But Farley’s changes are expected to go further.
He plans to split the talent among the various units so purchasing teams specializing in combustion vehicles, for example, aren’t asked to acquire specific parts for electric vehicles they might not have experience with. Designers, he said, will no longer be asked to simultaneously work on projects with different needs based on specific powertrains.
“Ford feels its current structure cannot optimize the capability of both sides of the house,” Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said in an investor note. “Too many competing objectives and complexity — needed to focus both missions.”
Still, Farley wants the two divisions to work in tandem in some respects, a potentially challenging goal for a company that traditionally has struggled to break down silos and been slowed by corporate bureaucracy. He named himself president of the EV business, Ford Model e, to help ensure that happens.
“Make no mistake about it: Even though this is a big change from where we’ve been, we are not going to create separate brands,” Farley said. “We are not going to compete with each other. In fact, that’s why I’m leading the electric business as the CEO because I cannot allow any of that to happen at Ford.”
The combustion business, now called Ford Blue, is headed by Kumar Galhotra, previously president of the Americas and International Markets Group.
While each side will have its own product development, sales and distribution teams, Galhotra said manufacturing and marketing likely will share responsibilities and split time between both divisions.
“We’ve gone through each position and talked through where it makes sense to have them dedicated to one team or the other and where we’re going to have teams that serve the entire enterprise at the same time,” he said.
