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Ford CEO Jim Farley: Americans need to “get back in love” with smaller cars amid EV transition
Ford CEO Jim Farley shared some insights during his interview at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Farley noted, for one, that Ford is looking to release a $30,000 all-electric vehicle that will be profitable in about 2.5 years. He also discussed the value of smaller EVs to consumers and the electric vehicle transition.
Farley did not provide a lot of details about Ford’s affordable EV, though he stated that the upcoming vehicle is being developed by the automaker’s dedicated “skunkworks” team, which operates independently from Ford’s main business. The CEO did, however, hint that Ford’s upcoming affordable EV is expected to compete with cars from Chinese automakers like BYD, as well as Tesla’s next-generation platform.
Interestingly enough, Farley also highlighted the value of smaller electric cars. As per the executive, radical changes are needed to produce a profitable EV, and one of these changes could be a focus on smaller vehicles. As noted in a CNBC report, Farley reiterated the idea that Ford’s next-generation electric vehicles would be profitable.
“You have to make a radical change as an (automaker) to get to a profitable EV. The first thing we have to do is really put all of our capital toward smaller, more affordable EVs. That’s the duty cycle that we’ve now found that really matches. These big, huge, enormous EVs, they’re never going to make money. The battery is $50,000… The batteries will never be affordable,” Farley stated, though a Ford spokesperson later noted that the CEO was referring to the automaker’s Super Duty models, not the F-150 Lightning.
Most notably, Farley also stated that American consumers need to fall back in love with smaller vehicles. This is an interesting comment from the CEO considering that the majority of Ford’s profits today come from trucks. As per Farley, however, it is pertinent for Ford to reach profitability with EVs in the next five years so the company can compete with China’s electric cars.
“We have to start to get back in love with smaller vehicles. It’s super important for our society and for EV adoption. We are just in love with these monster vehicles, and I love them too, but it’s a major issue with weight.
“If we cannot make money on EVs, we have competitors who have the largest market in the world, who already dominate globally, already setting up their supply chain around the world. And if we don’t make profitable EVs in the next five years, what is the future? We will just shrink into North America,” Farley said.
Watch Jim Farley’s interview with CNBC at the Aspen Ideas Festival in the video below.
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Tesla all but confirms that affordable Model Y is coming Tuesday
It does appear that October 7 would be the date when the world sees Tesla’s actual idea of what an affordable vehicle would be like.

Tesla has released a cryptic teaser of a product that would be announced on Tuesday, October 7, 2025. Based on the company’s hint, it does appear that the product would be the affordable Model Y that has been spotted doing road tests across the country over the past months.
Affordable Model Y sightings
Last week, news emerged that a number of key Tesla influencers visited Gigafactory Texas for a private event. These included veteran Tesla YouTubers, car reviewers, influencers on X, and even a teardown expert who provided the initial insights on how to improve the original Model 3 sedan. At the same time, an uncovered unit of the apparent affordable Model Y was posted online. The vehicle was reportedly sighted close to Giga Texas.
The new Model Y variant had some notable changes from the standard Model Y. Its fascia seemed inspired by the Model 3 sedan instead of the Cybertruck, and its roof seemed blacked out. Overall, it looked like a simpler Model Y designed to be offered at an affordable price.
The weekend teasers
Teasers about an upcoming product were posted by Tesla’s official account on social media platform X, though the electric vehicle maker made it a point to keep things very vague. Initially, a closeup video of what appeared to be an aero wheel was posted, though it was vague enough that some speculated that it could be Elon Musk’s long-announced HVAC system instead.
On Sunday, another teaser video was posted featuring the headlights of a new car. This brought speculations that the new Roadster might finally be announced. Inasmuch as a new Roadster unveiling would be exciting, however, it was evident that the headlights in the new teaser were a match to the uncovered affordable Model Y unit that was spotted close to Giga Texas a few days ago. With this in mind, it does appear that October 7 would be the date when the world sees Tesla’s actual idea of what an affordable vehicle would be like.
Elon Musk
Tesla releases cryptic teaser for something massive and it’s coming this week
On Sunday morning, Tesla released a nine-second teaser video of what appears to be either a vehicle wheel, fan, or some sort of propeller, but there are no real clues as to what it could be exactly.

Tesla has released a cryptic teaser for something massive, and it will release details on it this week. With many different projects in the works, there is a lot of speculation going on about what it could potentially be, but we have a few ideas.
On Sunday morning, Tesla released a nine-second teaser video of what appears to be either a vehicle wheel, fan, or some sort of propeller, but there are no real clues as to what it could be exactly.
It then ends with “10/7,” meaning it will announce something on October 7, which is this Tuesday:
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 5, 2025
Given that Tesla has been working on a handful of pretty notable projects that are set for unveiling at the end of this year, and there are some clues that seem to point in their direction with this short teaser video.
There are two projects that come to mind almost immediately: the Tesla Roadster is one, and the “E41” or affordable model is the other. Here’s what we know about both:
Tesla Roadster Demo Event
Tesla said earlier this year that it would have a demo event for the Roadster to unveil some new technologies and show off what it has been working on over the past few years.
There have been a lot of crazy things in the works for the Roadster, including a SpaceX package that would use cold-gas thrusters for an insane 1.1-second 0-60 MPH acceleration rate. This package was also supposed to help it hover, something CEO Elon Musk has teased for the past few years.
The Roadster was ready for release earlier this year, but after Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen and VP of Powertrain Lars Moravy showed Musk what they had come up with, he wanted more.
Moravy said on the Ride the Lightning podcast earlier this year:
“What we had come up with exceeded what we originally planned. So, Elon was like, ‘Wow, great. Let’s do more!'”
The Roadster event was coined as “the most epic demo,” and since it was planned for the end of 2025, it is totally feasible to believe this could be it.
Tesla ‘E41’ Affordable Model
Some believe the teaser could be the official launch of Tesla’s affordable model, which Musk said earlier this year is simply a stripped down Model Y.
There have been some sightings of this vehicle in the past few weeks, including one on Friday that showed the vehicle completely uncovered for the first time:
🚨 It looks like the new affordable Tesla Model Y was spotted near Giga Texas
Model Y body with the Model 3 fascia, no glass roof, and looks as if there is a front bumper camera!
Should be coming soon! https://t.co/UAXQMHjM23 pic.twitter.com/9lC5te9GnW
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 3, 2025
The launch of the affordable model makes sense, especially from a timing perspective. With the $7,500 EV tax credit officially coming to a close on September 30, many are wondering how Tesla will spark growth in its deliveries. A more affordable EV would be the perfect response, and it is something that Tesla has been working on for some time.
Other Potential Ideas
There are some pretty interesting ideas as to what the teaser could be apart from the Roadster or affordable model. Some believe it could be a cooling fan for a GPU cluster, which would make sense considering Tesla’s prowess in data.
Grok also made an interesting guess, stating it could be a propeller for a secret air taxi Tesla is developing. This seems sort of our of left field.
We do know Tesla hosted a handful of influencers at Gigafactory Texas this past week, so whatever the company showed them is likely what will be unveiled on Tuesday.
News
Tesla Optimus is learning martial arts in new video teasing capabilities
For the past few months, Tesla has been refining its capabilities and making some serious progress on what Optimus is capable of. This morning, Musk released a new video showing Optimus learning Kung Fu, perhaps its most impressive feat yet.

Tesla Optimus is learning martial arts, a new video released by CEO Elon Musk shows, a crazy development and advancement in the robotics project the company has been working on for a few years.
Optimus has been a major focus of Tesla for the past several years, especially as Musk has said he believes it will be the biggest product of all time and could be the biggest contributor to the company’s valuation.
For the past few months, Tesla has been refining its capabilities and making some serious progress on what Optimus is capable of. This morning, Musk released a new video showing Optimus learning Kung Fu, perhaps its most impressive feat yet:
Tesla Optimus learning Kung Fu pic.twitter.com/ziEuiiKWn7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2025
The video shows Optimus working with a Kung Fu teacher, known as a Shifu, going through what appears to be some sort of routine of combinations. It’s quite impressive to see the fluidity of the movements and Optimus’s ability to keep up with Shifu.
Tesla has been “working hard” to scale Optimus production, Musk said last week, a project that has obviously confronted both AI and manufacturing teams with a variety of challenges.
The plan is to have an annual production run-rate of one million units by 2030, and there were plans to build 5,000 units this year.
Musk still believes Optimus will make up roughly 80 percent of Tesla’s value. In January, he said it would be “overwhelmingly the value of the company.”
Tesla plans to launch the Gen 3 version of Optimus soon, and although a video of a new-look prototype was released by Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, the company’s frontman stated that this was not what the next-generation prototype would look like.
Elon Musk confirms Tesla has never shown Optimus V3 design yet
This video seems to show there is still significant progress being made on the Optimus project, and it will be perhaps one of the most impressive humanoid robots available to consumers in the coming years.
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