Doug McIntyre and Lee Jackson discuss the persistent underperformance of the Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) compared to competitors like GM (NYSE: GM) and Toyota. They attribute part of Ford’s struggles to its historical mismanagement by the founding family. Despite recent improvements and claims of significant growth in EV sales, Ford’s actual sales numbers are still relatively small. The conversation also touches on the skepticism around EVs, with many current EV owners indicating they might switch back to internal combustion engines. They suggest Ford should focus on its strengths rather than trying to pivot too aggressively into the EV market.

Transcript:

The Ford Motor Company cannot get out of its own way.

It still is underperforming GM, Toyota for the year.

And I mean, it’s underperformed the other stocks you can easily buy on one of the American exchanges now.

It isn’t for, you know, a quarter year today.

Why do people look at Ford and say, it’s just not as good as the other car companies?

I mean, what’s the story?

Well, for years, and you and I know from having lived where the Ford Motor Company is, it’s the family ran it and they were horrible.

Same reason with the, they ran the Detroit Lions and they were horrible, but the minute they step aside, they tend to do better.

But yeah, I mean, it’s a value trap because every time it gets going, you know, people say, hey, look at, you know, it pays the three and a half, 4% dividend and it’s, you know, it’s Ford and then they got the F-150 and then they always find a way to, you know, kind of shoot themselves in the foot and they get back to square one.

Well, the thing that Ford talks about constantly is, you know, our EV sales were up by high double digits in the last month.

But when you look at the numbers, it’s the thousands.

It’s not, oh, they were up by 100,000.

It’s they were up by a few thousand.

Right.

So it’s that old thing of, well, you know, it’s the rule of small numbers.

You know, you and I can make anything look good if we sold one of something and then the next year we sold two.

Right.

It’s a little bit of a smokescreen when you say that you’re doing well in the EV business, but you still have tiny market share and tiny sales.

Well, like you said, for them to sell thousands more, that’s a rounding error to a company like Ford.

And their key products, and I’m sure you’ve seen the recent studies where 95% or not 95%, you know, 55, 60% of the people that currently have an EV have no intention of buying one again.

You know, they’re just trying to work their way out of it and they’ll go back to a, you know, internal combustion engine.

So they should continue to ride the wave of what’s worked, you know, like Daryl Roy used to say, dance to the one who brung you, or dance with the one that brung you, and that’s what we probably should focus on.

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