But it sounds so long
Speaker 1: ago now when you say the nineties. Um yeah, So
Speaker 1: my fan was always to go into engineering. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people in engineering know that they're destined
Speaker 1: for that. I really like metatronics at the time. Um so,
Speaker 1: the fusion of electronics and electrical with creating movement as well.
Speaker 1: So I knew I wanted him to go into something
Speaker 1: of complex engineering. And I think somebody once said to me, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, planes take too long, trains don't have as
Speaker 1: much interest. But cars are constantly changing over and they're
Speaker 1: a huge purchase in people's lives. So that's what made
Speaker 1: me look towards cars. And I looked at a number
Speaker 1: of car companies, but I think I always knew I
Speaker 1: wanted to go into water, and I've got a few
Speaker 1: offers that Ford was a t The company had a
Speaker 1: great reputation and furthermore, makes cars for everybody, and I
Speaker 1: was interested in making cars for everybody, not just a
Speaker 1: privileged for you really interesting and you have a reputation
Speaker 1: as a petrol head, you're a Mustang guy. What led
Speaker 1: you to gravitate towards e VS over these years? Well,
Speaker 1: I've I've I've been very lucky in this career, twenty
Speaker 1: nine years in the forward, and every time the last
Speaker 1: challenge finished, they offered me another challenge. So I ended
Speaker 1: up working all over the world on every type of cars, vans, commercials,
Speaker 1: every class, B, C, C, D class cars are increasingly larger,
Speaker 1: and then luxury and every all around the world India, China,
Speaker 1: South America, US, Australia, so and at one point I
Speaker 1: had plants on four continents, five continents, and development center
Speaker 1: on four continents. So all of those different parts of
Speaker 1: experience led me to I was starting to work on
Speaker 1: hybrids and the company said, we want to do something, friend,
Speaker 1: we need to have a completely new approach to electric cars.
Speaker 1: Because we were trying and we were getting nowhere. They
Speaker 1: decided they to do something called Team Edison, and they
Speaker 1: asked with my background of international and really open mindedness
Speaker 1: was the key there. We formed a team called Team
Speaker 1: Edison to determine the future of electric cars for Forward.
Speaker 1: So that that was about four four years ago, and
Speaker 1: that was four and a half and that was my
Speaker 1: moving to electric cars. Tell us about Team Edison obviously
Speaker 1: a little bit of a reference to to a famous
Speaker 1: American entrepreneur, what what is Team Edison at Forward? So
Speaker 1: what was happening was we were trying to develop electric cars,
Speaker 1: but they were being measured by the same measures as
Speaker 1: gas cars, so they wouldn't meet the hurdles, the investment hurdles,
Speaker 1: the profit hurdles, the volume predictions. So we were getting
Speaker 1: nowhere and we in fact we were going to make
Speaker 1: a Ford Focus their version two, and we knew that
Speaker 1: it was becoming increasingly I'm aware that that really isn't
Speaker 1: what the market wanted. So we had to change something,
Speaker 1: and we knew it was a cultural change. So we
Speaker 1: decided we either buy an electric car company, but then
Speaker 1: you have to transfer tens of thousands of people in
Speaker 1: one day, or we try something different. We try we
Speaker 1: create a startup within Ford Motor Company and then that's
Speaker 1: what we decided to do. So a gent called Ted Cannis,
Speaker 1: really one of our top business leaders, was put in
Speaker 1: as the head of that group and he set about
Speaker 1: to create recruiting people internal and external to head up
Speaker 1: Team Medicine. I was the first one in and when
Speaker 1: he told me the proposal, um, he convinced me to
Speaker 1: come in and that's where the journey started. And we
Speaker 1: had some external people, but not huge amount because it's
Speaker 1: all about the first you've got to work out what
Speaker 1: to do, and then you've got to make it happen
Speaker 1: in a hundred year old company, and I can tell
Speaker 1: you making it happen was harder than determining what to do.
Speaker 1: So we so we formed, and we moved ourselves outside
Speaker 1: of the main buildings and we formed a different culture,
Speaker 1: really building it up from the ground. We had about
Speaker 1: people handpicked each one and we were inspired by startups
Speaker 1: in California, so we spent time there early on to
Speaker 1: determine how they work, which is very different, and we
Speaker 1: set up a culture extremely similar to that. We also
Speaker 1: went to China to Norway where electric cars were prevalent
Speaker 1: to see what others are doing, and then we we
Speaker 1: set about determining where to go. At the time, it
Speaker 1: was an eleven billion dollar investment in electric cars. It's
Speaker 1: now today announced a few days ago to fifty billion.
Speaker 1: I have thirty billion down in my notes, but fifties
Speaker 1: a lot of money. The team Edison. The first project
Speaker 1: was that the Mustang or was it leader was the
Speaker 1: medicine after the Mustang Marquis. So the first thing to
Speaker 1: do was to determine where to play and how to win.
Speaker 1: And that meant we had to first understand I mean
Speaker 1: for the whole portfolio without the time was eleven billion dollars,
Speaker 1: so three or four cars coming through, and the battery
Speaker 1: infrastructure and the charging infrastructure and all those things we
Speaker 1: had to do. So it was actually to work out
Speaker 1: where to play and how to win, and we quickly
Speaker 1: worked out. We went to California and I was talking
Speaker 1: to customers in California and quizzing them about their cars,
Speaker 1: and we determined quite quickly that they had transitioned to
Speaker 1: BEV and they would never come back. They were also
Speaker 1: delighted with their products and it felt like they'd moved
Speaker 1: from a flip phone to a smartphone like an I
Speaker 1: phone or similar and at any price, they would never
Speaker 1: move back, which was very similar to the phone analogy,
Speaker 1: and I asked one of them. I offered them, Hey,
Speaker 1: you know, we need your car for testing, so I'll
Speaker 1: give you. I'll give you a free BMW M three
Speaker 1: and two thirds of your money back. And he said,
Speaker 1: I'm not interested. How can that be? Said, well, I'm
Speaker 1: a I'm authorized to offer you of your money back
Speaker 1: and free BMWM three. He said I'm not interested, and
Speaker 1: I said how can that be? And he said, well,
Speaker 1: because I've discovered the future. UM, I can afford it
Speaker 1: and I deserve it. And we realized at that point
Speaker 1: these people they're never going to buy the traditional vehicles
Speaker 1: that we had. They're buying a technology product. And we
Speaker 1: brought that realization back and said we need to completely
Speaker 1: change our plan. And that led us to leading with
Speaker 1: our icons. So we made a plan of which vehicles
Speaker 1: to attack in which order, and we made the strategic
Speaker 1: choice that every vehicle from forward will do things that
Speaker 1: gas never did, enabled by the technology. So none of
Speaker 1: them will be a car just with an electric motor
Speaker 1: in it. That's not what crustomers want. So that's what
Speaker 1: we did. In the first thing we did into medicine,
Speaker 1: which was the eleven billion dollars, and made the first
Speaker 1: three cars, the Mustard macke which you may have seen
Speaker 1: one recommended, the only electric car recommended in America, and
Speaker 1: now the last last week, and then the Transit is
Speaker 1: now just launching. We're nearly sold out already and it
Speaker 1: is likely to be a leader in its field. It's
Speaker 1: already nearly global in its field now with a gas vehicle.
Speaker 1: And then their fifty Lightning, which is of course the
Speaker 1: big one for us, where we've got over two orders.
Speaker 1: Now we had to switch the system off. So let's
Speaker 1: talk about those three big cars that you ever saw
Speaker 1: the launch on, starting with the Mustang mac Markie, which
Speaker 1: won a number of awards. I had a loaner of
Speaker 1: those cars last year and thought it was a really
Speaker 1: interesting and very well made ev tell us about the
Speaker 1: challenges you ran into when you were first thinking about
Speaker 1: putting that car out. Uh, it really was a substantial
Speaker 1: break from what Ford had done in the past. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So we had originally planned a focus their part two,
Speaker 1: but we quickly realized due to human centric work, we
Speaker 1: were doing and human centric work puts you out with
Speaker 1: customers very early and you just talk with them about
Speaker 1: how they feel about things that you know, you're not
Speaker 1: asking them exactly what they want, You're just talking about
Speaker 1: to them about their lives and what they see. We
Speaker 1: discovered pretty quickly what they were looking for in this
Speaker 1: next generation was a technology product first. And you know,
Speaker 1: there's one company out there which is really doing that,
Speaker 1: which is Tesla. They've been a leader in that space.
Speaker 1: And we noticed how customers of those vehicles were. They
Speaker 1: really liked the experience they got, and we said, we
Speaker 1: in that vehicle we're going to make, it needs to
Speaker 1: be a technology first vehicle, but we want to bring
Speaker 1: what is our spin on there? What is Ford? What
Speaker 1: does Ford bring to the table? Tesla have their attributes,
Speaker 1: but Ford need to have their own. And we said
Speaker 1: to ourselves, um, what brands do we have that could
Speaker 1: be worthy of what we're going to make and that
Speaker 1: could be synergistic. So the one that came to mind
Speaker 1: pretty quickly was Mustang. And the first time we said that,
Speaker 1: it sounded um crazy, you know, and some people were
Speaker 1: very shocked by that. So we asked ourselves, what if
Speaker 1: it was a stone, and then we we started with
Speaker 1: the exterior design actually, and we went downstairs to the
Speaker 1: design team who were working on a focus both Part two,
Speaker 1: and I could tell you they weren't the most fired up.
Speaker 1: And then we said what if? And again they know
Speaker 1: they started to come to the table, and we said,
Speaker 1: what if we mixed it's going to be an suv
Speaker 1: because that's the segment growth, the greatest segment growth and
Speaker 1: where customers are going, especially millennial, So we wanted it
Speaker 1: to be there. We knew that, so it's we're there. Therefore,
Speaker 1: we're talking about an suv, musting what might it look like?
Speaker 1: And in that first day they started sketching and we
Speaker 1: put together some of the must plank cues with that suv,
Speaker 1: and then we started to like what we saw, and
Speaker 1: then we that they the designers got lost in it
Speaker 1: and then said okay, leave us. We left them, and
Speaker 1: then the said we're going to make a clay of
Speaker 1: that vehicle. And so we went away for the weekend
Speaker 1: and we came back early six five six am on
Speaker 1: Monday morning and said, don't look at it. Well, we
Speaker 1: walked away and they were putting dia Knock onto it,
Speaker 1: which is the kind of silver foil that simulates a vehicle.
Speaker 1: And when we all turned around and we saw that
Speaker 1: first execution, we said, oh my, oh, my word, that
Speaker 1: that couldn't work. That could work. That was from the
Speaker 1: first weekend, and we said, my word, that could work.
Speaker 1: And by the way, the designers had gone from not
Speaker 1: the most excited, too off the wall, excited, didn't have
Speaker 1: time to talk to us, just busy creating. They immediately
Speaker 1: took the DIA knock off again and started carrying on
Speaker 1: with the clay and they're off. So we went to
Speaker 1: the next department and we went interior and and we said,
Speaker 1: what have we got? They showed us and we said,
Speaker 1: you know, that doesn't really look that's not a Mustang.
Speaker 1: That's not worthy of that. And we said, how would
Speaker 1: you change it? There was a Mustang, and same thing happened.
