Ford CEO is replaced on grounds Ford falling behind on autonomous (electric) vehicles

2972 Views 15 Replies 11 Participants Last post by Ladogaboy, May 24, 2017

DonC

Discussion Starter · #1 · May 22, 2017

Last Friday the Board of Ford Motors replaced Mark Fields, the CEO of Ford. The complaint seems to have been that Ford is falling behind on autonomous vehicles, which, because you need a lot of power for the autonomous electronics, also means electric vehicles. Fields was replaced by the previous head of autonomous vehicles, suggesting the putative reason for the dismissal was the actual reason.

Though very knowledgeable, Fields was out front in the effort to get the Trump Administration to roll back the CAFE standards, and he was not exactly a supporter of electric vehicles. So really not terribly forward thinking. (I simply don't understand why the car companies are so hot to alienate their future customers by blocking climate change mitigation measures. Seems insane.)

For electric vehicles this is probably a big win since not only will Ford be more focused on electrics, that focus and the shakeup at Ford may send a message to other companies.

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Shivetya

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Joined Oct 22, 2012

1,191 Posts

#4 · May 22, 2017

oh bull, they bet one small vehicles back years ago; namely small cars; and the market kept with larger vehicles and CUV/SUVs.

I doubt electrification and automation were top concerns. The simple matter is that in three years Ford's value tanked and it was because they pushed small cars hard over pushing more CUV/SUV