Ford's CEO calls China's EV dominance 'the most humbling thing I have ever seen'

Ford CEO Jim Farley said last week that China's EVs are "far superior" to anything the West offers and threaten the very existence of U.S. automakers.

"It's the most humbling thing I have ever seen. Seventy percent of all EVs in the world, electric vehicles, are made in China," Farley said Friday at the Aspen Ideas Festival, according to Business Insider.

"They have far superior in-vehicle technology. Huawei and Xiaomi are in every car," Farley said. "You get in, you don't have to pair your phone. Automatically, your whole digital life is mirrored in the car."

Speaking to author Walter Isaacson, Farley said U.S. automakers are limited in their ability to compete technologically because big tech companies in the U.S. "decided not to go in the car business." Xiaomi, one of the most popular EV makers in China, made smartphones before entering the car business, giving it a leg up in its automotive tech.

Farley also said that besides the superior technology, the cost and quality of Chinese EVs are "far superior to what I see in the West."

"We are in a global competition with China, and it's not just EVs. And if we lose this, we do not have a future Ford," he added.

This isn't the first time Farley has been laudatory of Chinese EVs. In fact, he's even admitted to driving one.

"I don't like talking about the competition so much, but I drive the Xiaomi," Farley said on a podcast last year. "We flew one from Shanghai to Chicago, and I've been driving it for six months now, and I don't want to give it up."

The comments come as Ford is seeing struggling EV sales amid declining market interest. Despite the company reporting a 16% increase in year-over-year sales in May, its electric vehicle sales have nosedived, with a 25% overall decrease in May thanks to a precipitous 41.7% drop in sales for its F-150 Lightning EV. Last year, the automaker largely refocused from EVs to hybrid cars. Farley said in 2024 that people shouldn't think of plug-in hybrid cars as a transition to fully electric vehicles — and instead see them as a permanent class of cars here to stay.