Speaker 1: They started to get excited by the way. Both of them,
Speaker 1: the exterior designers and the interior were both the people
Speaker 1: who did Mustang, so we didn't need to explain to
Speaker 1: them what the Mustang was. It was the same people,
Speaker 1: and they started to bring a lot of those cues
Speaker 1: in so they kicked off. There were the same the
Speaker 1: same excitement. We went to the next department and we
Speaker 1: said we need technology and that was a problem. We
Speaker 1: went and said, what have we got that would be
Speaker 1: a high tech tech forward solution that is over their
Speaker 1: updateable and we'll work for years to come and upgraded.
Speaker 1: And I'm afraid we didn't have anything. But our system
Speaker 1: at the time was not going to do the job.
Speaker 1: So that was the biggest challenge for us. And and
Speaker 1: we we went downstairs to the development team and we
Speaker 1: said in team medicine, we work without grade structure, all
Speaker 1: together on the problems and anybody can speak up without
Speaker 1: fear of anything, reprise or anything. So we encourage people
Speaker 1: to speak up. So we pulled together. We went downstairs
Speaker 1: to the to the main team and we work asked
Speaker 1: the programmers who were working on very for it to
Speaker 1: come into a room and we shut the door. We
Speaker 1: explained how we work. Anyone can speak up, and I
Speaker 1: said to them, hey, guys, we need a next gen
Speaker 1: operating system that's world class on this car is launching
Speaker 1: in two and a half years. How how might we
Speaker 1: do that? And they were silent for a while. People
Speaker 1: take time before they're comfortable, and one of them said,
Speaker 1: not working the way we work. I said, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: How would you do that? Then they said, you'd have
Speaker 1: to work like a software company and we said, like what, Well,
Speaker 1: they work in one room with the designers, the human
Speaker 1: machinery are facing the programmers in one team, together with
Speaker 1: the equipment they need, the facilities they need, in the
Speaker 1: funding they need, without frankly, management interference. And I said,
Speaker 1: what if we do that? And they said, We're never
Speaker 1: going to do that here. I said, well, what if
Speaker 1: we said we'd give you everything you want because you
Speaker 1: do that. They said, well, if you could do it,
Speaker 1: then then yes we would. And I said, well if
Speaker 1: would you start Monday? If we could do that? Said yes,
Speaker 1: and then I said, and I never forget this. It
Speaker 1: made me laugh. I said, hey, hold on a minute,
Speaker 1: hold on, how do I know that you actually know
Speaker 1: how to do that? And he said, John, John, show
Speaker 1: him John. And so he looks over to the other gentleman.
Speaker 1: He puts down his delaptop and he pulls out an
Speaker 1: alien where from his side bag, and as he's opening it,
Speaker 1: Tom says to him, yeah, he's just come back from
Speaker 1: a gaming convention in South Korea, like, oh okay, And
Speaker 1: he then shows me some of the things they've worked on,
Speaker 1: and they they have and it looked like something out
Speaker 1: of Marvel, and okay, I got it, you guys know.
Speaker 1: So we then went upstairs and we went to our
Speaker 1: leadership team and we said, well, you know, we really
Speaker 1: we're into big trouble. We need this system in two
Speaker 1: and a half years and the team, you know, can't
Speaker 1: do it the way they work. And he said, well,
Speaker 1: have you got a proposal? We said, yeah, we have
Speaker 1: to work in a different way and we need me
Speaker 1: maybe seven million dollars of immediate funding to just trund
Speaker 1: everything they need. So he said, okay, just do it,
Speaker 1: do it now. So okay, so went upstairs to the
Speaker 1: VP of engineering and we said the same thing. He said,
Speaker 1: start now, get on with it. So we went back
Speaker 1: down to the team that evening and said we're ready
Speaker 1: to go. Please start um And Monday morning they started.
Speaker 1: And what I've learned from many of the startups, the
Speaker 1: way to work nimble is that leaders serve the employees
Speaker 1: who who are who are creating for the customer. My
Speaker 1: job is to clear the path in front of them.
Speaker 1: So I went every morning, what do you need today?
Speaker 1: We need better computers, do you know where to get them? Yes?
Speaker 1: Going by? Now? What else do you need? We need
Speaker 1: some screens that emulate the screens we're building for a
Speaker 1: good going by. Do you know how to get them? Yes?
Speaker 1: I can buy them. Best play gone by him now
Speaker 1: And they were delighted to have that ability. And then
Speaker 1: the next day asked what do you need, Hey, we
Speaker 1: need a server computer to serve some of the interfaces. Okay,
Speaker 1: give it to them. And then the third day they said,
Speaker 1: what do you need? Said old pizza and coffee kind
Speaker 1: of joking. Okay, you get pizza and coffee, and what
Speaker 1: else you need? The answer is what do you need
Speaker 1: to get it? And and they've never worked like that
Speaker 1: in Ford. And then the fourth day, what you need nothing,
Speaker 1: just leave us alone. Okay, fifth day, what you need?
Speaker 1: Something else? And so on. We just kept doing that
Speaker 1: and then we've created no presentations. When they want to
Speaker 1: demonstrate something, they just showed it to us. And the
Speaker 1: progress was I've never seen anything like it in my
Speaker 1: in my career. Within two weeks they had running prototypes
Speaker 1: that were touchable interfaces that they had created. One of
Speaker 1: them created the main interface, you know, while he was
Speaker 1: working off site at home, and he decided to create
Speaker 1: an enhage temail fire for the Internet, the main language
Speaker 1: for websites, because that was convenient to create and he
Speaker 1: had a complete working interface in two weeks, and because
Speaker 1: it was hate Temail five, it could reconfigure like a
Speaker 1: web page does, which most cars do not do. And
Speaker 1: then and then within three weeks they were testing it
Speaker 1: with customers in Chicago and streaming it live while the
Speaker 1: whole team watched the customers. And at one point a
Speaker 1: customer got caught up on some of the interface, and
Speaker 1: the guy said, how can you fix that? And he
Speaker 1: corrected the code, live redeployed, and because it was live
Speaker 1: fed from a server, it updated the interface in the
Speaker 1: hands of the customer who then was not caught on
Speaker 1: it and we could carry on with the work. I've
Speaker 1: never seen anything like it. They did three rounds of
Speaker 1: that testing live watching customers in Europe, in China, and
Speaker 1: in US, and in twelve weeks created an all new interface,
Speaker 1: which you know, he's getting extremely good reports now from
Speaker 1: consumer reports and and JD Power one of the best
Speaker 1: curR interfaces in the world. So it was incredible. I've
Speaker 1: never seen anything like it in my career. And I
Speaker 1: learned a lot through that process. And last year, despite
Speaker 1: the pandemic and despite um the supply issues. I think
Speaker 1: you guys sold something like twenty seven thousand Mustangs is
Speaker 1: that right in the US? Yes, a little bit more,
Speaker 1: and we were nearly fifty globally from the same plant.
Speaker 1: We're completely sold out and we're trying to meet that
Speaker 1: demand with what we've actually we're actually we've agreed and
Speaker 1: we have funded, and we're going to increase production to
Speaker 1: over two hundred thousands. Wow, that's a huge number. So
Speaker 1: the market the Marquee is very much a crossover. Are
Speaker 1: there any plans to electrify the traditional Mustang pony car?
Speaker 1: The two door sports car? So you get that asked
Speaker 1: that one a lot. So the next cars along after
Speaker 1: we've done the Lightning is the three row car, so
Speaker 1: the size of an Explorer, that type of car. That's
Speaker 1: the next one along. We've we've already announced that one,
Speaker 1: and then we have a lot of calls for other cars.
Speaker 1: You can imagine, there's huge calls for an electric Broncho,
Speaker 1: and there's others which we haven't announced yet. And we've
Speaker 1: got a fifty billion dollar roadmap of many cars including
Speaker 1: Lincoln's the the Mustang Sports Coupay, and that needs a
Speaker 1: very low battery to make that to what we want
Speaker 1: it to be. And uh, and we have quite high
Speaker 1: aspirations for what we would want that to be. And
Speaker 1: so we're only going to do that when the technology
Speaker 1: will allow. We know customers really want, they want over
Speaker 1: three miles, you may, that makes them comfortable and happy.
Speaker 1: And that's always been a product that has punched above
Speaker 1: its weight and gives performance of normally much more expensive
Speaker 1: cars and with the whole imagery of Mustang. So we're
Speaker 1: not doing it yet, nothing nothing to declare on the
Speaker 1: timing of that yet. We're going to do it, but
Speaker 1: we'll only do it when the technology allows us to
Speaker 1: make it incredible. You know, the Marquee has by all
Speaker 1: measures been a wild success, if there's any fly in
Speaker 1: the ointment, and this kind of surprised me. It was
Speaker 1: all the pushback on the Marquee over the Mustang name.
Speaker 1: What you're a Mustang guy, what was your reaction to
Speaker 1: the sort of you know, old school enthusiasts who were
Speaker 1: offended by a crossover we're using the name Mustang. Well,
Speaker 1: I understand, I very much understand it. I'm extremely active
Speaker 1: on listening on social media was something we learned a
Speaker 1: lot in the way startups do it all the time.
Speaker 1: And from the first weekend we launched, we were watching
Speaker 1: social media live and somebody, you know, for example, had
Speaker 1: a problem on the first Saturday, and we asked permission
Speaker 1: to speak to them and we contacted them, which they loved,
Speaker 1: and we fixed it. So I'm extremely aware of negative
Speaker 1: feedback from current owners. So what I set off about
Speaker 1: doing a year ago was talking to lots of them,
Speaker 1: and we actually brought in the presidents of both Mustang
Speaker 1: clubs and amazing guys, and we brought them actually to
Speaker 1: the launch in California, and we brought them along and
Speaker 1: they came to see me and said, Darren, you know,
Speaker 1: I understand what you're doing, but I can't really endorse it,
Speaker 1: and you know, I just wanted to let you know that,
Speaker 1: but I do appreciate what you're doing here. So that
Speaker 1: was at the beginning. At the end of the two days,
Speaker 1: one of them brought two and one of them brought one,
Speaker 1: and they said wow, yeah and and and they said,
Speaker 1: so listen, this vehicle supports the other Mustang. We couldn't
Speaker 1: be selling the V eight Mustang very much longer without
Speaker 1: the support of these TV so it protects the current Mustang.
Speaker 1: By the way, we still sell the current Mustang, so
Speaker 1: it's a companion is growing the brand into in a
Speaker 1: new space. And I can't tell you the joy of
Speaker 1: the of the customers. Literally nine of them recommend it
Speaker 1: to friends and families and everyone will listen to them.
Speaker 1: So that's the highest satisfaction car I'm ever aware of
Speaker 1: that We've had well, I'll tell you card people love,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you personally. Having sat in you know, everything
Speaker 1: that's out there, um and having had the Marquee, the
Speaker 1: sort of middle not the GT the middle of the
Speaker 1: of the road version for a week, I came away
Speaker 1: very impressed with the old quality, the fit and finish.
