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William Ford

Executive Chairman, Ford Motor

Search every verified William Ford interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor Company, discussed the company’s future and the competitive landscape in two recent media appearances. In a July 2026 interview with Axios, Ford said the company’s history “guarantees you nothing for the future” and emphasized the need for an enduring U.S. industrial policy, noting that changes in administration can upend prior efforts. He described Chinese auto companies as “the biggest game changer,” stating they have “taken Europe by storm” due to subsidies from the Chinese government. Ford also spoke about his family’s role in the company, saying he wants younger family members to understand the company’s values and its obligations to its workforce and communities. In a June 2026 appearance on NewsNation, Ford said that one of Ford’s core values is “stepping up when our country needs” and that the company is “uniquely good at … building a lot of something complicated.” He noted that the Trump administration had reached out to Ford and General Motors about potentially helping develop weapons faster and cheaper than current defense contractors. Ford described his family as “incredibly competitive” and said the company has “great respect” for its competitors. He also mentioned that Ford is developing a new “universal EV” midsize pickup truck, which he called “revolutionary for our company.”

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“the most you know probably the biggest game changer and for those of you who travel and I know most of you probably do if you go to Europe now it's astonishing how quickly the Chinese uh auto companies have just taken Europe by storm because they're being subsidized by the Chinese government. Um and uh you know the Chinese government decided that um their domestic economy was in tough straits so they were going to ex”

“what we really need is an industrial policy that in this country that's enduring. Um and because what happens is each administration change has a change of idea and something that was worked on with a certain administration will be completely upended and taken to a different direction. And if you look at our competitors out there, not just the auto competitors, but our national competitors. I mean Japan's had you kno”

“Now, why do I say bet? That's an intentional word. Because there are no guarantees with this project. We're doing so many new things. I can't tell you with 100% certainty that this will all go just right. It is a bet. There is risk. The automotive industry has a graveyard littered with affordable vehicles that were launched in our country with all good intentions. And they fizzled out with idle plants, laid-off worke”

“And we're going to start the vehicle at $30,000. Just like old Henry, our idea is that the people work here at Louisville will be able to buy this car and spend money on other things they love like vacations and their home and their kids' education. We'll eventually make multiple body styles for work and play. And Doug and Bryce are going to tell you more about actually how we did that. Our goal again was to put a af”

“And that's right. You are right. We will spend $2 billion here in Louisville modernizing this plant. And that's 2,200 hourly workers that have a future for decades to come. And we didn't stop there. We built a Blue Oval battery park in Michigan. We spent $3 billion building a brand new battery plant and almost 2,000 new jobs for those people. That's $5 billion and 4,000 American jobs. And what do our competitors do? ”

“We looked at the past for innovation. We looked at the Model T and the the flathead V8 that Mr. Ford installed in our cars in 32. These were times when Ford broke with tradition and broke the rules and we made a leap forward. So back three years ago, we did something that no one really saw. We empowered a tiny skunk works group of people in California, a tenth of the normal people we would hire to do this kind of wor”

Other executives at Ford Motor

  • James Farley, President, Chief Executive Officer & Director

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