Steve Westly, founder and managing partner at The Westly Group and former Tesla board member, joins 'Money Movers' to discuss Ford's shift away from all-electric vehicles, the global auto market, and more.

Steve Wesley, former Tesla board member, commented on Ford's recent $19.5 billion write-down, calling the automaker's shift in electric vehicle (EV) strategy a 'head scratcher.' He noted that while Ford is focusing more on trucks and hybrids, global EV adoption continues to rise, with firms like BYD and Hyundai gaining significant market share by offering lower-cost EVs.

Wesley emphasized that the largest and fastest-growing EV market segment is in the $20,000 to $30,000 range, an area where U.S. automakers have lagged. He also pointed out that changes in European policy and the dominance of China and other global markets mean U.S. automakers may risk falling behind if they focus solely on larger vehicles and hybrids.

Ford’s EV pivot a ‘head scratcher,’ says former Tesla board member

Joining us now with his thoughts on all of it is Steve Wesley, former Tesla board member and founder of the Wesley Group. Steve, on Ford, you know, the $19.5 billion write-down, I think, is the most visible sign of this pivot we've seen U.S. automakers make around EVs. What do you think is the primary driver? Is it what consumers want? Is it the regulatory regime? Well, look, first, $19.5 billion write-down, huge, huge number. And this is from a company where their CEO said just last month, we can't walk away from EVs in the U.S. if we want to be a global company. So this is a head-scratcher. I think the Mach-E, great car, but average sales price between $40,000 to $45,000. They never quite brought the lower-cost EVs to market that I think the market was looking for. So quite a turnaround for Ford. Let's see if they can get through it. I mean, the stock is actually higher on the news, but what do you make of the overall, the strategy here, and the fact that it is focusing more on trucks, on hybrids, and says that it's following the consumer? What does that tell you about what the consumer wants? Or is it just all affordability? The whole world is going electric. Last year, it was one out of five cars sold on the planet were electric. This year, it's going to be one out of four. 20 million of the 80 million cars sold in the world are going to be electric, and that number is going up. Why? Cost of batteries is coming down. Cost of EVs is coming down. Now, what Ford is saying is, gee whiz, in the U.S., people still like bigger cars. The administration has taken away the tax credits, so that's going to put a little damper on things. But long-term, make no mistake, the world's going electric. The biggest part of the market is in that $20,000 to $30,000 range. Firms like BYD and Hyundai are gobbling up market share. Ford, GM, and the other U.S. companies would be wise to follow that lead. It does come, interestingly, on a day where there's reports that Europe is going to water down its effective ban on combustion engine vehicles by 2035. In other words, there's some softening there in the policies, too. Isn't that good for the U.S. automakers? Well, it could be, but the fact is, close to 20 percent of the cars sold in Europe this year are going to be electric. And again, as prices continue to go down in 2026, expect that number to go up. Who are the real winners there? It's firms like Renault that are bringing super popular, low-cost cars to market. But this is not the old days where the U.S. and Europe were the dominant auto markets. Today, it's China, and the fastest-growing auto market is the rest of the world. Again, that's where firms like BYD and Hyundai are really taking off. So if you want to just be a U.S. automaker, fine, you can sell bigger cars, longer ranges, you can stick with hybrids forever. Is that going to be the winning ticket for the long term? Not likely.

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London

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Kyiv

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Bondi Beach

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Berlin

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Council of the City of Sydney

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California

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Boston

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Hong Kong Island

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Police release person of interest in shooting at Brown University

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Santiago

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Minsk

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