Ford's spin-off of the fuel vehicle and electric vehicle business has been passed down for a long time, and now the boots are on the ground. But what I didn't expect was that Ford came faster than GM in the spin-off matter - why didn't you expect it? Because GM is more like a financially driven company, the spin-off is conducive to market value management, while Ford, as a family business for so many years, has rarely done business spin-offs, basically an industrial company.
But this time, Bill Ford and Jim Farley made a big deal of determination to announce the establishment of independently operated Ford Model e electric vehicles and Ford Blue fuel vehicle business units to "fully compete with competitors in the field of electric vehicles and fuel vehicles." In addition to the two main business units, Ford has also separately developed a business unit focusing on commercial vehicles, Ford Pro, and Ford Drive, which aims at mobile mobility.
In other words, Ford's transformation strategy actually has four separate business units, but Ford Blue and Ford Model e are at the core, and these two units will project resources to commercial vehicles and mobility. This also changed the definition of "Ford Motor is a mobility solution service provider" set by Mark Fields long ago, which is equivalent to returning to the main line of automotive products to develop.
Let's start by discussing the logic of the Ford Blue and Ford Model e splits.
Ford has explained very clearly —
1. Ford Blue will become the main body of the fuel vehicle business, responsible for the profitable growth of the company's iconic automobile business, continuously optimizing costs, lean operations, improving quality, and providing world-class vehicle hardware engineering and manufacturing support for other business units of Ford Motor.
2. Ford Model e will accelerate innovation, launch more industry-breaking electric vehicle products, form economies of scale, and be responsible for the development of software, intelligent networking technology and services for Various Business Units of Ford Motor.
3. Ford Blue and Ford Model e will operate as independent business units, but will also share some related technologies and practical applications to form a scale benefit to promote the continuous improvement of operational efficiency. Along with Ford Pro, which previously announced for commercial vehicle and related service solutions, the three new business units are expected to operate independently and self-sustainably by 2023.
To put it simply, Ford took out the fuel vehicle business to compete with Toyota and GM, and spun off the electric vehicle business to compete with Tesla, Weilai, and the future Apple. In this way, the two business sectors do not affect each other, the decision-making is made separately, and there is no need to deal with each other in product platform, parts generalization, cost accounting, and marketing promotion, which is more conducive to their respective development.
This is actually a bit like byteDance's approach, today's headlines and vibrato are their own business entities, and even internal or competitive relationship, the audience is obviously different. However, in the initial stage of Douyin, it can obtain the user resources of today's headlines, so that the development speed is faster, not completely from scratch.
At the same time, two completely separate business units can also be completely detached at the marketing level, and different consumers have their own understanding of the same brand. This solves the contradiction between Ford's revival in fuel vehicles on the one hand and Ford shouting about the transformation of electrification on the other. For example, fuel car enthusiasts can agree with The Ford Blue's product concept and continue the spirit of "Built Ford Tough"; and electric vehicle buyers can also agree with the new electrification innovation spirit transmitted by Ford Model E.
A small detail is the origin of the term "Ford Model e". Previously, the industry debated why Tesla's "SEXY" model sequence was not called "E" but "3", the reason is that the "Model E" trademark is in Ford's hands. With the launch of Tesla's Model 3, Ford will definitely not directly use the name of "Model E", which is a smart name, and now it is most appropriate to name it a new business name, which also reflects Ford's determination to fight with Tesla.
In fact, Ford Motor has made some partial attempts before splitting the electric vehicle business, and it has been able to promote this comprehensive promotion after success.
"Previous attempts have been made to assemble small, mission-oriented teams such as the ford GT, Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning's product development team, and Ford's electric vehicle business team in China. The successful experiences of these teams led to the idea of forming Ford Model E. Ford said.
The reason why Ford Motor Now dares to split off the electric vehicle business and develop independently is because Ford has seen an optimistic prospect for the electric vehicle business. The data given by Ford shows that the F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E models have received a warm response, and the demand for orders continues to set new records. Ford expects the company's overall adjusted EBIT margin to reach 10% by 2026, and the annual production capacity of electric vehicles will exceed 2 million units; by 2030, electric vehicle sales will account for 50% of the company's overall sales.
And the split electric vehicle business is not just about building cars, according to Ford's description -
Ford Model e will attract and retain the best software, engineering, design, and user experience talent in the industry, responsible for developing and refining technologies and concepts that can be applied across business units within Ford Motor;
In response to the needs of retail, commercial and shared mobility services, we adopt a new approach to design and develop pure electric and intelligent connected vehicle products and services with breakthrough technologies and high market sales, so as to quickly put them on the market and expand the scale of production;
Develop and enhance the core technologies and capabilities of electric vehicles, such as electric vehicle platforms, three-electric systems (batteries, motors and inverters), charging and battery recycling, etc., to create innovative and breakthrough electric vehicles;
Pioneering a variety of software platforms and intelligent connected vehicle architecture (FNV) to provide customers with full-time, all-round and continuous improvement of products and experiences.
