Ford CEO Says Europe Is Lost to Chinese Electric Vehicles

gizmodo.com

7 points·bookofjoe··5 comments

European and Asian consumers have similar tastes in cars, sub-compact through to mid-size SUV make up the majority of the market. In America trucks dominate but they don't export well.

Meanwhile, the best selling electric vehicles in Europe are European and Korean ( and Japanese in some countries; never bet against brand loyalty to Toyota). I think really this is more “Europe is lost to non-Ford vehicles”, which realistically anyone could have told you about 20 years ago; while Ford Europe was one of the few US car success stories outside America, it’s been in decline for a long time now.

"One in every seven battery EVs sold across Western European markets in the first five months of 2026 belonged to Chinese brands, according to data from Schmidt Automotive Research."

Hmm, that's a lot but hardly "lost" to other manufacturers. More like Ford is not going to try to compete in the BEV market...

Yeah, this is really more that Ford Europe is in severe decline. But that started before mass market electric vehicles where thought of; from the late 2000s on it’s been in trouble.

You used to see Ford Fiestas and such all over the place; only new reg consumer Fords I’ve seen recently in Ireland have been a couple of electric mustangs (high end, weird), and a couple of Rangers (ultra-niche in European markets). You do see new Transits a bit on the commercial side, but even those are being crowded out by Mercedes/Renault/Peugot.

(Ford Europe did seem to be trying on the commercial side for a bit, in that they have a credible electric Transit, whereas they barely have consumer stuff at all anymore, but in practice they don’t seem to have done that well versus other electric vans).

Ford CEO doesn't even know what public transportation is.

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