Ford’s ‘All Hat, No Cattle’ Strategy Is Backfiring

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Key Points:

• Ford is criticized for altering iconic brands like the F-150 and Mustang for EVs.
• Suggestion to create new, affordable EV models without impacting legacy brands.
• Importance of keeping future plans quiet until they are successful.
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Douglas and Lee discuss Ford's (NYSE: F) ongoing challenges with its electric vehicle (EV) strategy. They criticize the company's decision to tamper with iconic brands like the F-150 and Mustang for their EV models, arguing that Ford should have created new, affordable EVs instead. They emphasize the importance of having a solid, consistent plan that the company can stick to, rather than making bold announcements without delivering results. They also touch on the legacy of Ford's Model T as an affordable vehicle for the masses and suggest that a similar approach is needed for EVs. They plan to revisit the discussion when Ford makes its next EV announcement.

https://videos.247wallst.com/247wallst.com/2024/08/Ford_s-_All-Hat-No-Cattle_-Strategy.mp4

Transcript:

You know, it's funny, not that I've ever been the CEO of a gigantic automobile company, but you would think at some juncture, they would really sit down in the C-suite and your friend that runs it, the company would say, okay, I'm not letting you out of this room.

I'm not letting any of y'all out of this room until we figure out what is going to be a concrete plan for EV that we're going to stick to.

And what they probably should have never done is to kind of tamper with those iconic brands, because as we've discussed ad nauseum, the F-150, that's to the hardworking blue-collar American and, you know, not the urban American, but those, you know, often outside the city and, you know, many in as well.

And then the Mustang has always been sort of a lower-priced sports car, you know, that younger men liked and things of that nature.

So why would you tamper with those two brands?

Why wouldn't you go in, create a new, you know, it's interesting.

My neighbor, if you remember back in the seventies, Ford had two small cars.

One was the Pinto, which had some issues.

And the other one was the Maverick.

Well, now Ford, my neighbor, has a Maverick truck.

You know, they kind of replaced the Ranger with the Maverick brand.

But why don't you take something that's not your quintessential car?

Brand that people refer to the company as, don't tamper with that.

Do something else that can be affordable.

If you want to do a truck, well, sure.

Make it a smaller truck that can have a high range or something like that.

I think the whole idea of using these iconic brands was ridiculous.

Well, okay.

I'm going to, this is, we mostly talk about investments here, but I'm going to say to everybody who watches, I've been on the boards of several public companies, and I've learned one thing that the people at Ford have not learned.

You don't brag about a bunch of stuff that you're going to do that is awesome, awesome, awesome before you do it.

You always are very quiet about things that you think are going to be your big successes.

And when they are successes, you talk about them.

But the Ford Motor Company is a serial bragger about the future, and I think it's a bad idea.

And for anybody who's within the sound of my voice, if you work at or run a company, keep your mouth shut until you have something that works.

Well, yeah, and again, you know, the Ford Motor Company was started in like 1903, and Henry Ford changed the automobile industry by how did he do that with the Model T?

Why did that change everything?

It was affordable.

Everybody could buy a Model T.

I have a picture of my grandfather with a Model T circa 1917, but everybody could afford it.

And the thing is, if you want to make EVs ubiquitous, then make something everybody can afford.

Yeah, and listen, you and I both know this.

Tesla's trying to get to the $25,000 point.

Everybody wants to get there because they think that that's, know that that's the tipping point.

No one has gotten there yet, although apparently the Chinese have, but we keep their cars out of the United States with tariffs, so we sure we don't get to buy them.

Let's do this.

Ford seems to make an EV announcement every five to six weeks.

So let's get back together when they make their next EV announcement and figure out what it is.

Certainly, it'll be something that'll be noteworthy.

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