$比亚迪(SZ002594)$ $福特汽车(F)$ Ford’s CEO Jim Farley doesn’t mince words: the thing that keeps him up at night isn’t just 网页链接{Chinese prices}… it’s their pace. After a trip to China and a deep dive inside a BYD factory, Ford’s CEO came home sounding like a man staring at a stopwatch.

Jim Farley vs. the Chinese sprint

Jim Farley built a career on speed. He rose through Toyota and Lexus marketing in the 1990s, revived Ford’s European lineup in the 2010s, and took the big chair in Dearborn in 2020.
Now he’s racing a new kind of rival. In May 2024, he toured Chinese plants and walked away convinced that BYD and peers aren’t merely cheaper or better: they’re faster at everything from design to factory changeovers. “What really keeps me awake is how fast they are,” he told interviewers.

Inside the BYD teardown: cost is king

Back in Michigan, Ford engineers stripped a BYD EV to its last bolt. The verdict? Ruthless cost focus. Lithium‑iron‑phosphate (LFP) batteries instead of pricier nickel chemistries; in‑house cells and electronics so there’s no supplier margin; a chassis with fewer stamped parts.
Jim Farley’s takeaway was simple: “We need smaller plants, less labor and less complexity.” From an economics standpoint, that’s vertical integration plus scale —exactly how you win in a low‑margin business.

Ford’s counterpunch: a skunkworks on a budget

So he decided to green‑lit a California “skunkworks” to build a truly cheap EV. The once‑secret group, led by ex‑Tesla engineer Alan Clarke, has ballooned to roughly 500 people and is targeting an affordable model for 2027.