Ford CEO Jim Farley revealed he drives a $30,000 Xiaomi SU7 electric vehicle, a Chinese-made sedan unavailable in the U.S. due to tariffs and safety regulation issues.
“I don’t like talking about the competition so much, but I drive the Xiaomi. We flew one from Shanghai to Chicago, and I’ve been driving it for six months now and I don’t want to give it up,” Farley told “The Fully Charged Podcast.”
Farley explained that he drives competitors’ cars to better understand the market. “I try to drive everything we compete against. Have done it my whole career. Specs can tell part of a story, but you’ve got to get behind the wheel to truly understand and beat the competition,” he wrote on X.
He praised Xiaomi as a powerful consumer brand, calling it an “industry juggernaut.” Xiaomi has so far not penetrated the U.S. market due to the vehicles’ incompatibility with U.S. charging infrastructure and federal trade restrictions.
