Skip to main content

Ford to make electric cars 'attainable to the masses’

Mark Fields, president and CEO of Ford Motor Company, said on Monday that it intends to mass-produce affordable electric vehicles. Fields, in an interview with Yahoo Finance, emphasised that Ford has the capability to make electric cars with a strategy different from that of Tesla Motors. Revealing the company’s intentions to produce reasonably priced electric cars, Fields pointed out that the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker has a full line of electric vehicles that have performed well in the market p
November 28, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Mark Fields, president and CEO of 278 Ford Motor Company, said on Monday that it intends to mass-produce affordable electric vehicles. Fields, in an interview with Yahoo Finance, emphasised that Ford has the capability to make electric cars with a strategy different from that of 597 Tesla Motors.

Revealing the company’s intentions to produce reasonably priced electric cars, Fields pointed out that the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker has a full line of electric vehicles that have performed well in the market place so far.

While Ford is currently ranked second in terms of sales in the electric car industry, the company’s Ford Focus was recently ranked as the most fuel-efficient compact car in the US, according to Fields.

“Tesla has done a very good job of bringing electrified cars into the consciousness of the American people,” Fields said, adding that “Tesla’s approach is to cater to a high-end consumer,” but Ford’s approach would be to make electrified vehicles “attainable to the masses.”

Fields had said last month that producing an electric car is ‘consistent with the product philosophy’ of Ford.

When asked about driver-assisted technologies, Fields said that Ford is planning to implement such technologies across its entire line-up over time, but added that research on the technology to produce better functioning sensor detectors had still some way to go.

Related Content

  • Sampo Hietanen’s mobility mission
    June 17, 2016
    For a decade Sampo Hietanen harboured a vision of an alternative form of mobility, now as CEO of MaaS Finland he is putting theory into practice. Sampo Hietanen has become the embodiment of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) – a concept he created 10 years ago while working for Finnish civil engineering giant Destia. “I had been working with the mobile sector on traffic information and started thinking what will happen when this becomes bigger,” he says.
  • Tesla uses Twitter to recruit software engineers
    November 23, 2015
    Tesla’s Elon Musk has taken to Twitter to recruit ‘hardcore software engineers’ to work on the company’s autopilot system. He issued a Tweet saying “Ramping up the Autopilot software team at Tesla to achieve generalised full autonomy” and followed it up with another saying that he will personally be handling interviews. The company released its Autopilot system for its Model S car at the end of October and claims it is the only fully integrated autopilot system involving four different feedback modules:
  • Evolving technology - debating the future of the ITS industry
    January 25, 2012
    Harry Voccola talks to ITS International about where he sees the intelligent transportation industry heading
  • Transport Systems Catapult boss: ‘We can’t build our way out of congestion’
    March 4, 2019
    The UK Transport Systems Catapult’s CEO Paul Campion talks to Colin Sowman about helping companies develop tomorrow’s solutions – and explains why you can never build your way to empty roads The future of mobility is going to be driven by services.” That’s the opening position of Paul Campion, CEO of the Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) – the UK government organisation set up to help boost transport-related employment and the economy. Campion was previously with IBM and describes himself as a ‘techno o