Speaker 1: It just felt like a substantial vehicle that was well
Speaker 1: made and was I don't want to say luxurious, but
Speaker 1: it kind of reminded me of a Volvo where everything
Speaker 1: is very well put together, very well thought out. There's
Speaker 1: a degree of minimalism in it that was very effective,
Speaker 1: and it very much had its own personality. I came
Speaker 1: away really impressed with that and wanna try a GT
Speaker 1: out and see what what the higher horsepower is like,
Speaker 1: but you know the Mustang. Everybody knows a lot about
Speaker 1: the sexy new uh hotness is the one Lightning. The
Speaker 1: four f one fifty has been the best selling vehicle
Speaker 1: in America for I don't know, forty years, running some
Speaker 1: crazy number. You must have very very high hopes and
Speaker 1: expectations for the Lightning. Tell us a little bit about
Speaker 1: the development of that vehicle. Yeah, the Mackie is like
Speaker 1: a practice compared to the Lightning. So we are very
Speaker 1: aware of Lightning from fifties status as America's number one
Speaker 1: vehicle for over four decades, and the love for that
Speaker 1: product is indescribable. I know that because I see the
Speaker 1: customers talking. So when we started that project, we knew
Speaker 1: what was ahead of us, and everyone was warning us,
Speaker 1: you might better make sure that vehicle is worthy. So
Speaker 1: what people expected is built for tough, and of course
Speaker 1: it's been punished as every piece is the same as
Speaker 1: a gas. It will pass all of the things the
Speaker 1: gas does. Of course it does, and we put it
Speaker 1: down Silver Creek, which is hideous, to be honest. We
Speaker 1: have robots drive them now because it's it's too brutal
Speaker 1: for humans in an accelerated test. That's how brutal they
Speaker 1: are now, and all their from clifts do that, but
Speaker 1: so does the lightning. We've made a battery case system
Speaker 1: that's impervious and can go underwater, and it had We
Speaker 1: know it has to be tough and reliable, and that's
Speaker 1: as given. But what people didn't expect is that mantra
Speaker 1: that we put forward. Every electric car from forward has
Speaker 1: to do things that gas could never do, because that's
Speaker 1: what attracts people in We're aware, you know, we believe
Speaker 1: this could be the vehicle that attracts mainstream America into
Speaker 1: beds because I can tell you thirty seconds in the
Speaker 1: driver's seat will convert the most hardened the enthusiasts into
Speaker 1: a wow because it feels like a magic carpet when
Speaker 1: you drive off, because it's an isolated subframe, no vibrations
Speaker 1: at all, near silence. You're waiting for the noise to come,
Speaker 1: and then you look at the speedometer and you're at
Speaker 1: sixty miles and there's no noise. It's quieter than my
Speaker 1: than a navigator compared to it's amazing. And because there's
Speaker 1: one gear and the accelerator pedal reacts in a fraction
Speaker 1: of a second. It's unbelievable even the most hardened electric enthusiast.
Speaker 1: And I've had some really amazing journalists in there. They're
Speaker 1: ready to be amazed, and they come away and say,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I was ready, and I'm still amazed
Speaker 1: because it fumps you in the back, like you've had
Speaker 1: seven dred and seventy five pound of talk in a
Speaker 1: fraction of a second with one gear. I can't really
Speaker 1: describe that. And you think and you're ready for it,
Speaker 1: you say, yeah, I'm ready, but it surprises you and
Speaker 1: you just want more. And so the great thing about
Speaker 1: it is that you can show customers in a few
Speaker 1: seconds and you've converted them. That's all it takes. You
Speaker 1: don't need to describe anymore. And that's going to do
Speaker 1: a lot for electric vehicles. And so because we have
Speaker 1: a huge dealer network, I'm able to put one. I've
Speaker 1: decided to put one in every dealer in America that's
Speaker 1: an e v D, which is pretty much all of them,
Speaker 1: so that people can go down there and try it,
Speaker 1: and the dealers are going to call their customers and
Speaker 1: those who say hey, electrics not for me, I say, good, good,
Speaker 1: come along here's the key, and see what you say
Speaker 1: after you've driven it. And I've tried it out on
Speaker 1: the most hardened people I can find, and they all
Speaker 1: and they all opens their eyes hugely. I did the
Speaker 1: same with mustind by the way, I found the most
Speaker 1: V eight petrol in the veins gas in the veins
Speaker 1: enthusedists I could find, and I gave them a mackey
Speaker 1: and said try that, and they went away. And I'm
Speaker 1: not interested. I don't I'm not interested in these things.
Speaker 1: You know. I'm always gonna love gas all my life.
Speaker 1: I do racing. I hear, I hear. I give them
Speaker 1: a macky GT Performance Edition and they come back three
Speaker 1: hours later with their mouth open and say, oh my god.
Speaker 1: One guy came back. He said to me, oh my god,
Speaker 1: the new definition, the new definition of performances silence. I
Speaker 1: might have to write that down, he and then he
Speaker 1: texted me later he got into his you know, hold
Speaker 1: the coupe and he said, oh my god, I feel
Speaker 1: like I just stepped back ten years. So that was
Speaker 1: the most hardened guy. Fine, And I said to him, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, you think you're a petrol head. Actually you're not.
Speaker 1: You're a performance spleusiast and it just so happens that
Speaker 1: the new performance benchmark is now is now electric. So
Speaker 1: he said, oh my god, that's it. And so that's
Speaker 1: how we knew it would it would work because real
Speaker 1: people who are passionate about that we loved it when
Speaker 1: they experienced it, and so that was a there's a
Speaker 1: barrier on the market must end because you know that preconception.
Speaker 1: But on the earth Fruit there's no barrier. People are like, well,
Speaker 1: maybe I try it. They tried Echo Bruce once and
Speaker 1: we changed their mind about the co boost and so
Speaker 1: they quote that to me, and so I'm willing to
Speaker 1: give it a go now. And I put them in
Speaker 1: there in seconds and they're like, I gotta have it.
Speaker 1: So I'm really excited about that. And for people who
Speaker 1: want to see that torture test, just go to YouTube
Speaker 1: and search for Silver Creek for torture test and you'll
Speaker 1: see what they do to these poor trucks. It's it's
Speaker 1: quite astonishing to see the videos. All right, So we
Speaker 1: have the Mustang out, we have the F one fifty out.
Speaker 1: Although I think a lot of people are still waiting.
Speaker 1: You guys are pretty much sold out of the next
Speaker 1: hundred thousand or some crazy number. Where where are you
Speaker 1: with the current pre sales and sales. Yeah, so it
Speaker 1: surprised us. So we knew that one day people will
Speaker 1: want over a hundred thousand of these, We did not
Speaker 1: expect that in two literally two some people one one.
Speaker 1: We we totally undercalled it, so did the whole industry,
Speaker 1: to be honest, and so we now we realize, you know,
Speaker 1: they're ready now because the point of the truck was
Speaker 1: the performance and power. Yes, but that's not even what
Speaker 1: people talk about. What they talk about is this megapower
Speaker 1: front because it changes it into a new type of vehicle.
Speaker 1: You've now got a luggage space which is basically the
Speaker 1: size of most medium sized suv extra and it and
Speaker 1: it's electronic way it lifts and closes, so you can
Speaker 1: use it to put your groceries in or anything you
Speaker 1: want that people want to put golf clubs in their
Speaker 1: two sets and other things. So it changes the product.
Speaker 1: People are very excited about front gating as well. I noticed.
Speaker 1: And then this backup power system where it uses bidirectional
Speaker 1: power and it will back up your home like a
Speaker 1: like a whole house generator for three days or up
Speaker 1: to ten days. This is what people are talking about.
Speaker 1: And then we decided to put it at a price
Speaker 1: that is basically equivalent to gas including the incentive. So
Speaker 1: and no one expected that either. People expected twenty more
Speaker 1: and that meant the barriers of price have gone. So
Speaker 1: it's just about adoption and are you ready, And that
Speaker 1: led to two orders before we switched it off. So
Speaker 1: we started off a lower run rate and this year
Speaker 1: we just we're opening the ordering in batches because we
Speaker 1: want fairness. I mean, people are really really excited about
Speaker 1: it and we want fairness. So it will be mainly
Speaker 1: from the date when you a person order registered and
Speaker 1: it's a reservation they have at the moment, not in order,
Speaker 1: and then we open up the ability for those those
Speaker 1: customers to order and then they specify their the important
Speaker 1: order and then we give them a date about approximate
Speaker 1: date which is really important to them. And once they
Speaker 1: ordered the date and we're as long as our launch
Speaker 1: goes well, we'll be on during those dates. UM. So
Speaker 1: that's I saw you on. We've opened up the twenty
Speaker 1: two model year and we we sold them out now um,
Speaker 1: and those customers all have dates and we'll be opening
Speaker 1: up the next set um in August, around August, and
Speaker 1: then the next set of customers will be able to
Speaker 1: order and that's a bigger batch um. And then the
Speaker 1: really big news is we have put in a capacity increase,
Speaker 1: a massive capacity capacity increase which will hit around July
Speaker 1: next year, and we're going up to a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty thousand units a year run rate. So on when
Speaker 1: that wave hits, which will be from July next year,
Speaker 1: we will be able to satisfy demand in a much
Speaker 1: bigger way. And so we'll keep opening these waves of orders,
Speaker 1: keeping it fair and letting customers, keeping them informed about
Speaker 1: when they're going to get it, and we'll keep doing
Speaker 1: that until we fulfill all the orders. But there will
Speaker 1: be a big, big step up when we start ordering
Speaker 1: for the next July builds. That will be a much
Speaker 1: larger capacity uplift. So so last current e V I
Speaker 1: have to ask is the transit which is your large
Speaker 1: sized commercial van which I think most car enthusiasts overlook.
Speaker 1: That's a workhorse. You guys have sold a bajillion of those.
Speaker 1: What what was the thinking in terms of creating the
Speaker 1: transit van and what are your expectations for sales there, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I am just as excited about that product. So
Speaker 1: because of how I see changing people's lives. So we
Speaker 1: created Forward Pro under ted Cannie, my great colleague who
Speaker 1: now runs out of CEO of Ford Pro, and that's
Speaker 1: to focus on our fleet customers and they're thinking behind
Speaker 1: that big Forward is somewhat half of commercial vehicles and
Speaker 1: the best selling commercial vehicles in the world, both in
Speaker 1: US and most of the rest of the world. So
Speaker 1: we needed to lead and we saw an opportunity to
Speaker 1: create a transit van using the components from the MACKI
Speaker 1: and that meant we could get really good scale and
Speaker 1: if one of them didn't sell, we could flex between
Speaker 1: them quite hell. In the end, this is not our problem.
Speaker 1: Our problem is not enough of either of them. Um
Speaker 1: So that's that's good, and that's but it uses a
Speaker 1: similar battery to the MACKI high tech pout cells, and
Speaker 1: it uses the motor system which is evolved from the MACKI,
Speaker 1: and they integrate I C controllers from the MACKI, which
Speaker 1: means great price, great scale, and it means we can
Speaker 1: offer a van. And this is what I'm so proud of.
Speaker 1: The price of these products is what I'm just as
Speaker 1: proud of because it means it can get into everybody's hands.
Speaker 1: That's what's important to us. So the transit it in
Speaker 1: a lot of businesses will actually start paying back from
Speaker 1: the first day. You're not talking about hey, in five years,
Speaker 1: in three years, I'm talking about the first day, and
Speaker 1: the running costs of something like half and there are
Speaker 1: and the time off the road for servicing and so
Speaker 1: on is much much less, so they have gone down
Speaker 1: really well. Um in those businesses, you must match the
Speaker 1: mileage to the available very carefully. You do not carry
Speaker 1: extra battery. That's inefficient, you just carrying it around for nothing.
Speaker 1: And many of those routes are very known and so
Speaker 1: a certain amount of the market that product is ready
Speaker 1: to serve, not the whole market yet, but a large,
Speaker 1: large proportion. So we expected that to go well, and
Speaker 1: that again has gone much better than expected. We're having
Speaker 1: to triple volume for that vehicle as well, and we're
Speaker 1: working on now. And but what I hadn't expected is
Speaker 1: all the new use cases. So every day we're seeing
Speaker 1: new use cases and the obvious ones. I mean, we
Speaker 1: we served the whole market delivery, which is one that
Speaker 1: people are very visible. This is only ten of our sales.
