Ford Sends a Message to Elon Musk

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 11, 9:41PM EST · Published Jun 29, 6:25AM EDT

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Ford Sends a Message to Elon Musk — © josefkubes / iStock

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) was upset about a comment Elon Musk made about the number two car manufacturer. Its communications director fired back in a tweet, which is one of Musk’s favorite forms of communication.

Ford public relations chief Mark Truby tweeted:

Musk, the chief of Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) said Ford was “like a morgue” in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Musk’s comment was ironic. Tesla has had trouble building its Model 3 and needs to reach production of 5,000 a week to fulfill a promise to customers and investors. Ford’s F-150 is the best-selling vehicle in America and represents about 35% of Ford’s total U.S. sales.

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But, is Musk right about the future of Ford, even if his company fails to meet all its major milestones and he loses most of his credibility? Truby must be aware of deep skepticism of Ford’s ability to turn around its U.S. operations. In April, Ford said it would eliminate most of the sedans it sells in America. Its sales in China, the world’s largest car market, are falling. Investors worry whether CEO James Hackett is on the right path to restructure Ford and make it a leader in autonomous vehicle and electric cars.

Musk has been a loudmouth in much of his career in the public eye. Tesla may be crippled financially. That does not mean his comments about Ford don’t have a kernel of truth.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.