Europe goes late before the advance of Chinese cars, says Ford CEO

Chinese manufacturers multiply in Europe, with more and more brands and models – especially when it comes to new energy vehicles (between the various types of hybrids and the 100 percent electric).

Cited by Reuters, Ford's CEO, Jim Farley, warned the United States of America about the rivals of the Asian country, recommending extreme caution “in relation to how Chinese builders” arrive in the USA.

For the American leader, Europe is already “too late” to react to Chinese progress and prevent the pressure on local manufacturers from getting worse.

In August China’s presence of builders reached new levels, with a market share approaching 12 percent – when, not many years ago, its presence was relatively residual.

In 2024, the European Union introduced additional tariffs on electric cars from China due to the state subsidies they receive in an attempt to level them with Europeans. Right is that the presence of these manufacturers continues to increase in sight and diversify, often with more affordable prices and more resources than equivalent european models.

There are already companies that, to circumvent tariffs, have created or plan to create local production in Europe – such as BYD, Geely, Leapmotor or Xpeng.

Ford has a Chinese partnership in Europe

Ford herself wants to face China's competition in Europe. In part, this goes through a partnership with Renault; and in part, the strategy also provides for collaboration with Chinese Geely for joint production of electric vehicles in Spain.

The idea of the American manufacturer, according to Jim Farley said quoted by CNBC, is to make these partnerships with Chinese people where there is no intellectual property and can extract added value in terms of savings or technical knowledge.