Speaker 1: Of the market, there's much bigger market is every other
Speaker 1: use you can think of for ava um And so
Speaker 1: that's what we serve with transit. But I'll give you
Speaker 1: a new use case. So we were launching ford Pro
Speaker 1: in Sonoma a couple of weeks ago. Oh and we
Speaker 1: decided to do that Ted lead This decided to do
Speaker 1: it with a wine growing region. So we did it
Speaker 1: with Francis coppler um And and his estate. And he
Speaker 1: showed us they have an innovation where they to grow
Speaker 1: better wine, make better wine day. At the moment when
Speaker 1: they take the wine in parcels they put them in,
Speaker 1: they have to mix three parcels together in one vat
Speaker 1: because they don't have enough bats. Nearly all wine growers
Speaker 1: do that. Trouble is you don't know which is the
Speaker 1: good parcel until a year later, so you have to
Speaker 1: mix them together and now you you mixed too good
Speaker 1: and weren't bad, and you don't know in the wine
Speaker 1: is mediocre. So his innovation that he came up with
Speaker 1: his team is to build a vat for every parcel.
Speaker 1: Now you have one parcel per vact. Trouble is you're
Speaker 1: not allowed to build above ground, because beautiful region. So
Speaker 1: he dug into a hillside and built it underground. So
Speaker 1: he showed us a new facility is amazing, looks like
Speaker 1: a James Bond villain layer. And he and there's only
Speaker 1: you know, there's only two bighcles you can use under there.
Speaker 1: One is a diesel van. Who wants a diesel van underground?
Speaker 1: That stage four is safe, so you can do that,
Speaker 1: you just don't want to, or an electric van. So
Speaker 1: he converted his entire fleet to electric, I mean it
Speaker 1: ly and then never look back. And so we announced this,
Speaker 1: We launched this with him a little while back, and
Speaker 1: and then of course there's I can't remember the number,
Speaker 1: but something insane number like thirty wine growing companies in
Speaker 1: US something like that. Don't quote me, but basically they
Speaker 1: all started contacting him and what are you doing. Oh, yes,
Speaker 1: I'm making one that per parcel, so my wine is
Speaker 1: just going to be top quality next year. Well they
Speaker 1: took notice of that. Then the next group and the
Speaker 1: next group and the next group said hey, why don't
Speaker 1: we do the same, And then he said what kind
Speaker 1: of vehicles do you need? And of course he said
Speaker 1: electric transit. So we now have orders coming in all
Speaker 1: over the Blade for electric transits for wine growing. And
Speaker 1: that's just one. That's just one use and we hadn't
Speaker 1: even thought that one. And then any time you need
Speaker 1: to bring a vehicle indoors, you can bring it indoors
Speaker 1: and they have power pro power and board, which means
Speaker 1: you bring them indoors and plug power tools in the
Speaker 1: back and they have enough power to run proper power tools.
Speaker 1: So you imagine building factories, building homes. You just put
Speaker 1: up the transit and start cutting wood up through from
Speaker 1: the back of the transit. No generators, no noise, completely independent.
Speaker 1: So that's the use cases where we expected to see.
Speaker 1: We're seeing huge ones. And by the one that I
Speaker 1: loved mostly, you gotta be really excited. Recently was on
Speaker 1: the fifty. That one has nine point six killer lots
Speaker 1: of power. That that's a whole home. And there's I
Speaker 1: saw a startup where instead of getting takeaway food, imagine
Speaker 1: you have two couples over for dinner. Instead of getting
Speaker 1: takeaway food, this business you you booked them online. They
Speaker 1: come to your driveway, open up the kitchen in the
Speaker 1: back and cook you dinner of your choice of that type,
Speaker 1: and they and they feed it. You know, they give
Speaker 1: you the just cooked food on your driveway, and they're
Speaker 1: going to use electric from fifties because the electric powers
Speaker 1: enough to parrel the cooking equipment, induction hobs, so on.
Speaker 1: How cool is that? I can just imagine that scaling
Speaker 1: all over America, don't you. It's really really interesting. So
Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit about batteries. You became general
Speaker 1: manager of Battery VS. Tell us about the thinking behind
Speaker 1: that new job and where it's going. Yeah, so, um,
Speaker 1: that that job. I used to be the product development
Speaker 1: director for Team Edicine. So my role was in the
Speaker 1: design and development of the new cars, leading the teams.
Speaker 1: Obviously a large team is involved in that. Um. But
Speaker 1: in late later on they decided they would like me
Speaker 1: to take the vehicles to market. There are so many
Speaker 1: elements there. There's the charge network, and there's buying online
Speaker 1: and how BEV customers want to be treated differently. So
Speaker 1: became a general manager, which means it was everything to
Speaker 1: do with the can after the customer and bringing those
Speaker 1: vehicles that we're designed to market. Um. So that meant
Speaker 1: I talk with customers the whole time. I watched social
Speaker 1: media all the time and I'm still very linked to
Speaker 1: the development teams to just make sure that we're learning
Speaker 1: quickly and we're evolving those vehicles. That that's really what
Speaker 1: the job is about. The fantastic job, by the way,
Speaker 1: I'm really enjoying it. So let's talk about the announcement
Speaker 1: that was made fairly recently. Ford's leadership decided it was
Speaker 1: time to go all in on t v s and
Speaker 1: there I guess splitting into two companies. Am I am
Speaker 1: I getting it right? Tell us about the new structure
Speaker 1: that's coming. Yeah, So Team Medicine lad the first round
Speaker 1: which delivered at least these first three products that you're
Speaker 1: seeing the markets. We actually really well to it, and
Speaker 1: then it was seen as now is the time to
Speaker 1: organize ourselves to really comp He were the best out
Speaker 1: there for the next set of products because He's really
Speaker 1: a transformation, and it was determined Jim Farley led the
Speaker 1: team to say, hey, I don't want people walking waking
Speaker 1: up in the morning and having to think about how
Speaker 1: to grow gas and how to grow BEV because they're
Speaker 1: so different. The BEV is not just a normal gas
Speaker 1: car with the electric motoring system. It's a completely new
Speaker 1: technology product. So he wanted to organize the teams so
Speaker 1: that they only are thinking about one of those. So
Speaker 1: that's how the team have organized. One is called Ford
Speaker 1: Blue and one is called Model E. That's the electric
Speaker 1: one obviously, UM, and there's also Ford Pro and Ford
Speaker 1: pros all about the commercial customers and their their sales
Speaker 1: and support. They don't do the development that will be
Speaker 1: done in the base in Blue or in Mode and
Speaker 1: it's an internal company organization. I would all it UM.
Speaker 1: And so the Model A team will be focused on
Speaker 1: everything about t vs, every aspect, from the selection of
Speaker 1: motors and controllers and electronics for efficiency, to the design
Speaker 1: and development of the vehicles, to the network charging this
Speaker 1: bidirectional power system that we've gotten, how that will work
Speaker 1: with customers, and improving the current vehicles because all of
Speaker 1: our electric vehicles are over the air update able, and
Speaker 1: when we say we plan on delivering lots of updates
Speaker 1: for customers, we really mean that. And we have a
Speaker 1: huge cycled plan of updates and improvements to those vehicles
Speaker 1: to roll out, and so that will also be under
Speaker 1: Modeling UM and so it's just to allow the team
Speaker 1: to really focus. We also will be setting up the
Speaker 1: same culture within that team, as we did in in
Speaker 1: team medicine, which is very flat structure leadership, supporting foyees
Speaker 1: to make changes for the customer, very efficient approval, and
Speaker 1: very can do an inclusive mindset that that brings in
Speaker 1: people from all walks of life and ethnicities to bear
Speaker 1: on the product development. We're doing so exactly like to medicine,
Speaker 1: to be honest, just on steroids. Um. So that's the
Speaker 1: plan and as part of that, I'm taking a new role.
Speaker 1: I go back now to product development and I'll be
Speaker 1: a VP of Product Development, Global product development for electric
Speaker 1: cars now under Doug Field. Can't and I can't wait
Speaker 1: to start. So we'll talk more about some upcoming cars
Speaker 1: a little later. Let's let's stay with the concept of
Speaker 1: the infrastructure for evs, and that's both battery and charging stations.
Speaker 1: How long do we think it's going to take before
Speaker 1: charging stations are as ubiquitous as gas stations? And I
Speaker 1: should preface that by saying Ford is part of a
Speaker 1: group that all have interoperable technology, and there's about I
Speaker 1: think charging stations and their consortium. Is that about right? Yes?
Speaker 1: So there's so we were we formed the Blue Oval
Speaker 1: Charging Network and we considered how will we support the
Speaker 1: growth of the network, who has to be huge investment
Speaker 1: and across the whole of the country and also global actually,
Speaker 1: and how might we support that? So one way we
Speaker 1: could build our own networks. You know, we have resources.
Speaker 1: We could do that, but then would be a Ford
Speaker 1: network and the Tesla network and GM network, and that's
Speaker 1: that's not good for customers. We just want the charging
Speaker 1: network to be everywhere. So instead we chose to put
Speaker 1: together every best network in America, every one of them,
Speaker 1: and we put them together under one system, is under
Speaker 1: the Blue Oval Ford Charge Network, and it's under the
Speaker 1: forward Pass app. So when you buy a vehicle you
Speaker 1: get free charging certain amounts, but more importantly, under one system,
Speaker 1: you've got automatic payment across that whole network. All the
Speaker 1: best ones are plug and charge. Now we were the
Speaker 1: first people to launch that. So you just plug it
Speaker 1: in and the car detects, automatically sets up and page
Speaker 1: and just plug and walk away. Then you can monitor
Speaker 1: your car over the over the year. Um. So that
Speaker 1: was our strategy. And the reason is is because huge
Speaker 1: investment is going to come into that now now that
Speaker 1: companies see the cars coming, they're going to put huge
Speaker 1: investment in so even before we talked on our podcast,
Speaker 1: we had and sixty but we're already up to nine
Speaker 1: now plugs because it's growing every day because as a
Speaker 1: sale of the investment, and they to be regional, the
Speaker 1: networks East, West, in Central and so on, so we
Speaker 1: we incorporate them really fast. So really just a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks, and we made a software system that it's
Speaker 1: very easy to integrate with and so no nobody ever
Speaker 1: said no to us. All of the networks are in
Speaker 1: and and it will grow hugely. It will be is
Speaker 1: the biggest network in America today, and we need to
Speaker 1: do more to communicate that because I noticed people don't
Speaker 1: know that yet. I didn't know that. I've spent week
Speaker 1: researching what you guys are doing. That that's a that's
Speaker 1: a surprising data point that I think would could be
Speaker 1: a deciding factor for someone who has range anxiety. Even
Speaker 1: though we know the trips are all local. This is
Speaker 1: correct and so I'm definitely am going to ampy up
Speaker 1: this year to communicate that. But one of the reasons
Speaker 1: I wanted to hold on that is that I need
Speaker 1: to make sure the quality is there because a risk
Speaker 1: of if you've got multiple networks, is the qualities not there?
