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Ford Boss Says People Have “Charging Anxiety” And Are Not Willing To Pay For A Premium EV
Ford boss Jim Farley thinks “mass consumers” have “a lot of charging anxiety” regarding EVs. He revealed these thoughts in an interview with Fox. Farley went on to clarify that “they don’t have range anxiety, they have charging anxiety” – just in case you were confused by his initial statement.
Weirdly enough, he didn’t actually explain what he means by “charging anxiety” and how it differs from “range anxiety”, a term that got quite popular in recent years. And yet it seems like these days that soundbite is being replaced, at least at Ford HQ, with the new, shinier, and improved “charging anxiety”.
We can’t tell you what’s different between these two, aside from the fact that one of them has been in circulation for a longer period of time. They seem to refer to the same consequence – adding an indefinite amount of time to a road trip due to the need to stop and charge – in different ways.
EVs with ranges of 1,610 km would definitely alleviate both, as would ubiquitous fast chargers that would be able to take an EV with a decent range from zero to full in 10 minutes. And by “ubiquitous” we mean enough that you won’t need to wait for one to become free.
Anyway, Farley also thinks that the aforementioned mass consumers are “not willing to pay a premium” for EVs compared to ICE vehicles, despite the fact that more and more EVs are now available to purchase.
He says Ford will “offer customers a choice”. “We’re going to have a growth story for all three of our businesses, including our pro-business, and we’ll have the customer choose” is the full quote, and that sure sounds like he’s saying they are going to hedge their bets and continue to make ICE vehicles as well – without actually saying any of that directly.
