Ford CEO Jim Farley, whose company has benefited from tax subsidies under the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act, recently admitted he drives a Chinese-made electric vehicle and does not plan to exchange it for an American-made car anytime soon.
In fact, Farley had the vehicle, a Xiaomi SU7 electric sedan that retails for $30,000, flown from Shanghai to Chicago just so he could drive it, National Review reported Monday.
"I don't like talking about the competition so much, but I drive the Xiaomi," Farley said Oct. 21 on the "Fully Charged Podcast" with British actor Robert Llewellyn. "We flew one from Shanghai to Chicago, and I've been driving it for six months now, and I don't want to give it up."
The Trump administration banned Xiaomi, which also develops software and consumer electronics, such as smartphones, from the U.S. market for being a military company tied to the Chinese Communist Party. But the Biden administration reversed that decision after Xiaomi challenged it in court.
"Jim Farley's recent admission that he drives a Chinese-made electric vehicle is a slap in the face to the thousands of hardworking employees at Ford Motor Company," said Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, according to National Review.
"At a time when Ford is receiving billions of dollars in subsidies from American taxpayers to support domestic EV production, it is deeply troubling that the company's chief executive would choose a Chinese product over an American vehicle his own company manufactures."
In a post on Oct. 23 on X, Farley wrote he likes to drive vehicles from Ford's competitors to assess what the company is up against.
"I try to drive everything we compete against," Farley wrote. "Have done it my whole career. Specs can tell part of a story, but you've got to get behind the wheel to truly understand and beat the competition."
In August, Ford said it was canceling a plan to produce a three-row electric SUV and delayed production of its latest electric truck model. Waning consumer demand for EVs and increased competition have contributed to Ford's loss of billions of dollars on its EV investments. Other automakers are cutting investments and abandoning manufacturing goals.
Chinese-made electric vehicles are typically less expensive than American EVs because China allows companies to pay workers at much lower wages and Chinese firms dominate mineral supply chains, National Review reported.
"Of course China has massive advantages when it comes to producing electric vehicles," James Taylor, president of the Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank, told National Review. "The lion's share of critical minerals necessary for EVs are mined in China, the majority of processing of those minerals occurs in China, and Chinese companies pay their workers slave wages.
"Instead of trying to compete with China for loser vehicles that nobody wants to buy anyway, American policymakers should be championing the gasoline powered cars that Americans have always loved and continue to love."
The Biden administration has made EVs a priority of its green agenda through increased subsidies and multibillion-dollar investments, along with strict environmental regulations of gasoline-powered cars, according to National Review. Ford has benefited from those tax credits and investments. The Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act allows for taxpayer subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles and chargers.
"Ford has US-made EVs stacking up in car lots while the Biden-Harris administration is busy trying to wipe away the majority of cars we drive, propping up the Chinese Communist Party at the expense of American jobs and consumers," O.H. Skinner, executive director of Alliance for Consumers, told National Review.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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