Tesla, Ford CEOs to talk EVs in Twitter forum

Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk and Ford Motor Co CEO Jim Farley on Thursday will discuss efforts on "accelerating EV adoption in North America" during an online Twitter conversation, Ford said.

The Twitter Spaces conversation will take place at 5:30 p.m. EDT (2130 GMT). Musk also owns Twitter.

The event comes just a day after Twitter crashed repeatedly during a highly anticipated live audio chat between Musk and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, setting back Musk's efforts to promote the social media firm he bought for $44 billion last year.


Farley said earlier on Thursday at a Morgan Stanley forum that "on the infrastructure side, I think it's room for some collaboration between the auto companies, which is totally unnatural for us." He did not mention Tesla specifically in this case.

Farley added, "I think we need to start - I mean, I think the first step is to work together in a way we haven't, probably with the new EV brands and the traditional old companies."

For example, he called it "totally ridiculous" that the industry has multiple plugs for its charging networks and "we can't even agree on what plug to use."

This year, Tesla has opened some of its U.S. Supercharger networks to non-Tesla EVs, which use a competing charging standard, CCS or "Combined Charging System" as the Biden administration seeks to provide billions of subsidies to expand charging networks.

Musk earlier this month tweeted: "I think Ford's overall strategy with EVs is smart. The electric F-150 (Lightning) has high demand."

He also defended Ford over its losses on its electric vehicle business. "Always tough with margins for new vehicle lines, especially when there are major technology shifts."

Farley said on Thursday that Ford should take the lead to reach out to a new company like a Tesla or a Nio Inc or BYD "to kind of work together in a non-natural way as competitors. I think you'll see Ford do that just because that's what kind of company we are."