Ford's electric-Mustang boss takes swipe at Tesla quality issues

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trutolife27

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"but all manufacturers have recalls"

there in before that defense is said by someone else. of course whenever anyone says that, they can't point to a single other manufacturer that has literally had roofs flying off of cars, but anyway...
It's the percentage that is crazy. Also when looking at the number of parts in an Ice vehicle compared to a BEV. No way should a Bev company have as many repairs.
 

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Fords electric Mustang boss takes swipe at Tesla quality issues – Business Insider
  • Ford’s first mass-market electric vehicle, the Mustang Mach-E, is hitting dealerships.
  • In an interview with Autoblog, the executive in charge of the vehicle took a thinly veiled swipe at Tesla’s well-documented quality lapses.
  • “The doors fit properly, the plastics and other materials color-match, the bumpers don’t fall off, the roof doesn’t come off when you wash it, the door handles don’t get stuck in cold weather,” he said of the Mustang Mach-E.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Ford’s electric-vehicles czar took at thinly veiled swipe at Tesla in an interview published Friday, alluding to a string of issues reported by owners in recent years.
Darren Palmer, who’s helmed the automaker’s electric catch-up efforts since 2017, spoke to Autoblog about the new Mustang Mach-E. It’s the automaker’s first battery-powered car, and is entering an increasingly crowded field that’s overwhelmingly dominated by one name: Tesla.
“We want to pick up on early majority adoption,” Palmer told the website. While there are a bevy of competitors flooding the market, EV adoption is still relatively low and gas-powered cars still dominate roads, especially in the US. Electric cars accounted for less than 3% of all sales globally in 2019, according to IEA estimates, even as their adoption rate surges.
Vaguely addressing the elephant in the room, Palmer touted Ford’s century of manufacturing experience.
“The doors fit properly, the plastics and other materials color-match, the bumpers don’t fall off, the roof doesn’t come off when you wash it, the door handles don’t get stuck in cold weather,” he said, assumably referring to Tesla’s well–documented quality issues of years past. In two instances, owners of Model Y vehicles said their cars roofs’ blew clear off the cars.

And in November, Tesla recalled nearly 10,000 Model X vehicles over a roof trim issue. The company did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
“When people see the true benefits of electric vehicles, it drives that want and desire,” Palmer said.
 

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I think this is a great take:


Electrek’s Take
It would be easy to just respond with a “yeah but” and list all the things that Tesla does better than Ford when it comes to electric vehicles because there are plenty.

Tesla vehicles have longer range, can charge faster, and are more efficient than Ford’s new Mustang Mach-E.

But Palmer also has a point here. If we can know that he is talking about Tesla without even mentioning it by name and just listing a bunch of quality issues that we associate with the brand, it tells us that Tesla has some quality issues.

Tesla’s fast pace has resulted in some quality problems and we have especially seen those in early new vehicle launches, like with the Model Y in 2020, and during Tesla’s end-of-quarter pushes when the automaker tries to deliver massive numbers of cars in very short periods of time.

The automaker should definitely work on that, but at the same time, this fast pace is also what pushes innovation and results in Tesla achieving industry-leading specs with its EVs, especially when it comes to efficiency and range.

Some people will always prefer that while others will prefer to go with Ford and potentially avoid those quality issues.

I think both companies should look at each others to improve here and I’m excited for the potential of the new EV competition to push the overall quality of new electric vehicles higher.

https://electrek.co/2020/12/28/ford-throws-shade-tesla-quality-electric-vehicles-compromise/
 


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I just wish they'd be less cocky. Not a single Mach-E has been sold yet. Sure, I don't think we're gonna have bumpers falling off, roofs flying off, etc. but that doesn't excuse talking like this publicly either. Ford should be taking the high ground.

This attitude does *NOT* attract me as a customer, it repels me. Arrogance is not attractive. It's just tempting some catastrophic issue and the choruses of people quoting him later.
 

