Ford vs Tesla

It was another extraordinary quarter for Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) sales. During the opening three months of this year, the electric vehicle (EV) maker produced 440,909 cars. Any manufacturer wanting to compete with Tesla must contend with a leader that continues to post extraordinary numbers. (These companies control more than half of their industries.)

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), a Tesla rival, will have much smaller numbers for the same period. March sales for Ford are about to be released. As a group, sales of the F-150 Lightning, Mustang Mach-E and other Ford EV products are unlikely to top 16,000 for the first three months of the year. Ford says its production of EVs will rise to the hundreds of thousands a year. The battered U.S. car company has a long way to go.

Tesla has had its share of problems. Many have to do with its troubled attempt to conquer autonomous driving. The results have been embarrassing, and perhaps dangerous to some customers.

Ford’s problems are much greater. Battery supply problems shut down Ford Lightning assembly lines. The company has raised the prices of the base Lightning no less than four times since its introduction. What was a $40,000 pickup has become a $60,000 one. Ford could not keep track of basic component costs and has undermined its chances for the Lightning to be a mainstream part of the huge U.S. full-size pickup market.

Ford has created a new facility in Tennessee that can produce 500,000 electric trucks a year. As the plans were announced, Bill Ford, Ford’s executive chairperson, said, “We will build revolutionary electric vehicles at an advanced manufacturing site that works in harmony with the planet, aligning business growth and innovation with environmental progress.” The implied production level is absurd.

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Tesla has made Ford’s plans even more difficult as it has reduced prices. Some of the first-quarter sales by Tesla were probably due to this price drop. Ford has to decide whether it wants to sacrifice margins, and perhaps create losses, to challenge the industry leader.

Finally, the gulf between Ford and Tesla shows up in their stock prices. Ford’s share price is up 8% this year, while Tesla’s has risen 65%. Tesla’s market cap is $656 billion, and Ford’s is $50 billion.

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