Ford CEO Mark Fields says the company has the ability and expertise to build a Tesla-like high performance, long-range electric car.
Fields said in a conference call Friday that the company is considering it. “It’s consistent with our product philosophy,” Fields said.
Though Ford has no plans to copy the Tesla Model S, a larger electric car of some kind with better performance and greater range than the electric Focus, would “fit” the automaker’s lineup.
Ford actually purchased a Model S, and Fields described what the automaker did with it during the call.
“We drove it. We took it apart. We put it back together and we drove it again,” he said in the call, according to USA Today.
Tesla opened its patents in order to hurry the development of high-performance electric vehicles by other automakers.
Ford’s only all-electric is the small Focus electric. The Ford Focus Electric is a significantly cheaper option at less than half the price of a Tesla, but it’s still not selling in high numbers.
In spite of the car’s relatively steep price, Tesla is on track to sell its 50,000th Model S by the end of October. The car received Consumer Reports’ best score of all time. And the company already has plans in the works for a mid-range electric car called the Model 3, which would go mainstream in 2017 to compete with the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3.
