Ford aims to build electric cars for the masses, according to CEO Mark Fields, and leave Tesla to cater to “high-end” consumers.
FORD CEO MARK FIELDS wants to build electric cars for the masses and, as the second-best selling electric vehicle brand in America it seems like the company is doing just that. In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Fields talked about autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles and why Ford won’t buy Tesla or compete with it in the electric vehicle market.
“Tesla has done a very good job of bringing electrified vehicles into the consciousness of American people, and clearly Tesla’s approach is to cater to a high-end consumer, and our approach is to make sure electric vehicles are attainable to the masses and we’re going to continue along that path,” Fields said.
When asked whether he was interested in buying Tesla, Fields responded: “No, we’re going to stay focussed on Ford”.
With the UK announcing it would allow autonomous vehicles on the road from January 2015, Fields was asked whether he thought the US was falling behind with only a handful of states having passed legislation allowing driverless cars on the road.
“I think, overall, when you look at autonomous cars, in our case at Ford you’re going to see a lot more driver-assist technologies migrate across our entire line-up. And when you look world-wide we’re still at that stage where we’re doing a lot of research, a lot of sensor technology is getting better, the infrastructure is starting to build, data availability is going to become more and more prevalent, so, I do think as we go forward, our approach at Ford, is to look at this as an opportunity for us both here [in the US] and in all the markets where we do business.”
