Ford CEO Jim Farley caught a sneak peek at Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday as he announced a major investment in solar energy. The purpose of the comment was to make a comparison between Tesla’s long-awaited Cybertruck and Ford’s additional truck, the F-150 Lightning.
Farley was speaking at Ford’s Michigan plant to announce a deal with DTE Energy that the two companies described as “the largest renewable energy purchase from a facility in US history.” But after promoting the company’s move to more sustainable sourcing, he made a quick stab at his main competitor in the electric vehicle space, who praised him In the past to help spur the industry toward electric cars.
“We are truly on a mission at Ford to lead an electric and digital revolution for the many, not the few,” Farley said. “And I must say the bright light for us at Ford is this beautiful lightning made right on the road in Dearborn, here in Michigan, really the flagship of all EV pickup trucks in our industry in the US.”
And he added, “Take that, Elon Musk.”
First announced in 2019, the Tesla Cybertruck was originally supposed to go into production in 2021, but Musk said it will now start in mid-2023. Meanwhile, the F-150 Lightning is currently the best-selling electric truck in the world. market, where it outperformed the only other two trucks, the Rivian R1T and the GMC Hummer EV.
Farley’s suspension was likely intended as a light dig at Musk, who also used the Ford F-150 as a benchmark to measure Cybertruck’s power and performance. (Tesla posted Video in 2019 about tug of war Between the Cybertruck and the F-150, where the electric truck easily beats the Ford pickup.)
naturally, Tesla outsells Ford By a large margin, it holds about 75 percent of the electric vehicle market. The Tesla Model 3 and Model Y are the best-selling electric cars in the US, followed by the Ford Mustang Mach-E – but it’s a distant third, with 6,734 Mach-Es delivered during the first quarter of 2022 compared to 46,707 units for the Model 3.
The solar deal aims to position Ford as a leading force in renewable energy. Under the agreement, DTE Energy will add 650 megawatts of solar power in Michigan for Ford — the equivalent of powering 14,000 homes. The installation will increase the total amount of solar energy in the state by approximately 70 percent. By 2025, Ford said, all of the electricity the company uses to make its Michigan cars will be matched with renewable energy purchases.
“It’s a strategic investment in Michigan to help us get more clean energy on the grid sooner,” Farley said at a press conference. “We don’t have to rely on oil price hikes in economic cycles to maintain full employment.”
So far, Amazon has claimed to be the largest global buyer of renewable energy. Earlier this year, the e-commerce giant Announcing several new projects It aims to increase its portfolio by about 30 percent, from 12.2 GW to 15.7 GW. By comparison, today’s Ford announcement is just 0.65 gigawatts. Previously, Google said it “Biggest corporate buyerfor renewable energy.
Announcing the “purchase of carbon-neutral electricity” is also different from the actual use of that renewable energy. Critics note that these claims are often inflated as a way to bolster the company’s goodwill in green energy, Pointing to the search Which found that corporate actors often don’t cut as much pollution as they claim.
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