Speaker 1: So we are remotely monitoring all of the stations and
Speaker 1: you would think that's enough. For a while, we thought
Speaker 1: that might be enough, but it's not actually because the
Speaker 1: terminals are you know, they have payment systems on them
Speaker 1: and it has to go through quite a few steps
Speaker 1: before it triggers, and if one of those steps goes wrong,
Speaker 1: it doesn't allow you to charge. So we found that
Speaker 1: in some cases this system looks like it's working and doesn't,
Speaker 1: and so we decided to put out a group of
Speaker 1: people that they're called the Ford Charge Angels, and they
Speaker 1: are roaming the network with highly instrumented vehicles. In fact,
Speaker 1: we had to specially order the instrumentation systems. They're very
Speaker 1: unique because they monitor all of the signals going between
Speaker 1: the car and the network, and they are roaming the
Speaker 1: network with the sole mission to test charges everywhere, especially
Speaker 1: if there are hot spots, and then when we know
Speaker 1: there's a problem. They were very connected to the charging networks.
Speaker 1: We've got the CEOs on speed dial and we even
Speaker 1: asked them to repair, and if they cannot repair in
Speaker 1: a time that we deem effective for our customers, we
Speaker 1: remove them from the network so that so that customers
Speaker 1: are never sent to a Forting charger, and we can
Speaker 1: do that really fast. Now we get up to system
Speaker 1: to do that, and um, the networks are often fix
Speaker 1: it there, and then if they can't and it's not
Speaker 1: quick enough, we take it out so that you do
Speaker 1: not get rooted there. And we're unique in doing that
Speaker 1: at the moment and the only company doing that. You're
Speaker 1: coming up on a hundred thousand UM chargers. So if
Speaker 1: you're looking for an excuse to make a big announcement,
Speaker 1: I would imagine that number is as as good a
Speaker 1: reason as any. But but let's talk about charge times.
Speaker 1: One of the complaints some e V buyers who have
Speaker 1: been dragging their feet have mentioned has been the long
Speaker 1: charge times. What's the future of this technology look like?
Speaker 1: Will we ever get to a point where the seven
Speaker 1: minute or five minutes fill up that you would get
Speaker 1: a gasoline you could do with the electricity. What's what's
Speaker 1: the best we can hope for it? Yeah, So one
Speaker 1: of the things I'll say is, and this is like
Speaker 1: when you know you have a flip phone and you're
Speaker 1: looking at iPhone technology and you think, you know what
Speaker 1: an iPhone, but until you owned one, you didn't really
Speaker 1: know what it does. It's like saying, hey, my flip
Speaker 1: phone lasted four days and my iPhone has to be
Speaker 1: charged every day. Therefore, I don't want an iPhone. It's
Speaker 1: like saying that. But when you own an iPhone, you
Speaker 1: realize you just plug it in a nut and it
Speaker 1: fits perfectly with your life. If you go on a
Speaker 1: long trip with an iPhone, you might sometimes charge it
Speaker 1: with a backup battery or a quick plug in because
Speaker 1: you know you're going to be using it all day.
Speaker 1: But nobody nobody went back from an iPhone to a
Speaker 1: flip phone, and beds are the same. The perception from
Speaker 1: people is, oh, I need a vehicule that's exactly the
Speaker 1: same as my gas. This is a massively common misconception.
Speaker 1: For example, I've owned a Mackie for now a year
Speaker 1: and a half. I never had a car for more
Speaker 1: than a year and a half as my company car,
Speaker 1: and every day it's lug in my home and I
Speaker 1: leave every day with a full tank. When I go
Speaker 1: on a business trip, I leave to the airport with
Speaker 1: a I never ever stop to interrupt my day to
Speaker 1: fill my car up, not once in a year and
Speaker 1: a half because it's already always ready. And that's what
Speaker 1: people forget about this. The thought of having to go
Speaker 1: and get gas while I'm about to go somewhere and
Speaker 1: I've forgotten to fill it. It's horrifying to me. Now
Speaker 1: makes me angry. And then when I go on a
Speaker 1: longer trip, I type it into the route planner system
Speaker 1: and it tells me where to stop and win, and
Speaker 1: I drive for three hours and then I stop, I
Speaker 1: plug it in and walk away. It takes me precisely
Speaker 1: ten seconds to charge my car. I plug it and
Speaker 1: I go and do something else. I go and get
Speaker 1: a coffee, or I go shopping. There's many of the
Speaker 1: sites have shops next door. Or I put out my
Speaker 1: laptop and catch up with mail. By the time I
Speaker 1: look back up again, I realized I've overstayed it and
Speaker 1: my car is now fully charged. Most of the time,
Speaker 1: to be honest, or I talked to somebody who's come
Speaker 1: to talk about the car. That happens a lot as well.
Speaker 1: But really, you know, it's a different way of thinking
Speaker 1: about it. It takes me dirty seconds to charge my
Speaker 1: car because I plug it in and I'm doing something
Speaker 1: else and most owners of modern webs will feel the
Speaker 1: same about it, you know. So, so I wanted to
Speaker 1: say that first because that changes your life and your
Speaker 1: way you think about these products now. Later it takes
Speaker 1: on a typical trip, the car will usually take about
Speaker 1: twenty few minutes to charge because it usually hops you
Speaker 1: between fast chargers, and it will favor the fastest charges.
Speaker 1: And on most trips you'll stop and you're trying to
Speaker 1: get to a destination, so it will boost you quickly
Speaker 1: at the beginning part of the charge faster than the
Speaker 1: later part. So it will tend to optimize you by
Speaker 1: charging maybe twenty minutes or twenty two minutes or something
Speaker 1: that's just a long enough to go and get a sandwich,
Speaker 1: restroom and back to the car really and they're off again.
Speaker 1: So that's what it tends to do. Now, do we
Speaker 1: have technology later that will charge even faster, Yes, we do,
Speaker 1: like eight hundred volt systems, so they will charge even faster,
Speaker 1: under twenty minutes for the entire charge from you tend
Speaker 1: to Yes, these are coming as well, But honestly, it
Speaker 1: makes less difference to your trip than you think it does.
Speaker 1: So instead of twenty two minutes, you're there for ten. Okay,
Speaker 1: But as I say, you plugging them go and do
Speaker 1: something else mostly so they will get better. But but
Speaker 1: cars are ready now, you've seem common misconception. We don't
Speaker 1: need to wait with three hundred mile cars, and we're
Speaker 1: up to three three now with that plus the network
Speaker 1: that's out that we're ready immediately. Especially you mean a
Speaker 1: lot of customers are using it as their second car.
Speaker 1: It's a complete no brainer. So it's just we have
Speaker 1: to do more to communicate that to customers and bring
Speaker 1: customers along with us. Three hundred miles means that if
Speaker 1: you're driving sixty to seventy, which is what the highways
Speaker 1: by me are, that that's four or five six hours
Speaker 1: of driving. You still need to get out, stretch your legs,
Speaker 1: go to the bathroom occasionally, if that's right. And most
Speaker 1: people won't go below temper cent. You know, they're a
Speaker 1: bit nervous, so they don't usually go below So you
Speaker 1: have to save that thirty so it's like two seventy miles.
Speaker 1: But you're right, if you're going faster, it will be
Speaker 1: a little bit les but it's quite a long time
Speaker 1: and most people need to stop and rest and and
Speaker 1: then you just build it into your day. Like I
Speaker 1: say you when I'm on going someone for a business trip,
Speaker 1: I stopped halfway plugging in, get a coffee, and I
Speaker 1: catch up on some mail and so usually, but I
Speaker 1: get into it, I look up and oaks, I've stayed longer,
Speaker 1: and now I'm really fully charged. I didn't just boost it.
Speaker 1: I charged right the way back up to now and
Speaker 1: off I go again, and I arrived with too much range,
Speaker 1: and then plugging at the hotel. It's ready the next day.
Speaker 1: So it just fixed into your life more than you
Speaker 1: think it does. And the from fifty over three hundred
Speaker 1: miles go very robustly over three miles, so even better.
Speaker 1: So so the folks who are sharping for five hundred
Speaker 1: mile range or even talking about eight hundred and a
Speaker 1: thousand mile range, that seems based on what you're saying,
Speaker 1: that really seems like it's unnecessary and not practical because
Speaker 1: the human element, even with driver assist, the human element
Speaker 1: is still going to get fatigued and still needs to
Speaker 1: occasionally stretch their lets. So you know, they are use
Speaker 1: cases for those vehicles, and only one really does that
Speaker 1: kind of range at the moment, and so that's some
Speaker 1: customers need that, So that's okay. But but you are
Speaker 1: carrying it's not like gas. You are carrying extra weight
Speaker 1: with you and every day that is costing you money
Speaker 1: and it is changing the performance of the car and
Speaker 1: it has all that weight for handling. So carrying a
Speaker 1: five dred mile battery when you really do thirty miles
Speaker 1: a day is a real waste. UM. So you know
Speaker 1: there's an optimum, I would say, and for some use
Speaker 1: cases you know that's okay, but it's it's a rare
Speaker 1: use case. Um. And so we're seeing once you reach
Speaker 1: three hundred, it really changes the impression of the customers.
Speaker 1: They've become much more confident around the just over three.
Speaker 1: So last battery question, UM. One of the issues I've
Speaker 1: read about is the question of either recycling or reusability
Speaker 1: of EV batteries. Are either of those anywhere off on
Speaker 1: the horizon? Oh yes, So that's super important to us, um,
Speaker 1: And for two reasons. It's becoming clear that the supply
Speaker 1: of batteries and all of the chemicals needed are a
Speaker 1: real challenge. And as the whole world ramps up to
Speaker 1: electric vehicles, it will split into those that are able
Speaker 1: to get the materials and batteries and those that are
Speaker 1: not and if somebody hasn't started already and it's very
Speaker 1: far advanced into that, they're going to have a huge problem.
Speaker 1: And so that's why you've seen that we invested over
Speaker 1: eleven billion dollars in Blue Oval City, the largest that
Speaker 1: I know of investment of its kind in America. And
Speaker 1: it builds an entire city to build trucks and then
Speaker 1: and also two plants so far for batteries, a huge
Speaker 1: amount of batteries. And it also vertically integrates the chemicals
Speaker 1: supply required for the batteries. Um So that's the first stage.
Speaker 1: So because we know that we need to secure enough
Speaker 1: batteries for millions of cars, where is that plant to
Speaker 1: build those batteries? Located? Tennessee? Tennessee? Because am I remembering
Speaker 1: this correctly? The marquee was made I think in Canada
Speaker 1: or Mexico, I don't remember which it's it's Mexico, yes,
Speaker 1: because that was the next plant that we had available.
Speaker 1: Um So that's why we went there. You know, we're
Speaker 1: gonna be using lots of our plants and and and
Speaker 1: and and we will fill them up as we go.
Speaker 1: So we kind of fill them up with whichever plant
Speaker 1: is ready and some other factors. Actually, that's why that
Speaker 1: one was Mexico and the from fifty in Dearborn, UM.
Speaker 1: And so I will you start filling up all our
Speaker 1: gas plants one at a time. So the Blue Level
Speaker 1: City Complex is six miles square in West Tennessee, UM
Speaker 1: and the battery part correction is Central Kentucky with twin
Speaker 1: battery plants. So yeah, it's it's huge, a better but
Speaker 1: a really exciting one. And the one you asked me
Speaker 1: is about recycling. So we tied with Redwood Materials. J. B.
Speaker 1: Strobell was one of the founders of Tesla and he
Speaker 1: now runs a company called Redwood Materials. They're very high
Speaker 1: ambitions in recycling and we are partnered with them. And
Speaker 1: so we are beginning now using um scrap from battery
Speaker 1: production to recycle it to produce materials for new battery production.
