(Headline USA) Ford CEO Jim Farley admitted this week that the electric vehicles being forced on the market by the Biden administration have serious downsides that have not yet been addressed.
Farley said he recently took Ford’s electric pickup truck on a cross-country road trip, and called the long drive a “reality check.”
“Charging has been pretty challenging,” Farley said Twitter. “It was a really good reality check of the challenges of what our customers go through and the importance of fast charging and what we’re going to have to do to improve the charging experience.”
Farley said he visited one popular charging station on Interstate 5 in California, where there are more than 40 available ports. It took 40 minutes to deliver a 40% charge on the truck, Farley said.
Charging has been a frequent complaint among electric vehicle owners, especially those who don’t own Teslas, which have better, faster charging equipment.
Earlier this month, one man who bought a Ford electric truck for around $85,000 slammed the vehicle as “the biggest scam of modern times” and detailed his frustrating experience.
Dalbir Bala, who lives in Canada, said he bought the vehicle to be a “responsible citizen,” but said it ended up draining him of money.
After buying the vehicle, he had to install two chargers, one at home and one at work, for $10,000. To accommodate the home charger, Bala had to upgrade his home’s electric panel for $6,000.
He then tried to take the truck on a road trip to Chicago, but discovered that fast charging stations cost more than gas for the same mileage. In Fargo, North Dakota, for example, it cost him $56 and took two hours to charge the vehicle from 10% to 90%.
The next two times Bala had to stop for a charge, the charging stations would not work.
“This sheer helplessness was mind-boggling,” Bala said. “My kids and wife were really worried and stressed at this point.”
Ultimately, Bala was forced to abandon the vehicle at a nearby Ford dealership and rent a regular gasoline-powered truck to complete the trip.
“It was in [the] shop for 6 months. I can’t take it to my lake cabin. I cannot take it for off–grid camping. I cannot take for even a road trip,” Bala said. “I can only drive in city— biggest scam of modern times.”
