The head of Ford’s electrification effort has cast a serious shadow on Tesla over quality issues and promises that you won’t have to make that commitment to Ford’s electric vehicles.
Darren Palmer, one of the original members of Ford’s Edison team tasked with designing the brand’s first all-electric vehicle and now head of Ford and Lincoln battery electric vehicle development, made some interesting comments in a new interview.
In an interview with Autoblog on the sidelines of the launch of the Mustang Mach-E, Palmer said that buyers of electric vehicles have so far had to compromise and accept some “flaws”.
He said:
“The doors fit well, the plastics and other materials match the color, the bumpers don’t fall off, the ceiling doesn’t come out when washing, the handles don’t get stuck in the cold. … ”
Although the executive did not mention Tesla’s name, several of these quality problems are often associated with the brand.
He says buyers will not have to make these “commitments” to Ford’s electric vehicles.
Electrek’s Take
It would be easy to answer with just a “yes, but” and list all the things that Tesla does better than Ford when it comes to electric vehicles, because there are many.
Tesla vehicles have longer range, can charge faster and are more efficient than Ford’s new Mustang Mach-E.
But Palmer is also right here. If we can know that he is talking about Tesla without even mentioning him by name and just listing a bunch of quality issues that we associate with the brand, that will tell us that Tesla has some quality issues.
Tesla’s fast pace has resulted in some quality problems and we saw this especially in the first new vehicle launches, such as with the Model Y in 2020, and during Tesla’s quarter-end impulses when the automaker tries to deliver a large number of cars in very short periods of time.
The automaker should definitely work on it, but at the same time, this fast pace is also what drives Tesla’s innovation and results by reaching industry-leading specifications with its EVs, especially when it comes to efficiency and reach.
Some people will always prefer this, while others will prefer Ford and potentially avoid these quality problems.
I think both companies should look to each other to improve here and I am excited about the potential of the new EV competition to increase the overall quality of the new electric vehicles.
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