In addition, Ford Model e will also be responsible for designing a new set of purchase, purchase and use experiences for consumers of future electric vehicles, including a simple and intuitive e-commerce platform, open and transparent product prices, and personalized service support provided by Ford Ambassadors.
To sum up: Ford Model e will transform into an independent company with more technology company GENES, leading Ford's entire electrification and digital transformation, which is the "soul" of Ford's future business. Obviously, once the Ford Model e is on track and successful, then Ford Blue's business will also be on track to this side.
Let's talk about personnel changes throughout the business transformation.
As the helmsman of this comprehensive strategic transformation, Ford Ceo and President Jim Farley will concurrently serve as president of Ford Model e, ensuring that both business units are under his control. The car-loving "lunatic" and the "rock star" of the automotive world — the former fore CEO Alan Mullari — is gradually regaining the glory of the Ford brand by building their favorite cars for consumers who love the Ford brand and impressing them.
But for Jim Farley, although he loves cars enough, he is still a "car man with an internal combustion engine" for a large part, always dealing with traditional cars. So who will actually lead this new electrification business unit?
Luckily, Ford Motor and Jim Farley found the man, whose name was Doug Field.
Doug Field has been named Chief Electric Vehicle and Digital Product Officer at Ford Model e with overall responsibility for product development. He is also responsible for leading the development of software and embedded systems for all Ford Motor Company business units.
Of course, Doug Field's resume fully supports his position, and he is one of the few people who has both management experience in the world's top technology companies and product development experience for the world's largest electric vehicle companies, as well as working in the traditional automotive industry.
That's right, he served as vice president of Mac product design at Apple and led the development of products such as the Macbook Air, Macbook Pro, and iMac. He then moved to Tesla as Senior Vice President of Engineering, where he led elon Musk and CTO J.B. Straubel in developing the world's most successful pure electric model, model 3, not only responsible for products but also production lines.
After completing the development and production of the Model 3, Doug returned to Apple in 2018 and participated in Apple's car-making project "Titan Project". But perhaps because Apple's car was slow to land, in September last year, Doug chose to come to the starting point of his career , Ford Motor, who joined Ford in 1987 - as Ford's chief advanced technology and embedded systems officer, reporting directly to Jim Farley.
Therefore, Doug is a very suitable executive to lead Ford's electric vehicle business unit, he has both Apple experience and Tesla experience, and both companies are software and hardware technology companies, in the way of thinking is very in line with Ford's transformation direction.
Doug, on the other hand, is not a pure internet-thinking executive, and his resume is more focused on hardware development, able to understand the entire manufacturing industry. Whether at Apple or Tesla, his role is essentially a leader in hardware development. That couldn't be better for Ford, a manufacturing-based car company that wouldn't say it's all about being a software-minded executive leading the entirely new business.
In a sense, Doug Field may have been used by the Ford family and Jim Farley as the subject of training for the next CEO.
All along, the CEO who can succeed at Ford motor vehicles must be an executive who understands manufacturing and at the same time has a spirit of innovation, which is perfect if he still has some relationship with Ford motor vehicles. Moreover, Ford itself likes to do some continuous training internally to select a successor to the CEO.
For example, the two CEOs, Alan Mulally and Jim Farley, are well aware of these requirements, and even apply to the previous Mark Fields. And the complete parachuting of an executive from an outside industry will always encounter a quagmire for the Ford brand.
If you calculate the time of Doug Field's entry, this hardware master may have begun to work on Ford's next generation of electric vehicles. "After joining Ford, Doug will lead the company in developing the next-generation Blue Oval Intelligence technology stack to deliver "intelligent, connected vehicles that are constantly updated and improved," some media outlets put it.
These are all expressions full of imagination. On top of Ford's traditional advantage of car research and development, Doug Field will also have two partners, namely Stuart Rowley, the former as chief transformation and quality officer, and the latter as chief industrial platform officer. The experience of the whole team is much more professional and powerful than Doug's time at Tesla, allowing Doug to spend more energy on the innovation of electrified products, which must also be Jim Farley's meticulous arrangement.
All in all, Ford's strategic transformation of spinning off the automotive business unit and strengthening the electric vehicle business may lay the foundation for the Ford brand to compete for the next two decades, allowing for The Ford's blue oval logo to continue to shine in this era of technology.
Text| JackieLXX
Figure | network
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