Ford vice chair on 'unprecedented' changes in auto industry

Ford Vice Chair John Lawler joins Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian at Deutsche Bank's Global Auto Industry Conference to discuss his transition from CFO to vice chair and the opportunities ahead for the automaker. Lawler is set to transition full-time into the vice chair position in early 2025, to be succeeded by former Lucid (LCID) Chief Financial Officer Sherry House.

Lawler explains that his new role focuses on strategic initiatives: "The level of change in this industry is unprecedented right now. You have the propulsion changes, moving from gas to electrification, and electrification is going to take many forms as we're starting to see develop."

He notes that partnerships in digital technologies will be key moving forward, pointing to the issue of capital efficiency within the industry as a whole. In addition, Lawler explains, "I think I can add a lot of value working with governments and their leaders on the policies and how Ford can help and how Ford's going to interface in those markets around the world." He highlights Ford's joint ventures in China as important partners, explaining that the company is not only profitable in the country, but there are several opportunities that lie ahead in the market.

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This post was written by Melanie Riehl

Video transcript

Pivot back to sort of the guidance here.

You're talking about how 2024 is looking, shaping up strong sales so far, you can still see that 10 to $12 billion adjusted, but, uh, kind of guidance that that target there.

So when we came on a first quarter, we had guided, uh, that we would be at the high end of that range.

And so, you know, that's where our guidance sits.

Right now, Um, I want to talk about your new role as vice chair.

You know, I know you as CFO grinding those numbers, but now it's more about sort of the strategic part of the business.

And how you kind of leverage relationships.

I know you used to work in Europe and Asia, and you're gonna kind of go back to those roots, right?

What's the new rule gonna entail?

And how do you kind of make Ford more efficient from that point of view, right, So it's it's really around strategic initiatives.

The level of change in this industry is unprecedented.

Right now you have the propulsion changes, you know, moving from gas to electrification and electric is going to take many forms as we're starting to see develop.

You also then have the digital technologies in the platform.

So I'm going to be focusing on which technologies we're going to move into alliances.

And as you said, partnerships are going to be key because one of the issues with this industry has been capital efficiency.

In a way, you work through more capital efficient structures, is through partnerships and sharing some of the capital footprint.

So we're going to focus on that.

And then, of course, you know, I've worked all over the world.

I spent six years in China.

I've worked in Europe, I've worked in Japan and I think I can add a lot of value working with governments, uh, and and their leaders on the policies and how Ford can help and how Ford is going to interface in those markets around the world.

Just real quick on China.

Is Ford still kind of focused on that?

Is it more of a a JB type situation?

Well, we've always had joint ventures in China.

We have two joint ventures in China.

One more commercial vehicles, one for passenger vehicles.

Um, yeah, the They're really important partners for us.

I love our strategy in China.

It's capital light.

Uh, we're profitable in China.

We're exporting from China.

We're growing from that market base, so we have a lot of possibilities in China.

And I'm excited about the future there.

John, Thank you so much.

I appreciate your time.

China 2024.

All that stuff going on right now.