Ford discovered the secret: they just had to open Chinese cars to understand why their electric vehicles weigh more, cost more, and result in a $5 billion loss per year.

Written by Romário Pereira de Carvalho

Published on 01/06/2026 at 12:38

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After dismantling models from Tesla and Xiaomi, Ford identified excess weight, additional wiring, and greater complexity in its electric vehicles, exposing losses of $5 billion per year in the Model E division

Ford began to review its strategy for electric cars after dismantling models from different manufacturers, including Tesla and Xiaomi, and identifying disadvantages in cost, weight, efficiency, and software integration. The diagnosis led CEO Jim Farley to admit that the traditional automaker lagged behind new competitors in the sector.

Ford discovered the secret of Chinese cars — Image: Disclosure / BYD

Electric cars expose cost and efficiency differences

The internal analysis showed that Ford was still applying some of the logic of combustion vehicles to electric cars.

This choice increased assembly complexity and hindered the pursuit of efficiency, especially compared to companies that were born focused on electric platforms.

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Ford CEO sees delay compared to Tesla and Xiaomi

Jim Farley stated that the evaluation was “very humbling” in terms of quality and cost. For him, these points are basic for an industrial company, but they showed that Ford had more ground to recover than it imagined.

The executive also admitted to using a Xiaomi SU7 in his daily life. The choice reinforces the automaker’s interest in understanding how more recent manufacturers structure their electric vehicles, especially in integration, software, and industrial simplification.

Change involves treating vehicles as digital devices

Ford has started advocating for electric cars to be treated as digital devices, with a greater presence of software and services.

This vision aims to bring vehicles closer to the logic adopted by new manufacturers, instead of repeating solutions used in combustion models.

In 2022, the company separated its electric operation into a division called Model E. According to Farley, the measure also exposed investors to the financial losses of the electric vehicle business, estimated at $5 billion per year.

Pressure increases on traditional manufacturers

The pressure from Tesla and new manufacturers has led Ford to rethink technology, costs, and industrial processes.

The case shows how the competition in electric cars goes beyond the battery and involves how the entire vehicle is designed, assembled, and connected.

This article was prepared based on information from the base material provided, with data, numbers, and statements preserved according to the consulted material.

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Ford discovered the secret: they just had to open Chinese cars to understand why their electric vehicles weigh more, cost more, and result in a $5 billion loss per year.

After dismantling models from Tesla and Xiaomi, Ford identified excess weight, additional wiring, and greater complexity in its electric vehicles, exposing losses of $5 billion per year in the Model E division

Electric cars expose cost and efficiency differences

Ford CEO sees delay compared to Tesla and Xiaomi

Change involves treating vehicles as digital devices

Pressure increases on traditional manufacturers

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Ford discovered the secret: they just had to open Chinese cars to understand why their electric vehicles weigh more, cost more, and result in a $5 billion loss per year.

After dismantling models from Tesla and Xiaomi, Ford identified excess weight, additional wiring, and greater complexity in its electric vehicles, exposing losses of $5 billion per year in the Model E division

Electric cars expose cost and efficiency differences

Ford CEO sees delay compared to Tesla and Xiaomi

Change involves treating vehicles as digital devices

Pressure increases on traditional manufacturers

In the cold desert of Ladakh, where it hardly rains, engineer Sonam Wangchuk created the ice stupa, a tower that freezes winter water and stores it for irrigating crops in the spring, a simple engineering feat that mimics nature.

Libya built over 4,000 kilometers of underground pipelines to bring water from the Sahara to coastal cities in a project that the government itself called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Chinese woman planted trees for decades while sand buried part of her house, received $5,000 from an American in 1999, and helped transform the desert into a forest of 8 million trees in China.

Almost 6,000 residents live concentrated along a single street nearly 9 km long in the interior of Poland. Houses form a continuous row, and behind them, narrow agricultural strips emerge, creating one of the most unusual rural patterns in Europe.

Desert sand, previously discarded for being too smooth for concrete, becomes an ecological brick in the United Arab Emirates, dispensing with Portland cement, curing at room temperature, and attempting to transform dunes useless for construction into raw material for a new arid engineering.

Described by astronauts as one of the most unlikely natural phenomena on Earth, the Okavango Delta spreads over up to 15,000 square kilometers in the middle of the desert and transforms Botswana into a living labyrinth of channels, islands, and flooded areas.

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