One of corporate America’s favorite quotes is from Henry Ford, who founded Ford Motor Company in 1903.
Speaking about his product development process, Ford said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
Yesterday, Ford passed the $100B mark for the 1st time, per CNBC. Somewhat ironically, it did so by listening to what the market wants: electric vehicles (EVs).
Ford’s stock price is up 146% over the past year
And it has outpaced its main US competitors:
- Tesla gained 22% (market cap = $1T+)
- General Motors (GM) is up 20% (~$90B)
The global chip shortage has hampered all automakers, but Ford managed well in Q4 2021: It sold 508k vehicles, a 27% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) increase vs. a 3% decline for the entire industry.
More importantly for its long-term prospects…
… Ford is now America’s No. 2 EV maker
It shipped 27k+ Mustang Mach-E vehicles in 2021, passing the 24k+ Chevy Bolts and Hummer EVs that GM sold.
While both companies lag far behind Tesla — which sold ~1m EVs — Ford has one giant rabbit to pull out of its carmaking hat.
Since 1981, the bestselling car in America is the Ford F-150 pickup truck. Every single year.
Demand for Ford’s electric F-150 Lightning is huge
Due to significant consumer interest, Ford announced it will make 150k of the trucks a year by 2023 at a Michigan plant (~4x its initial output estimate).
The company’s turnaround has happened under CEO Jim Farley, who took over the top spot in October 2020.
If Ford keeps trending up, we’d love to hear this quote from Farley: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said electric F-150s… and we delivered.”
