Ford Chair Shrugs Off Trump’s Musk Ties After Lengthy Call

Keith Naughton and Ryan Beene
·3 min read

(Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co. Chair Bill Ford said Elon Musk’s relationship with Donald Trump won’t hurt legacy carmakers and that the president-elect has a better grasp of the auto sector than during his first term.

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“This time he understands the importance of our industry,” Ford said in an interview Thursday in Detroit. The great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford said Trump called him last week to discuss the car sector, tariffs and the importance of a healthy manufacturing base in the US.

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It took some “education” to bring Trump up to speed on the auto industry during his first four years in office, Ford said. He’s not worried that Trump’s alliance with Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., will hurt Ford or its peers.

“We are aligned on a lot of issues,” Ford said of Musk.

Ford is the second auto industry leader in a matter of days to downplay the risk that other carmakers will lose out after Tesla’s CEO emerged as Trump’s biggest benefactor during the US presidential campaign. Hyundai Motor Co. CEO José Muñoz offered a similar take earlier this week, telling Bloomberg Television that he wasn’t concerned.

Investors seem to be betting otherwise, wagering that Tesla will be a major beneficiary of Trump’s return to the White House. The carmaker has added more than $460 billion of market capitalization since Election Day, which is roughly the equivalent of Toyota Motor Corp., BYD Co. and General Motors Co.’s combined valuations.

Trump’s first term in office roiled the US car industry. His administration levied new tariffs and threatened others, revamped free trade agreements and rewrote key regulations affecting auto companies.

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Ford was a frequent target of Trump’s ire. Before he won the 2016 election, Trump attacked the company over plans at the time to produce vehicles in Mexico. Ford was also among the carmakers targeted by an eventually scuttled Justice Department probe of a pact on fuel-efficiency standards that companies reached with California regulators.

Ford acknowledged that his relationship with Trump “had its ups and downs” during his first term. He believes Trump is very interested in connecting with auto workers, but not necessarily their union leaders. He added that he thinks Trump will be helpful for Ford, because the incoming president wants to see the US auto industry grow.

Tax Credits

Ford said he and Trump also discussed EV tax credits for consumers and manufacturing incentives for EV and battery production. Trump has vowed to reverse Joe Biden’s EV policies — which include $7,500 tax credits toward purchases of certain electric cars — on day one of his presidency.

“I feel very confident going forward that Ford will have a voice and a seat at the table,” Ford said, noting that he spoke with the president-elect for a “long, long time.”

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Ford wasn’t expecting a call from Trump and didn’t pick up the first two times his phone showed someone was dialing him from Boca Raton, Florida.

“On the third time, I figured I better pick this up. And he said, ‘Hey, Bill, it’s Donald Trump.’”

Ford said his takeaway from the call was that Trump is out to “help the American auto industry, and not just the industry itself, but actually help the workers in the industry. He cares very much about the people in the plants.”

Separately, Ford CEO Jim Farley said the automaker plans to sell extended-range electric vehicles that use a small combustion engine to replenish the battery in the US.

“I can say we are not only looking at EREVs, we will be going down that route with technology,” Farley said at a press conference ahead of the Detroit auto show. “EREV is a very fundamental technology for Ford.”

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(Updates with context on Hyundai CEO’s comments in the fifth paragraph.)

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