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Why is this guy trolling Tesla.

According to the recent consumer reports study Ford’s quality is nothing to brag about and Lincoln’s is the worst of all auto brands (including Tesla).

Maybe he should be trying to figure out how to improve quality at Ford before antagonizing others.
 
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I think he has a cheek taking a dig about quality.

The ford focus had a recall due to a coolant pipe fault which nearly destroyed mine, thousands of other focuses were less lucky.

It look years for ford to eventually reinburse some people for the repairs they had undertaken for this.

Then talking of trim faults you can see the rubber trim fault where it hangs out of the rear doors on many today. ford know about it but don't care. I glued mine back.

Then there's the kuga hyrid and the batteries catching fire! And how that car is currently unavailable to buy until that's fixed.

After the focus I purchased a petrol kuga which repeatedly the under trim would come off if I drove through water. This resulted in a 30mile drive at 30mph to the garage to be fixed and then it would come off again in the next week after another puddle. All of which cost me money and time.

So, prove to me first that your design and quality control is (as I suspect it is now) all ok before you dare to laugh at another manufacturer.
 

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I just wish they'd be less cocky. Not a single Mach-E has been sold yet. Sure, I don't think we're gonna have bumpers falling off, roofs flying off, etc. but that doesn't excuse talking like this publicly either. Ford should be taking the high ground.

This attitude does *NOT* attract me as a customer, it repels me. Arrogance is not attractive. It's just tempting some catastrophic issue and the choruses of people quoting him later.
Yes, I can see it as a turnoff. I think the reason he's doing it is because the stock answer to the question "what BEV should I get?" is "Tesla". Ford needs to change that, and attacking Tesla in it's weakest spot makes sense. Ford can't yet beat them in range or efficiency, but they certainly can outmanufacture them.

Why is this guy trolling Tesla.

According to the recent consumer reports study Ford’s quality is nothing to brag about and Lincoln’s is the worst of all auto brands (including Tesla).

Maybe he should be trying to figure out how to improve quality at Ford before antagonizing others.
Well, generally speaking Ford takes ownership of their screwups and addresses them. Sure at times it takes them longer to detect the issues or retrofit solutions, but they at least correct the design/manufacturing issues going forward. Tesla has had the SAME QC issues for years and since Tesla continues to ignore the problems they reoccur year after year. Ford is also absolutely right that using customers as guinea pigs for self driving is unethical and dangerous for Tesla's longterm survival.
 

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Well, generally speaking Ford takes ownership of their screwups and addresses them.
Those of us that owned 2012 Focuses with the 5-times-recalled "you're just driving it wrong" shuddering and clattering dual clutch automatic transmission remember when Ford definitely didn't fall on the "generally speaking" side of that, but agreed, they usually fix things.

It's just particularly touchy to see that kind of attitude when for some of us, we remember that attitude being used to justify Ford *not* fixing our cars.
 

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Those of us that owned 2012 Focuses with the 5-times-recalled "you're just driving it wrong" shuddering and clattering dual clutch automatic transmission remember when Ford definitely didn't fall on the "generally speaking" side of that, but agreed, they usually fix things.

It's just particularly touchy to see that kind of attitude when for some of us, we remember that attitude being used to justify Ford *not* fixing our cars.
Oh, I get it - and I was thinking of the Focus' issues when I wrote "generally". I had a Focus that didn't have the issues, but I can certainly see where you'd be turned off by Ford for life after that experience. I know I probably would be.
 

BlueMach

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Oh, I get it - and I was thinking of the Focus' issues when I wrote "generally". I had a Focus that didn't have the issues, but I can certainly see where you'd be turned off by Ford for life after that experience. I know I probably would be.
Yeah I'm hoping the Mach-E won't bring issues like that - and I have no reason to think it will - I just think he's tempting fate with that swagger before any of us even have our cars yet and can see what the quality really is.
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