Speaker 1: And as the batteries start coming back, we're going to
Speaker 1: start using them to extract materials and reuse them back
Speaker 1: into our supply plan. It does two things. One, it
Speaker 1: secures battery supply when some of these chemicals and materials
Speaker 1: could become scarce, and it also allows us to reduce
Speaker 1: the price, and we have some quite ambitious price targets
Speaker 1: for that recycled material and I mean the commodity. So
Speaker 1: they move up and down every day. You know, in
Speaker 1: some cases it looks very good value compared to buying
Speaker 1: on the open market, and your market forces will determine
Speaker 1: the price of those chemicals. So we're one of the
Speaker 1: biggest operations that I know of to do that, and
Speaker 1: they will be on site in Blue Oval City from
Speaker 1: the start, really quite fascinating. Let's talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about some of the things that we're looking at in
Speaker 1: the future. You mentioned how proud you are of the
Speaker 1: price points that you've introduced cars like the Marquee or
Speaker 1: the Transit or the Lightning. Um, what do you think
Speaker 1: is going to happen going forward in terms of pricing,
Speaker 1: I not a not a battery hybrid, but a regenerative
Speaker 1: I guess p h t V hybrid. The Maverick was
Speaker 1: priced at pretty in expense of two hours for a
Speaker 1: compact four door pickup truck. How cheap can battery evs
Speaker 1: get in the future? Well today, So the FRO fifty
Speaker 1: Lightning with the included incentive that's available is really in
Speaker 1: the range right now of gas from right in the
Speaker 1: heartland of where we sell most of them. So I
Speaker 1: could argue that today we have one of the first
Speaker 1: vehicles that has reached parity with an equivalent truck. And
Speaker 1: I say equivalent. Yet the electrics faster than any from
Speaker 1: fifty we ever made more talk than any from fifty
Speaker 1: we ever made quite handles better, etcetera, etcetera than any
Speaker 1: f fifty ever. And it starts at the price of
Speaker 1: the gas. So there's one segment where we've managed to
Speaker 1: achieve it. That one is with the incentive, So that's
Speaker 1: helped us, helps it bring to bring it to more people.
Speaker 1: We are working on other vehicles not announced yet to
Speaker 1: bring the vehicles to more people, a lower cost vehicle.
Speaker 1: I can't say anything more about it at the moment,
Speaker 1: but that's one of our missions. And part of this
Speaker 1: huge investments we're making in batteries is obviously supporting that,
Speaker 1: because the biggest component by far is the battery. And
Speaker 1: already I can say that Mattie is a similar cost
Speaker 1: to run over five years as a Ford Escape. The
Speaker 1: total cost spent, it's the same as a foud Escape already,
Speaker 1: so that is also supported by an incentive at the moment,
Speaker 1: but that's amazing for those that wake up to see
Speaker 1: that now they're getting a huge bargain. And the charging
Speaker 1: networks already reached nine plugs, so they're available everywhere and
Speaker 1: there's hardly anyone there yet, so you also have the
Speaker 1: network to yourself, so it's a V ownership at the
Speaker 1: moment is just fantastic. You'll also find the parking spot
Speaker 1: for many places right next to the entrance because that's
Speaker 1: where the electric spot is, and they're half empty as well,
Speaker 1: so when you drive there, you feel like a V
Speaker 1: I P. So it's a really good time to get
Speaker 1: into them now. But we will. You know, we do
Speaker 1: have plans to bring vehicles that are even lower cost
Speaker 1: um and we're moving to more segments. So the three
Speaker 1: rows are next one along where the real family car
Speaker 1: size that is so popular in America. So currently the
Speaker 1: Ford Explorer, which I think comes with a third row,
Speaker 1: is available hybrid. You mentioned you're looking to do a
Speaker 1: three row suv. Can we assume we're going to see
Speaker 1: an E Explorer sometime soon, So yeah, we've announced that
Speaker 1: we're working on that one. It's it's a three row
Speaker 1: and the Explorer is indeed three row, so we're working
Speaker 1: on that now, but I would say it's the same
Speaker 1: segment as a three row explorer, I wouldn't call it
Speaker 1: any explorer. We intend to reinvent what these vehicles can be.
Speaker 1: And again, it will not be an explorer of an
Speaker 1: electric motor in it. It will be a new a
Speaker 1: vehicle that offers new experiences that are as game changing
Speaker 1: as bidirectional power and megapower funkies for the front fifty,
Speaker 1: but something things that are designed to delight the customers
Speaker 1: in this segment, the things they want in their daily lives.
Speaker 1: I won't say more about it yet, but intends to
Speaker 1: be an incredible vehicle. Again, so previously you said evy
Speaker 1: adoption is similar to the process that the iPhone had
Speaker 1: to go through. Any any groundbreaking product requires a readjustment
Speaker 1: into your life. Is that what you're seeing with ev adoption.
Speaker 1: Once people make it part of their routine, it's no
Speaker 1: longer the electric car. It just becomes the car. Oh yes,
Speaker 1: I mean universally, when people make the switch, no one
Speaker 1: goes back. It's the only analogy. And when I try
Speaker 1: to get across to people to use is the whole
Speaker 1: moving to iPhone or smartphone from footphone, no one goes back.
Speaker 1: And before people moved, they didn't know that. They thought
Speaker 1: they understood what an iPhone was, and because it looks
Speaker 1: similar to similar to a phone, but they don't didn't
Speaker 1: realize what it really is. And once they owned it,
Speaker 1: then they suddenly switched. They will never go back, and
Speaker 1: they told everyone they know is exactly the same. The
Speaker 1: most misleading thing about evs is they look like a car,
Speaker 1: and therefore you think it's like the cars you've known
Speaker 1: all your life, and it's nothing like that. So the
Speaker 1: more people we can get in there to feel it,
Speaker 1: the more people it will convert quickly. So let's talk
Speaker 1: about that. You know a lot of people a few
Speaker 1: years ago, we're projecting five. It doesn't feel like it's
Speaker 1: going to take that long. Where do you think the
Speaker 1: EV market is as percentage of new vehicle sales in
Speaker 1: or or Yeah, So if you think every person who
Speaker 1: gets one, we'll never go back, that's pretty much the rule.
Speaker 1: Then you start thinking about how fast is that going
Speaker 1: to take? Now, it took ten years for the iPhone
Speaker 1: to get everywhere right now or similar phones right so
Speaker 1: it took time for that because people take time, and
Speaker 1: so projections we changed weekly because we're trying to keep
Speaker 1: ahead of it. We we intend to be push ahead
Speaker 1: of the market UM and we're saying, you know, globally,
Speaker 1: half of our production it's going to be UM electric
Speaker 1: and that's millions of the year. When when do you
Speaker 1: think the last internal combustion engine car new that is
Speaker 1: manufactured in the US? Susion possible to tell. There's there's
Speaker 1: some use cases that are particularly difficult to solve. For battery,
Speaker 1: I actually think it will run for long a long time,
Speaker 1: but they will be they won't. There will be you know,
Speaker 1: for specific reasons or for price. That's that's why they
Speaker 1: will keep going. The best products will be electric. It's like,
Speaker 1: I mean, even if you look at tools. I recently
Speaker 1: bought a Listiam iron leafblower, and the first generation were
Speaker 1: a little bit less powerful than gas and much more expensive. Well,
Speaker 1: this next generation I had a choice same as gas
Speaker 1: and just a little bit more expensive or much more
Speaker 1: powerful than gas and more expensive. And that happen to
Speaker 1: just a couple of years. By the way, it's much
Speaker 1: quite a much more controllable and I'm never going back
Speaker 1: to a gas one. But there are use cases for gas.
Speaker 1: Belief lift blow is still in certain cases, right, So
Speaker 1: I think gas will run for a long time. It
Speaker 1: will be increasingly regulated for emissions, and it will get
Speaker 1: more and more expensive to regulate for emissions. It will
Speaker 1: be less and necessarieson to to need it. But I
Speaker 1: believe there'll be a reason for a while. So it
Speaker 1: was impossible to predict at the moment. So so let's
Speaker 1: talk about interior design in electrics. UM, I think Tesla
Speaker 1: gets the credit or the blame for just removing just
Speaker 1: about every manual mechanical button and putting it on the screen.
Speaker 1: I personally have found that to be frustrating if especially
Speaker 1: when I'm driving and it's three nested, three levels in
Speaker 1: and I have to take my off the road because
Speaker 1: I just want to lower the fan or increase the heat.
Speaker 1: What sorts of buttons should stay? UM, A mechanical button,
Speaker 1: like if I want to put my seat heat or on,
Speaker 1: why do I have to dig my way through three
Speaker 1: or four menus and and go down just the just
Speaker 1: the air conditioning heating system? Can we please keep that
Speaker 1: as mechanical buttons? So here's the way we think about it.
Speaker 1: So how many buttons on the front of your iPhone. None.
Speaker 1: Would you like me to put some buttons on the
Speaker 1: front of your icephone? Actually? Yeah, I have the on
Speaker 1: the side, I have the volume and the on off,
Speaker 1: which which but the it's the things that I use
Speaker 1: every time I get into the car. I don't want
Speaker 1: to go digging for And by the way, half my
Speaker 1: cars have too many buttons I have. You know, there
Speaker 1: are vehicles that have. You know, it looks like it's
Speaker 1: a fighter jet. I don't need that either. I like
Speaker 1: the idea of the the screen, but you know, the
Speaker 1: heat the seat warmers are a perfect example. And one
Speaker 1: of the things I thought was so interesting about the
Speaker 1: Marquee was the volume button was a physical button at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the screen and when you turn the
Speaker 1: screen on it I believe the same set of have
Speaker 1: to touch buttons are at the bottom of the screen
Speaker 1: always am I am? I remembering that correctly? You are
Speaker 1: so so. The philosophy is this This the reason why
Speaker 1: I ask you that question. The philosophy is, um, you
Speaker 1: do you want to do better than buttons? Okay, that's
Speaker 1: the philosophy, and the ones that you need, when you
Speaker 1: need them should be first surfeits. The whole point is
Speaker 1: that you do not have to dig and you have
Speaker 1: access to it when you need it, and that's the
Speaker 1: skill and getting that just right. There are some things
Speaker 1: you need buttons for or or control sticks, like the indicator.
Speaker 1: I imagine we're going to have the control stick for
Speaker 1: a long time because you use it all the time
Speaker 1: and it works really well, so don't take that away.
Speaker 1: And certain other things like the button to get out
Speaker 1: of the car, you really need that. But other buttons
Speaker 1: can be better when we can move them or change
Speaker 1: them to context. So for example, you mentioned I want
Speaker 1: heated seat immediately, so yes, we keep the heated seat
Speaker 1: on first surface at all times on the matching um.
Speaker 1: And you want access to the heating controls absolutely and
Speaker 1: temperature and so on. So we and we launched the
Speaker 1: car with a set of buttons are pervasive. If they're
Speaker 1: always there, then our customers gave us feedback and they
Speaker 1: want an extra button or one taken away, or they
Speaker 1: want the hood released to appear when they stop. Now,
Speaker 1: with an electronic screen, you can change it, and we're
Speaker 1: about to change it over the air. Actually, we're going
Speaker 1: to do a big human machine interface refreshed this year,
Speaker 1: and we're going to listen to the feedback from customers
Speaker 1: and make it better. And that's the great thing about
Speaker 1: a digital screen. You can make it better where a
Speaker 1: physical button is there and you can't. I give you
Speaker 1: an example, a button for the cameras on our vehicle.
Speaker 1: People say, I've gotta have the button on a truck.
