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Tesla is the benchmark for all electric vehicle makers, says former Ford CEO Mark Fields. The company is almost completely vertically integrated, which gives it a price advantage.
Tesla is a market leader in electric vehicles and its achievements do not go unnoticed. The company has huge support among its investors and customers, and even competitors praise Tesla. In a recent interview with CNBC, former Ford CEO Mark Fields gave his assessment of electric car makers, while noting that Tesla is a benchmark for them and has impressive advantages over competitors.
In his view, smaller EV producers such as Lucid face a demand problem. Although the company's vehicles are good and revenue rose in Q4 2022 compared to last year, the top line was well below what the Street was expecting. “So, those big revenue misses really kind of augur for issues around demand,” he added. Lucid’s deliveries, compared to production, were quite low for the quarter. Fields noted that the company was only able to deliver 55% of the vehicles produced.
According to the former Ford CEO, this speaks to how fast their market could grow and how much demand there is for their cars at very high prices. He noted that prices for Lucid electric vehicles range from $85,000 to $150,000, a range that does not have a large market. Also, at this price point, Lucid may have to compete with the likes of Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
In contrast to Lucid, there is Tesla, which is successful while competitors are failing, Fields emphasizes. He says that despite the competition, Tesla is still the benchmark in the electric car market. Fields noted that one of the smart moves that led to the Texan manufacturer's success was near-total vertical integration. This has ensured that Tesla is the master of its own destiny in terms of costs. This, combined with the great respect it deserves over years, its first mover advantage and its price premium help the company to be in the lead.
“Every automaker still benchmarks Tesla as the leader at this point,” Fields said.
© 2023, Eva Fox | Tesmanian. All rights reserved.
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Article edited by @SmokeyShorts; follow him on Twitter
About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
