Ford’s CEO Is Driving a Chinese EV to Work

Jim Farley, CEO of Ford Motor Company, has been driving a Chinese EV for six months. He does not

By Conor Healy

May 26, 2026

Ford’s CEO Is Driving a Chinese EV to Work

Jim Farley, CEO of Ford Motor Company, has been driving a Chinese EV for six months. He does not want to stop.

The car is a Xiaomi SU7, produced by the Beijing-based electronics company best known for smartphones and tablets. Ford flew one from Shanghai to Chicago, then drove it to the company’s headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. Farley has been commuting in it ever since.

“I don’t like talking about the competition so much,” Farley said on The Fully Charged Podcast. “But I drive the Xiaomi. We flew one from Shanghai to Chicago, and I’ve been driving it for six months now. And I don’t want to give it up.”

The CEO of one of America’s oldest automakers is driving to work in a car his company cannot sell, made by a competitor his country is trying to keep out.

The Apple of China

Farley described the Xiaomi SU7 in an interview with Argentina’s La Nación: “You get into the car with your phone and don’t need to pair it because it automatically identifies you. It has facial recognition, an AI assistant in the vehicle, and can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in three seconds at the touch of a button. It feels like a Porsche Taycan.”

He called Xiaomi “the Apple of China.”

The comparison is not casual. Xiaomi’s car runs on the same operating system as its phones and tablets. Accessories for the vehicle are sold in the same stores where you would buy a Xiaomi smartphone. The integration between device and vehicle is seamless in a way that Western automakers have not replicated.

The SU7 starts at around $30,000, the price of a Nissan Leaf. The top-spec model offers nearly 800 kilometres on a single charge. Xiaomi sells 10,000 to 20,000 units a month and has been sold out for six months straight.

“That is an industry juggernaut,” Farley said, “and a consumer brand that is much stronger than car companies.”

25 Years Behind

After visiting China, Farley directed his team to select five of the country’s best electric vehicles. They were flown to Chicago and driven back to Dearborn for study. The Xiaomi was his favourite.

But the exercise revealed something more uncomfortable than a competitive gap. It revealed how far behind Ford actually was.

When Ford hired Doug Field as its chief EV, digital, and design officer, the company expected him to accelerate their electric transition. Field had led the Tesla Model 3 programme and worked on Apple’s car project. He understood what good looked like.

What he found at Ford was worse than expected. “Doug told me, ‘Jim, your parts release system, IT architecture, and CAD design tools are 25 years behind,'” Farley revealed. “‘You can’t compete with BYD. You need real expertise.'”

Ford’s own chief technology hire assessed the company as a quarter century behind its Chinese competitors.

Three CEOs, Same Verdict

Farley is the third major automotive CEO to deliver this warning after visiting China.

I wrote previously in my article “We Have No Chance Against This” about Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe’s visit to a Shanghai supplier factory. He walked out and told his suppliers: “We have no chance against this.” The factory floor had no humans on it. Parts procurement, logistics, assembly: all automated. Fast. Cheap. Good. The three things you are not supposed to get at the same time.

Toyota CEO Koji Sato has said his company “will not survive” without a major internal transformation. The company that invented lean manufacturing now believes its methods are too slow.

Three CEOs from three different countries, all saying the same thing after visiting the same place. The conclusions are converging.

Geely Bought Volvo from Ford. Now Ford Wants Geely’s Help.

Ford’s response has been to seek partnerships with the companies it cannot beat.

The company has reportedly held discussions with Geely, BYD, and Xiaomi about various forms of collaboration. Ford denied the Xiaomi partnership rumours specifically, calling them “completely false.” But it has confirmed talks with Geely about using Ford’s underutilised European plants to build Geely vehicles, potentially sharing autonomous driving technology in the process.

There is irony here. In 2010, Geely bought Volvo from Ford for $1.8 billion. Now Ford is discussing whether Geely might use Ford’s factories.

Ford is also licensing battery technology from CATL, the Chinese manufacturer, for a new plant in Michigan. The technology that will power Ford’s next generation of American-made EVs will come from China.

“We know we’re in a fight for our lives,” Farley said in December 2025, announcing a partnership with Renault to develop more affordable EVs.

The Tariff Wall

The reason Farley has to fly a Xiaomi to Chicago rather than buy one at a dealership is that Chinese EVs are effectively banned from the American market. Since the Biden administration, the United States has imposed a 100 percent tariff on all Chinese-made electric vehicles. The policy has continued under Trump.

The tariff keeps Chinese cars out, but it does not keep Chinese technology out. Ford’s CATL partnership, the discussions with Geely and BYD, the possibility of Chinese automakers building cars in American plants through joint ventures: the technology is arriving through side doors.

Farley has reportedly discussed a potential roadmap with the Trump administration that would allow Chinese automakers to build vehicles in America through joint ventures with US companies, with the American partner holding a controlling stake. Whether those discussions lead anywhere remains unclear.

Phone and Car, Same Product

The deeper problem is integration, not manufacturing.

China’s technology and automotive industries have merged in ways the West has not replicated. Xiaomi’s car is simply another product in the company’s ecosystem. Huawei’s Harmony OS is spreading across Chinese vehicles, offering full-stack software solutions to smaller brands. Geely bought a phone company, Meizu, specifically to develop Flyme Auto for its vehicles.

Western automakers partner with Google for Android Automotive. It works, but as Farley has experienced firsthand, the result feels like two products bolted together rather than one seamless system.

“I can’t unlearn the fact that the Detroit Three never really had a plan,” Farley said, referring to how Toyota captured market share decades ago. The same pattern is repeating.

25 Years to Close, 18 Months to Fall Further Behind

Ford is not giving up. The company is building a new Universal Electric Vehicle Platform at its Louisville Assembly Plant. It has partnerships with Renault and potentially others on the way.

But the gap is 25 years, according to Ford’s own assessment, and Chinese automakers release new models every 18 to 24 months. By the time Ford’s next EV reaches the market, the Xiaomi SU7 will already have been refreshed, upgraded, and superseded.

Farley drives the evidence to work every morning. He still does not want to give it up.