Holding the title of Government Chair at Ford Motor Firm, plus the less-formal title of Henry Ford’s Nice Grandson, might weigh closely on a person’s shoulders. However Willian Clay Ford, higher generally known as Invoice Ford, carries each titles, together with labels like automotive fanatic, outdoorsman, black belt, and even environmentalist, with out hesitation. Mr. Ford does all this whereas shepherding Ford Motor Firm via essentially the most turbulent decade within the historical past of the auto.
Within the midst of ever-tightening laws requiring elevated EV manufacturing and gross sales, together with rising materials prices which are slashing EV earnings, Ford continues to cost full-speed forward with its aggressive electrical car plan. Like each international automaker, Ford is struggling to provide autos (typical and electrical) to satisfy shopper demand as provide chain points plague the trade. However Invoice Ford isn’t blinking within the face of those challenges. “It’s essentially the most enjoyable time in my profession. We’re going for it, in a means we haven’t ever performed in my working lifetime.”
As a comply with as much as my interview with Ford President Jim Farley, that is my interview with Invoice Ford, the place I study what it was like being an automotive environmentalist many years earlier than EVs have been cool, what he’d do in another way if he might return 20 years, and what modified his preliminary “over my useless physique” response to calling an electrical SUV a Mustang.