Ford CEO Jim Farley just had the most public “oh no” moment in automotive history:
“We tore down a Tesla… and I was flabbergasted. Their wiring harness is 70 pounds lighter and 1.6 kilometers shorter than the Mach-E’s. We were basically carrying around an extra person’s worth of copper and sadness.”
Translation: Ford’s team expected to find some clever tricks. Instead they found Tesla basically said “why use 10 miles of wire when 2 will do?” and then laughed in minimalist engineering.
Farley’s admission: “We had the old-school mindset: ‘Just buy another wiring harness.’ Tesla had the new-school mindset: ‘Why even need that much harness in the first place?’”
So now Ford is going back to the drawing board like: “Okay… maybe we shouldn’t treat EVs like gas cars with batteries slapped on.”
Meanwhile Tesla owners reading this: “Bro discovered the secret sauce is ‘don’t make everything unnecessarily complicated.’ Welcome to 2012, Jim. We’ve been waiting.”
This is peak legacy-auto-industry energy: Spend billions, build a car, tear down the competitor, realize you’ve been doing it wrong the whole time, then quietly panic-revise your entire strategy.
Who else loves when CEOs accidentally drop an honesty nuke on live TV?