Speaker 1: I'm always using the camera. So I say, well, at
Speaker 1: the moment, you have to press the button once for
Speaker 1: the front, to press it again for the rear, press
Speaker 1: it again for another view, and you press it so
Speaker 1: many times and you get it wrong and you cycle
Speaker 1: back around again instead, as soon as that sensor sense
Speaker 1: is something nearby, when you're at low speed parking automatically
Speaker 1: brings up the cameras and then it presents you with
Speaker 1: the direct camera button for the feed that you want,
Speaker 1: and then it remembers the one you use most. So
Speaker 1: now you pull up to the parking space, it automatically
Speaker 1: brings up your favorite camera. You don't touch anything. If
Speaker 1: you don't like it and you want a different view today,
Speaker 1: you just one touch a new view instead of pressing
Speaker 1: the same button four times. So that's you know, another
Speaker 1: example of you think you want the button until you
Speaker 1: have a system that works better. Now we understand you
Speaker 1: can't always guess perfect, so you always give the customer
Speaker 1: the controls, but you bring them at the right time.
Speaker 1: You don't need the camera button when you're at sixty.
Speaker 1: So that's the design and we never get it with
Speaker 1: perfect first, so we have over the air update and
Speaker 1: we keep improving it um And that that control of
Speaker 1: you mentioned is that's an amazing piece of technology. Is
Speaker 1: brand new. It's molecularly bonded to the screen, first in industry,
Speaker 1: and that's actually it's actually like an input device. It's
Speaker 1: not it's not just a volume knob, and we're going
Speaker 1: to unlock that in the next in the software update
Speaker 1: later this year. It's gonna so that it can control
Speaker 1: lots of things because it's very pleasing when you turn it,
Speaker 1: it feels good, and its control volume, but we can
Speaker 1: also make a control temperature, heat and other things, and
Speaker 1: we can use it for gaming as well. So we're
Speaker 1: about to unlock that button. It was always planned. We
Speaker 1: couldn't get there for job one, but but now we
Speaker 1: have customer inputs that we're going to make it better.
Speaker 1: So I have two other questions. I have two or
Speaker 1: three other questions I have to ask you before we
Speaker 1: get onto our favorite questions. The first you hinted at
Speaker 1: earlier I was reading you're prowling on social media looking
Speaker 1: for people complaining about their products and helping them resolve
Speaker 1: whatever issues they have. You personally called them to tell
Speaker 1: us about about what you've why you do that, and
Speaker 1: what you've learned from that. Yeahs as part of the
Speaker 1: launch of the vehicle and watching startups, and we learned
Speaker 1: how they watch social media because these are exciting product products,
Speaker 1: so people talk about them all the time. So there's
Speaker 1: a there are forums like the Macke Forum for from
Speaker 1: Macke obviously, and it's a rich source of direct customer feedback.
Speaker 1: The customers are taking video, photographs, big descriptions about what
Speaker 1: they see, both positive and negative, and it's the richest
Speaker 1: source of input I've ever had. So I watch it
Speaker 1: every morning. My whole team watch it every morning. My
Speaker 1: wife sick of me watching videos every minute I get
Speaker 1: because the customers are telling you directly what they say,
Speaker 1: you can't buy that, and then we use that to
Speaker 1: develop the cars. So that's why I watch that. Then
Speaker 1: I see customers struggling with things we've already fixed. And
Speaker 1: at first the buyers of the premium Maggie, they were
Speaker 1: really bad people. They really did their research. They either
Speaker 1: are experienced before or they've done a lot of research,
Speaker 1: and so they all help each other. You watch them
Speaker 1: struggling and they help each other, and they they've learned it,
Speaker 1: there's no problem. But when we went with the GT,
Speaker 1: I'm noticing more customers are having basic problems because they
Speaker 1: haven't learned the basics of ev They just loved the
Speaker 1: car so much that they bought one. So those customers,
Speaker 1: I'm seeing that, and I call them because I want
Speaker 1: to hear from them what they're experiencing. And every time
Speaker 1: I never hear what I think I'm going to I
Speaker 1: think I know, I speak to them, it is almost
Speaker 1: never exactly the same. So I do that a couple
Speaker 1: of times a week. I asked the permission. Of course,
Speaker 1: they love that. There hasn't been one that haven't ended
Speaker 1: up with an hour on the phone with them hearing
Speaker 1: about their experiences, and you know, their family and how
Speaker 1: they're using the car and so on, and that the
Speaker 1: richest source of input. And then I work out how
Speaker 1: might I help people like them. And for example, with
Speaker 1: the newer cars, they don't know the basics of EV.
Speaker 1: They don't know the evs dropped range in the cold.
Speaker 1: They don't know how much power that their heater can use,
Speaker 1: especially if they left it outside and the whole batteries
Speaker 1: at minus tend degrees C. They don't know to preheat.
Speaker 1: They don't know that the car will heat its battery
Speaker 1: when it's plugged in. It will make sure the battery
Speaker 1: is kept MP to them. They don't know that. And finally,
Speaker 1: they don't know how to reset their driver history, which
Speaker 1: the car has learned their behaviors over a week, and
Speaker 1: we'll give you an accurate range. It's very accurate. But
Speaker 1: if the customers not been looking after the car as
Speaker 1: a BEVE owner, then their range is going to drop
Speaker 1: a lot, and they can instantly reset it back and
Speaker 1: then change their behavior and they will see the results
Speaker 1: and means immediately. So they don't know any of those things,
Speaker 1: and they show them that they're usually super delighted, and
Speaker 1: then they've learned how to control their car. They've changed,
Speaker 1: you know, the temperature of a couple of degrees. They
Speaker 1: use the heated seat and stereo wheel and they preheat
Speaker 1: the car, their range goes from a massive loss to
Speaker 1: like five loss and then they write to me afterwards
Speaker 1: and they're just absolutely delighted. So and now I go
Speaker 1: back to my team and saying, how are we going
Speaker 1: to show customers. We have put it in the instructions,
Speaker 1: we have put it on the app, we have sent
Speaker 1: them messages, and we do tell them to plug the
Speaker 1: car in if the temperatures cold every time they exit
Speaker 1: the car when it's cold, but they don't know why
Speaker 1: they're going to do it. So some customers just ignore
Speaker 1: all of that until we speak to them. So we're
Speaker 1: trying to think of how to help them, and we're
Speaker 1: trying everything. It's basically psychology. So I'm thinking of all
Speaker 1: different methods and we brainstorming how will we do it?
Speaker 1: And different customers, each one is different and have their
Speaker 1: own ways. But you know, one way I'm considering at
Speaker 1: the moment it is a kind of competitive way where
Speaker 1: we say to you, hey, did you know you're in
Speaker 1: the bottom third of range for this car? And that
Speaker 1: will make the customers say, hey, why am I in
Speaker 1: the bottom dead And then we'll explain to them and
Speaker 1: now they're listening because you're bringing a little a little
Speaker 1: peloton gamification to managing range. That's right to to get
Speaker 1: their attention so that they care. I mean many customers
Speaker 1: know already, but a lot don't. And as we go
Speaker 1: mainstream there will be more of those. So it's really
Speaker 1: fun to do it. But that's why I call customers.
Speaker 1: It's great fun. Anyway. I love I love talking to
Speaker 1: them and here and feedback really interesting. I know you
Speaker 1: do a lot of traveling. You you previously discussed an
Speaker 1: interesting scenario and Shanghai about how families see within a
Speaker 1: vehicle and how different it is from the US. Can
Speaker 1: you explain that and tell us about some other differences
Speaker 1: you see in customers around the world. How did different
Speaker 1: users user vehicles differently? Oh? Yes, so we're all humans
Speaker 1: with similar needs, but due to cultural changes, we behave differently.
Speaker 1: So we were developing a global vehicle and China is
Speaker 1: one of the leaders in electric vehicle development, so we
Speaker 1: spent a long time there. Actually, I think I was
Speaker 1: sixteen weeks in China in total that year. And we
Speaker 1: did human centric development, which means you don't ask them
Speaker 1: what they want, you watch them with their permission, of course,
Speaker 1: and and watch them with their families, and we had
Speaker 1: people to translate for us, not just the language, but
Speaker 1: the what's going on. And frankly, if I've been watching
Speaker 1: them without those people, I would have missed it, and
Speaker 1: they would We watched them in the car and where
Speaker 1: they sit, and then we'd ask some questions and then
Speaker 1: the person the person would say, did you see that?
Speaker 1: I said, we'll see what? So did you see how?
Speaker 1: The question was asked of the uh man, and before
Speaker 1: he answered, he looked at the grandmother. No, I didn't
Speaker 1: see that, said yet, what do you know what that is?
Speaker 1: And I don't know what it is. That's because it's
Speaker 1: typical in Chinese culture. The grandmother will be buying that
Speaker 1: first car for the family, and so and the and
Speaker 1: the grandmother also will take will bow to the child.
Speaker 1: The child will be in the second row, and so
Speaker 1: the grandmother will be even next to the child or
Speaker 1: in the third row, because the mother will be in
Speaker 1: the second row looking after the child. So the third
Speaker 1: row of the car is super important because the grandmother
Speaker 1: is buying the car. My god, we never would have
Speaker 1: known that, and we did not give the attention to
Speaker 1: the third row the same as the first row that
Speaker 1: would not have been our plan. And so things like
Speaker 1: that you can only get by watching people and learning.
Speaker 1: And even if you ask a Chinese person what's different
Speaker 1: about here, no one can answer what's different between me
Speaker 1: and everybody else because they don't know what to say.
Speaker 1: You have to watch them and say, oh, look look
Speaker 1: that's different to what we know. So that's that's that's
Speaker 1: one there. That's one observation of many, many, many, but
Speaker 1: that that taught us a lot. And when they're evaluating
Speaker 1: to buy that car, the grandmother will get will will
Speaker 1: come with them, will sit in that third row, and
Speaker 1: we'll give them their opinion on the car. And and
Speaker 1: the buyer is going to pay attention to that grandmother
Speaker 1: just because of cultural and also the fact they're buying
Speaker 1: the car. So there's one um. Others in i'd say Europe,
Speaker 1: many more people don't have gary a garage, so they
Speaker 1: can't put a charger in, and so they're very interested
Speaker 1: in how they're going to own an electric car having
Speaker 1: to go and charge it, and that does require some
Speaker 1: change to your life, and you can build that into
Speaker 1: your life, but you do have to consider it. So
Speaker 1: they have different priorities for charging speed and where there's
Speaker 1: charges available to them and so on. So we're having
Speaker 1: to make sure we make vehicles that suit their life.
Speaker 1: They typically want the eight vehicles that charge faster because
Speaker 1: they're going to have to go and sit there every week.
Speaker 1: And I also asked another customers about how they live
Speaker 1: with their cars. And then one guy I asked him,
Speaker 1: I said, hey, would you want us to change that
Speaker 1: charging speed to fifteen minutes? He said no, way said
Speaker 1: that surprises me. He said, that's the best forty minutes
Speaker 1: of my week. I go out, I sit there and
Speaker 1: read a book and charge the CARSA Okay, I don't
Speaker 1: expected that. As I say, the customers don't say what
Speaker 1: you expect when you asked them. Huh. Quite quite a interesting.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna throw you one curveball question before we get
Speaker 1: to our favorites, and that is I have to assume
Speaker 1: you saw the film Forward versus Ferrari. What were your
Speaker 1: thoughts on that story? And you grew up in London?
