The challenge Ford has that can only be solved by action

Dunking of Ford these days has become a bit of a national pastime for many. Just looking at some of the coverage surrounding Ford’s latest updates on its Universal Electric Vehicle Platform program — or more importantly, the response to the coverage by people online — seems to indicate that people aren’t necessarily impressed with the progress the company is making towards electrification.

And to be fair to the folks from Ford who read this, it’s pretty deserved. While Ford certainly wasn’t the first automaker to deliver a mass-market electric vehicle, it was most certainly early in that process. During the Biden heydays, Ford was pledging massive investments in electrification, a whole lineup of electric vehicles, and a future where we didn’t have to worry about a war in Iran driving up transportation costs.

But then Trump got elected, and everyone reversed course. While most of the blame can certainly be lobbed at the president of the United States’s petrostate policies — and his stupidity — the fact remains that these rollbacks did happen and came with a significant write-off. Tons of money just gone up in smoke. It really feels like such a waste.

Now, we’re being told that the future hinges on this skunkworks-made-mainstream project to revolutionize the way Ford builds cars. We’re being told that things are on track, that everything is under control, and that the leadership at the top understands the threat the global auto industry faces from fast-growing, technologically advanced competition.

Another sad truth for the folks at Ford who read this is that no matter what effort is made now ahead of the truck's debut, it will make no difference in swaying this perception. The only cure now is shipping the product. I know that can’t happen yet, because it’s not ready. But at the end of the day, the best PR and marketing news for this project is that journalists are actually driving a production model about to go on sale.

The good news is that it’s still on track, from what I’ve been told. I do hope it delivers on the lofty promises made.

Ford also did something interesting recently, which I feel is worth mentioning. While the company is expecting a $1.3 billion tariff refund from the government — which still feels icky — Ford launched a new version of its employee-pricing-for-everyone program.

Normally, I’d say, “just make the prices less,” instead of running a promotion, and I do stand by that. But one thing JCPenney learned when it hired a retail chief from Apple was that people like discounts more than they like just lower prices.

Honestly, it does make the big tariff refund feel a little less icky. I know automakers absorbed some of the tariff costs, so they should be entitled to some of the refund, but I also know some of those costs were also passed on to consumers who won’t see a refund.

I will say that I do appreciate the public relations challenges that companies are facing in year two of Trump’s reign. He’s hugely unpopular, but large businesses are still falling in line because they don’t want to catch Dear Leader’s ire. That’s understandable from a fiduciary responsibility standpoint. But it does make it much harder to win the public perception battle.

Offering employee pricing is a good step. Delivering on this new truck will be a good step. Addressing quality issues and reducing recalls would be a good step. Listening to my advice would be an amazing step.

Well, maybe not the last part.

While it’s always a good idea to suck up to the boss (it’s a Ferengi Rule of Acquisition, after all), I’m sharing this article from Jonathan Gitlin at Ars Technica not because he pays me to do work sometimes, but because it articulates how I feel in a lot of ways regarding Chinese EVs.

His kicker really hits the nail on the head. “Principles like solidarity with workers or a commitment to road safety or being distrustful of AI are easy to maintain in the abstract if all they require is the occasional post on the Internet or social media.”

For those of you who know, I run the Destination Charged website, and I wanted to let you know I’ve launched a new feature there. The EV Recall Tracker helps track EV-specific recalls in both the United States and Canada and offers some analysis. It’s a work in progress, but I’ve been working on the tech for about a month now and am pleased enough with the tech stack and filtering to offer it to the public. It’s not perfect, but let me know if you see any glaring issues.

Also, stay tuned. I’ve been working a ton on processing recall data (not just EVs), and will have more to announce in the future.