Ford CEO Jim Farley: Insourcing is key to saving jobs

CEO, Ford Motor Company Jim Farley He said that as the industry moves to electric vehicles with fewer parts, in-house work from suppliers will be critical to maintaining jobs at automakers.

As ford “We’ve seen the biggest change in our industrial system since the 1920s, with some storm clouds,” Farley said Tuesday at the Rainbow Push Global Automotive Summit in Detroit. .

“It takes 40% less effort to make this. Electric carSo, as a family business, we have to insource everyone to do their part. We have a whole new supply chain to fill, and diversity must play a bigger role than ever before. ”

Work, minority inclusion, and union representation were among the key points of discussion between Farley and the Reverend Jesse Jackson at the event.

The move to EVs is especially important for black-owned businesses whose primary role in the industry is supplying automakers, said John Graves, chairman of the event.

Minorities risk being left behind because EVs have 40% fewer parts than traditional internal combustion engines, Graves said at an annual conference attended by industry executives.

“It’s not too late,” he said. “We’re nearing third base, but there’s plenty of time for a handful of African-American companies to play a role in EVs.”

Farley continued the analogy as Graves did.

Farley said Ford is returning to a century-old business model.

“We go back to the Model A models in the Rouge[factory]and source the equivalent of motors and gearboxes and axles,” he said. We’ve outsourced, it’s done in-house, we go back to where we came from…why? Because that’s where we create value.”

Farley also said automakers welcome unions at new EV plants in Kentucky and Tennessee if workers decide to do so. How the automaker would handle union activity among employees at factories operated under joint ventures (in Ford’s case, he’s SK Innovation) was a question mark.

“Our employees will decide, but we fully respect the choice they make. We have broken ground. We are starting construction.”