This is starting to get pretty entertaining to say the least.
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Over the weekend, I got a chance to check out the Ford v Ferrari movie. My recommendation: you should go watch this flick if you have any interest in cars — especially as Ford appears to be on the cusp of doing battle with Tesla. To that end, there are some intriguing parallels that seem to align with Ford’s prior battles with Ferrari decades ago.
Some background: Ford v Ferrari takes place in the late 1960s and showcases Ford’s entrance into the prestigious 24 Hour of Le Mans — a race that dates back to the 1920s. The race tests not only the speed of cars, but also their reliability as the same car has to race for a full 24 hours and end up covering distances of over 3,000 miles.
For some context, Ferrari was enjoying a lot of success from 1960 to 1965 where they’d won the race six straight times. Ford, at the time, was not seen as the “sportiest” of automakers and wanted to improve their image to drive buzz for the brand. The American company tried to buy the Italian racing brand in 1963 but Enzo Ferrari did not like the amount of autonomy he would have to give up to Ford and declined the deal.
In what some might call petty revenge, Ford took it upon themselves to create the groundbreaking sports car that we all recognize, the Ford Mustang, in 1965. But Ford also wanted to beat Ferrari at their own game and enlisted Carol Shelby to help beat the Italians in Le Mans. Thus the legendary GT40 was created. The GT40 would not finish its first Le Mans in 1965, but it would return in 1966 to take down the Ferrari and win 4 straight Le Mans until 1969.
That said, Ford has been making millions of cars annually while Tesla is still pushing to produce 100,000 vehicles in a single quarter. However, when industry observers start to focus on electric cars specifically, the script will be flipped and Tesla will be the one to beat. A recent report states that Ford is planning initial production of 50,000 Mustang Mach-Es in its first year. That translates to about 4,166 Mach-E crossovers a month, while Tesla is currently producing over 12,000 Model 3 sedans a month.
With both the Tesla Model Y and Mustang Mach-E launching next year, the face-off will be fun to watch. This will be the first battle between the two and we’ll see if it will end up looking like the ‘65 race where Ford didn’t even finish the race or the ‘66 race where they shocked the world.
For what it’s worth, Tesla’s Elon Musk already threw down the gauntlet with Ford, posting a video on Twitter of the Cybertruck pulling a Ford F-150.
“Sunny’s tweet was tongue in cheek to point out the absurdity of Tesla’s video, nothing more.”
Hmmm.
Anyways…. mark your calendars and start taking bets (responsibly of course) and let’s see if Ford v Tesla might become the new Ford v Ferrari. It will be fun to see how the next chapter unfolds in this ever-evolving story.
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An earlier version of this article appeared on EVBite. EVBite is an electric vehicle specific news site dedicated to keeping consumers up-to-date on any developments in the ever-expanding EV landscape.
Image Sources: EV Bite, Motor 1, InsideEVs
Video Source: 20th Century Fox
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article comes to us courtesy of EVANNEX, which makes and sells aftermarket Tesla accessories. The opinions expressed therein are not necessarily our own at InsideEVs, nor have we been paid by EVANNEX to publish these articles. We find the company’s perspective as an aftermarket supplier of Tesla accessories interesting and are happy to share its content free of charge. Enjoy!
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