Ford CEO: To make the transition to new technologies faster, it is needed to separate the electric car division

Ford's Lincoln brand is celebrating its 100th anniversary. This big event was introduced at Monterey Car Week. The brand will unveil its Model L100 at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance on Sunday. This electric concept car has a completely customizable luxury interior. According to Ford CEO, Jim Farley, Lincoln's future is behind this massive vehicle, and this electric vehicle (EV) will change the idea of a vehicle in an autonomous future, in general.

Yahoo Finance was able to interview the head of Ford at the Quail Event in Carmel, California, where Farley stated that the main change in the industry is autonomy and software updatable automobiles, not electrification. He sees the move to digital powertrain as a great solution, and the real change in the industry is using the interior in a different way, at least in high-end cars. It is about a "digital experience" in the interior, which can be changed endlessly with software updates.

Farley plans to split the company into two operating divisions to transform the business more quickly due to changes at Ford, where the Lincoln brand will become electric entirely. This will help the faster development of Lincoln electric cars, 4 models of those are planned to be on the market by 2026.

Farley was the first to think about splitting the business into directions of ICEs (internal combustion engines) and electric cars. "I have no idea why other people wouldn’t do it," the Ford CEO wonders.

Farley also notes that it takes a long time to do the transformation. The change in approach requires education, retraining of specialists, as the transmission engineer faced problems of insufficient knowledge in the area of batteries. "...we don’t have time, we’re way behind. So, to catch up and pass we need to specialize… I have no idea how we would make this transition if we didn’t specialize,” Farley says.

Farley admitted that in the past many things, from electronic equipment to software, were outsourced. Now the company is trying to grow this internally by hiring new workers from other industries. This will help in restructuring the company into 2 separate business units.

Also, the head of Ford believes that the recently signed Inflation Reduction Act gives new motivation for the development of electric cars and their components, which is "big deal."

“It will definitely help our industry, I would say our economists would be very favorable to what just happened, but the biggest benefit isn’t the EV consumer credit, it’s the $35 per kilowatt hour (kWh) support for battery production in this country,” Farley shares.