Ford CEO: No plan to spin off EV business, but change coming

By TOM KRISHER
AP Auto Writer

DETROIT (AP) — The CEO of Ford Motor Co. says the automaker has no plans to spin off its electric vehicle or internal combustion businesses. But Jim Farley says Ford is reinventing itself to remove costs and ramp up for large-scale EV and software sales. Farley told the Wolfe Research virtual global auto technology conference Wednesday that Ford needs to hit Tesla-like profit margins by using common electric motors, electronic components and other parts across all sizes of vehicles. To do that, he said the company needs radically different human talent than it now has. He also said Ford has too many people and too much complexity, and it doesn’t have the expertise to transition to battery-electric vehicles.