Speaker 1: Were you a fan of Ken Miles? Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: good one. So, I mean, we love that story. We
Speaker 1: we we all went as a team to watch that,
Speaker 1: to watch the you know, the struggle. I mean and
Speaker 1: it's all about, you know, people feeling you can't do
Speaker 1: something and then overcoming it. You know, that's what you know,
Speaker 1: of course it's all about. And it's a corporate forward there.
Speaker 1: You know. It's fun to watch. It's done in a
Speaker 1: really cool way, but really it's also about cars and
Speaker 1: about pushing yourself to win and when you didn't expect it.
Speaker 1: We all love that. We felt a little bit. You know,
Speaker 1: no one expected us to win with an electric car.
Speaker 1: Where when we said we were introducing electric car, I
Speaker 1: think it's fair to say most of the world did
Speaker 1: not expect us to to be the number one recommended
Speaker 1: car this year of consumer reports, in our first generation.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've got to say that's kind of a
Speaker 1: stretch even for us. We expected to do well, but
Speaker 1: that is beyond what we What we achieved was really
Speaker 1: respect what has gone before us. So we saw the
Speaker 1: um alignment of that film with some of the work
Speaker 1: we were doing. And Ken Miles was a super unique
Speaker 1: individual in this He's got his flaws, like all heroes,
Speaker 1: they've got their flaws. So we we love that. We
Speaker 1: all went to watch it together. We've we've watched it
Speaker 1: many times. Really interesting, well I know only have you
Speaker 1: for a few more minutes, So let me jump to
Speaker 1: my favorite questions that we ask all of our guests,
Speaker 1: starting with what have you been streaming these days? Have
Speaker 1: you had a whole lot of time to watch anything
Speaker 1: on um, Netflix or Amazon or anything like that. So
Speaker 1: I've got twin twin boys as well, ten year old,
Speaker 1: So it's work and family, that's it. And but when
Speaker 1: I listened every week, I listened to the Inside EVS podcasts,
Speaker 1: Tom Malogny and Dominic and Kyle. They are super geek
Speaker 1: about electric and I find it fascinating. Every week I
Speaker 1: met met them and we've we've been through some of
Speaker 1: the cars together. Taking Tom in the from fifty for
Speaker 1: the first time was amazing. He's super experienced with EVS
Speaker 1: and he was still amazed by the product, so he
Speaker 1: was the journalist referred to. It was so cool to
Speaker 1: see him so excited about it. He's ordered one one
Speaker 1: of the first people to get it. So I love
Speaker 1: that podcast because it's so detailed and if you hold
Speaker 1: you so much, and they care so much about getting
Speaker 1: it right. They've worked with EVS for fifteen years or more,
Speaker 1: so that's what that's one of the first things I
Speaker 1: listened to when when I've got time, are you I
Speaker 1: do what I'm doing? Other task I listened to every week.
Speaker 1: H really interesting. Tell us about your mentors who helped
Speaker 1: shape your career. Yeah, so, UM, I always loved Virgin
Speaker 1: and what they did there external, let's say, because they're
Speaker 1: totally focused on the customer. As I went through my career,
Speaker 1: that's the thing that I grew to do. That's my
Speaker 1: trade market. I love just making amazing stuff that they love.
Speaker 1: So he is obsessed by customer and and so that
Speaker 1: that's one of the things I He was an inspiration
Speaker 1: and it still is now. And I saw how that
Speaker 1: worked out. You know, you look after the customer and
Speaker 1: everything else will look after itself. UM. I had earlier
Speaker 1: mentors in engineering who was superb engineers. UM and one guy,
Speaker 1: guy called Franz lemon Um. He was retiring and in Germany.
Speaker 1: I worked in Germany for ten years. And when he
Speaker 1: went to do his um retirement do they had to
Speaker 1: move it and we didn't know why he and they
Speaker 1: moved it to the showroom and he turned up to
Speaker 1: the showroom. There were three thousand people there. Wow, everybody
Speaker 1: from the site had turned up. It was unbelievable. It
Speaker 1: had a very moving speech on stage. And and I
Speaker 1: have formed a habit of interviewing those who were retiring.
Speaker 1: I asked them, and always not in one ever said no.
Speaker 1: And I sat down with him and I said, could
Speaker 1: you give me one piece of advice? Because the guy
Speaker 1: had been so effective, so loved, I've done so much,
Speaker 1: because you know, could you tell me one thing that
Speaker 1: you that we would pass on? And he said, yep,
Speaker 1: straight away. And he said, at the beginning of my career,
Speaker 1: I I would focus on the most academic, the most brilliant,
Speaker 1: and this is how I would choose people. But by
Speaker 1: the end of my career, I also I saw a
Speaker 1: different pause. I saw a person who wanted to do
Speaker 1: it so bad, don't do anything. They'd learn everything they
Speaker 1: needed to about it. And all of our employees are
Speaker 1: very educated. You know, we're lucky. We educate from great institutions,
Speaker 1: so they're all they're all clever. But the one when
Speaker 1: somebody really wants it, that head to do anything to
Speaker 1: work to get it. He said, those people always do
Speaker 1: well because they want it so bad. And he said,
Speaker 1: that's how I recruited people from then on and I
Speaker 1: never forgot that. When I'm interviewing now, if someone's not
Speaker 1: perfect background, that doesn't matter. If they've got they've learned
Speaker 1: about the subject and they want it badly, I will
Speaker 1: give that person a chance. And it's never worked out
Speaker 1: wrong since. So that was an early mentor maybe ten
Speaker 1: years ago, but I never forgot that. So that's that's
Speaker 1: how I feel my teams up now. Really interesting, let's
Speaker 1: talk about books. What are some of your favorites and
Speaker 1: what are you reading right now? Yeah, So A Team
Speaker 1: of Teams um by General Stanley McCrystal and David Silverman
Speaker 1: amazing is using the story of the teams in Afghanistan
Speaker 1: and what they faced and how to uh and then
Speaker 1: it's relation to business and it's really about instead of
Speaker 1: one person at the top telling everyone what to do
Speaker 1: and they all have to come to them and they're
Speaker 1: a bottleneck. Instead, you make teams of teams. Each of
Speaker 1: your teams, you make sure you're aligned on what you're
Speaker 1: trying to do, and then you give them the space
Speaker 1: to operate and you trust them and either can be
Speaker 1: much more effective that way, and that's what they found
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan. Each team was independent and could could operate
Speaker 1: even without communication back to the central Amazing. So that's one.
Speaker 1: Another one's called Nudge Cass Sunsteine and Richard Tyler, just
Speaker 1: amazing about how um a lot of companies in society
Speaker 1: nudge you every day and you have no idea how
Speaker 1: much you're being nudged. It's but it's super important. And
Speaker 1: when you're developing cars and products, if you nudge someone
Speaker 1: where the right button is, they'll press the button. If
Speaker 1: you don't, they you know, they can't work out with
Speaker 1: the buttons, so they use it in supermarkets and all
Speaker 1: the things you might imagine. It's fascinating book. I really,
Speaker 1: I really recommend that that you your listeners read that one.
Speaker 1: It's just a wonderful book. Quite interesting. And our final
Speaker 1: two questions, what sort of advice would you give to
Speaker 1: a recent college grad who was interested in a career
Speaker 1: in either automotive design and manufacturing or battery and electronic technology.
Speaker 1: So I would say, you do your research and look
Speaker 1: at what customers are saying and and and think about
Speaker 1: what you would like to do as part of that,
Speaker 1: and then and build your knowledge up. First, show your
Speaker 1: interest in it, and then approach some companies who you
Speaker 1: feel moving in that space. Who you think maybe leading
Speaker 1: on winning in that space. And once upon a time
Speaker 1: that was really Silicon Valley and here you see that
Speaker 1: was really moving. But I believe now you know, you're
Speaker 1: seeing automotive companies of showing their moving into technology and
Speaker 1: extremely interesting technology and with a battery electric vehicle future
Speaker 1: and autonomous I think it's one of the most exciting sectors.
Speaker 1: And if you come to these you can make a difference. Here,
Speaker 1: you're not just a number you you will have You'll
Speaker 1: be able to train and make a real difference in
Speaker 1: products that are the second most expensive thing that people
Speaker 1: buy in their lives. And I think I think I
Speaker 1: would say there was a time when people said, hey,
Speaker 1: all cars are going to be similar soon and there
Speaker 1: will be a commodity and that may be very sad.
Speaker 1: And I think we've seen the first round of battery
Speaker 1: electric peoples couldn't be more wrong. There's nothing like that.
Speaker 1: They're just like gas in the fact that there's a
Speaker 1: whole suite of products with different attributes and feel to them,
Speaker 1: and there's a new level of performance that we could
Speaker 1: never do with gas as well, So it's even more
Speaker 1: exciting than ever before. So I think this sector is
Speaker 1: extremely important. Look for some of the companies that you
Speaker 1: admire in that space. I don't forget about the O E.
Speaker 1: M automotive companies because I think there's nowhere I would
Speaker 1: rather be than in this company doing this. This is
Speaker 1: even more exciting than the startups to me, because we're
Speaker 1: going to change the world with this. So fascinating and
Speaker 1: our final question, what do you know about the world
Speaker 1: of technology automobile manufacturing design today that you wish you
Speaker 1: knew twenty five years ago or so when you were
Speaker 1: first getting started for Wow? Yeah, so, I mean it
Speaker 1: took it took me years of working as an engineer
Speaker 1: in my little world, taking targets from whoever gave you,
Speaker 1: gave them from above and working in my closed area
Speaker 1: with goggles on. Right, that that's how I worked for
Speaker 1: many many years. I didn't I wasn't looking up to
Speaker 1: where my contribution played into the full vehicle. They didn't
Speaker 1: really encourage that either, And I wish I had said
Speaker 1: told on them and it was my doing and why
Speaker 1: and is that world class? And how can we push
Speaker 1: the boundaries? If I'd done that earlier, it would have
Speaker 1: been even more exciting. So it's just you tend to
Speaker 1: get into a job, especially in I guess the big
Speaker 1: o ems you're a small cog in a big system.
Speaker 1: I wish I'd looked up earlier to where does a
Speaker 1: small cog fit in and why? And I'm encouraging everyone
Speaker 1: in our company to do that now, and certainly everybody
Speaker 1: in Moodily is going to be doing that. So that's
Speaker 1: why I wish I knew thirty years ago. I wish
Speaker 1: I had kept that wide of you. While I'm it's
Speaker 1: important to get into details and work on details, very important,
Speaker 1: but you also must keep that overview of where does
Speaker 1: this sitting and fitting and why? Huh? Really quite fascinating, Darren,
Speaker 1: Thank you for being so generous with your time. We
Speaker 1: have been speaking to Darren Palmer. He is the general
Speaker 1: manager of Battery Electric Vehicles at Ford. If you enjoy
Speaker 1: this conversation, we'll be sure to check out any of
Speaker 1: our previous podcast that we've done over the past eight
Speaker 1: plus years. You can find them at iTunes, Spotify, a cast,
Speaker 1: wherever you feed your podcast fix. We love your comments,
Speaker 1: feedback and suggestions. You can write to us at m
Speaker 1: IB podcast at Bloomberg dot net. You can sign up
Speaker 1: for my daily reading list at Ridhults dot com. Follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter at rid Halts. I would be remiss
Speaker 1: if I did not thank the Crack team that helped
Speaker 1: put these conversations together each week. Mohammed Remaui is my
Speaker 1: audio engineer. Sean Russo is my researcher. Paris Wald is
Speaker 1: my producer Atka val Bron is our project manager. I'm
Speaker 1: Barry Rihlts. You've been listening to Masters in Business on
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio.