Model 3

Ford Europe CEO trolls Tesla’s 7,000 vehicles/week production milestone

[Credit: Jason Zhang/Facebook]
Simon Alvarez
Posted on

Ford Europe CEO Steven Armstrong took to Twitter recently to pour some cold water on Tesla’s production milestone for Q2 2018. Responding to Elon Musk’s tweet congratulating the Tesla team for producing 7,000 vehicles (comprised of 5000 Model 3 and 2,000 Model S & X) in a single week, Armstrong issued a sharp retort, mocking the electric car and energy company by stating that Ford could accomplish the same manufacturing feat in just 4 hours.

Armstrong’s trolling of Elon Musk’s announcement comes as the latest development in Ford and Tesla’s ongoing Twitter feud. Just recently, Elon Musk incited another sharp retort from the American legacy automaker after he likened Ford’s energy to a “morgue” in a statement to the Wall Street Journal. Considering that Musk expressed his criticism of Ford’s energy during a time when it was uncertain if Tesla could achieve its 5,000/week target for the Model 3, Ford’s VP of Communications Mark Turby quipped back at the serial tech entrepreneur, citing Ford’s capability to roll off a new F-150 truck every 53 seconds from its production line.

Ford’s latest response to Tesla’s production milestone received a notable reaction from thousands of Twitter users. While some found the tweet to be humorous, others noted that Armstrong’s statement might prove to be Ford’s Steve Ballmer moment. Steve Ballmer is a former CEO of Microsoft who infamously laughed off the potential of the Apple iPhone when it was unveiled back in 2007. Just like Armstrong’s response to Musk’s tweet, Ballmer noted in a now-meme-worthy interview in 2007 that Apple was selling zero devices (the iPhone was not yet available for purchase during the interview) while Microsoft was already selling millions of phones every year. As tech history would ultimately prove, however, it would take Apple a very short time before the iPhone helped the Cupertino-based tech company overtake Microsoft in market capitalization. Considering that the Model 3 has been dubbed the “iPhone of cars,” Armstrong’s most recent diss at Tesla’s capability to produce the compact electric car does invoke a lot of Ballmer’s reaction from his interview 11 years ago.

While the Ford Europe CEO’s comment seems to be designed to incite a strong reaction from the Tesla community (it did), the legacy automaker’s retort does come from a place of authority. Ford, after all, is the company that literally started the utilization of an automobile assembly line, with founder Henry Ford introducing it for the Model T back in December 1913. As history would later prove, the assembly line would be Ford’s magic bullet in the automotive industry, allowing the company to dominate American car sales with sheer production numbers and accessibility to the masses alone. This expertise has carried over to the company’s current operations, as reflected by Turby’s mention of the F-150 line rolling off trucks every 53 seconds.

With Tesla attaining a pace of 7,000 Model 3, Model S, and Model X per week, however, Ford would be wise to not underestimate the upstart electric car maker. Tesla, after all, has proven that it is unafraid to innovate outside the industry norm, as demonstrated by the company setting up GA4 in the Fremont factory’s grounds and air-freighting six airplanes worth of robots from Europe to the United States. On top of this, Ford is also dealing with a number of challenges as well, including its recent decision to stop the production of all its cars except the Mustang and the upcoming Focus Active Crossover, which is set to be released next year. Ford is also lagging in terms of EV adoption, with the company yet to release an electric car comparable to offerings from fellow legacy automakers such as GM and Nissan.

Ford Europe CEO trolls Tesla’s 7,000 vehicles/week production milestone
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     1 likes  3 months ago
What Ford doesn’t realize is that every model 3 destroys 10 or more sales for gas cars.  As those model 3’s are driven and seen in neighborhoods across the world they cause millions of people that never considered buying an EV to say “what is all the fuss about?”  “Why would half a million people wait 2 to 3 years for this car to pay full retail when they can pick up up a Ford this afternoon and get it at $5,000 off list?”  There much be something special about it (or all these people are completely nuts).  What is that something special?  It’s a car that competes in multiple classes.  It’s roomy like a Camry.  It’s green like a Prius.  It faster than Mustang.  It handles like a Porsche.   It’s cheap to own like a Civic.  It’s quiet and luxurious like a Lincoln.  It’s a status symbol like a Jaguar.    It’s a technology toy like the latest Samsung phone.  And you can tell it’s the best car you’ve ever driven in the first 30 seconds of driving it.  Ford has much to learn and not much time to learn.  They have to hope there are people that neither drive a model 3 or see this post, because either will ruin a gas car for you and Ford can’t make EV’s worth a sh*t.
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     1 likes  3 months ago
I agree. As soon as Ford makes a vehicle I want to buy, they can gloat.
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     1 likes  3 months ago
Think of the waste involved in turning out 14,000 dinosaurs per day.
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     1 likes  3 months ago
Fair comparison I suppose hundred years old company with hundred factories around the world versus the new company with just two factories. Instead of compairing absolute production how about comparing Ford's increase in production over the last 5 years versus Tesla?
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     0 likes  3 months ago
What Ford doesn’t realize is that every model 3 destroys 10 or more sales for gas cars.  As those model 3’s are driven and seen in neighborhoods across the world they cause millions of people that never considered buying an EV to say “what is all the fuss about?”  “Why would half a million people wait 2 to 3 years for this car to pay full retail when they can pick up up a Ford this afternoon and get it at $5,000 off list?”  There much be something special about it (or all these people are completely nuts).  What is that something special?  It’s a car that competes in multiple classes.  It’s roomy like a Camry.  It’s green like a Prius.  It faster than Mustang.  It handles like a Porsche.   It’s cheap to own like a Civic.  It’s quiet and luxurious like a Lincoln.  It’s a status symbol like a Jaguar.    It’s a technology toy like the latest Samsung phone.  And you can tell it’s the best car you’ve ever driven in the first 30 seconds of driving it.  Ford has much to learn and not much time to learn.  They have to hope there are people that neither drive a model 3 or see this post, because either will ruin a gas car for you and Ford can’t make EV’s worth a sh*t.
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     0 likes  3 months ago
Good job Ford, you can build 7000 cars in 4 hours that you can't sell...….   Now if only you could be in a position of NEEDING to build more to catch up to demand you might not have to cancel 80% of your vehicle lineup...  Here's a final thought for you, what if you actually had people taking reservations for your cars before they were even built?   I bet secretly Mr. Armstrong wants a Model S, I know his dealership employees fawned all over mine while I was picking up my buddy while he was dropping of his Fusion, again......
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     0 likes  3 months ago
A nEw F150 RoLls oFf tHe LinE eVeRy 53 sEcOnDs

7,000 cars produced, and market value beats you and GM
40,000 cars delivered and market value is higher than you and GM
how do you feel
[SIZE=4][FONT=Lato][COLOR=rgb(34, 34, 34)][/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE]
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     0 likes  3 months ago
Actually OLDSMOBILE was the first to establish an assembly line. Later, Henry Ford (who is now likely spinning in his grave seeing the idiots now running his company) established the 'moving' assembly line. Tesla is now the forward thinking auto company that Ford used to be. 
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     0 likes  3 months ago
So Tesla produces 1 car every 1 minute and 26 seconds, that’s really impressive.Producing as much cars in  4 hours means 1 car every 2 seconds, that’s almost two orders of a magnitude more. Very very impressive, almost 16 million cars a year ... but how many cars in the same price class as a model S, X or even 3? It’s a lot harder to build premium cars than say a ford feest (Dutch for fiesta).So to make a fair comparison we should look at a premium car manufacturer like BMW which sells 2 million cars per year or 1 in every 16 seconds, which is ‘only’ 5 times as much as Tesla.Another important notion is that cheap cars like Ford feest are loss leaders for the company and upselling is the only means for a company like Ford to make a profit.
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     0 likes  3 months ago
So Tesla produces 1 car every 1 minute and 26 seconds, that’s really impressive.Producing as much cars in 4 hours means 1 car every 2 seconds, that’s almost two orders of a magnitude more. Very very impressive, almost 16 million cars a year ... but how many cars in the same price class as a model S, X or even 3? It’s a lot harder to build premium cars than say a ford feest (Dutch for fiesta).So to make a fair comparison we should look at a premium car manufacturer like BMW which sells 2 million cars per year or 1 in every 16 seconds, which is ‘only’ 5 times as much as Tesla.Another important notion is that cheap cars like Ford feest are loss leaders for the company and upselling is the only means for a company like Ford to make a profit.

Ford doesn't sell 16 million cars a year. They sell about 6 million worldwide.
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