Former Ford CEO: Mainstream consumers will adopt electric vehicles when they're more convenient

Mark Fields, former Ford CEO and CNBC contributor, joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss how automakers will convince non-adopters to buy electric vehicles, concerns the mainstream consumer has, and more.

[teebone]

bring in BYD and watch demand grow. The current prices are crazy

[EthelbertCoyote]

The key difference is overnight charging is an advantage as you cannot fuel a gas car overnight, but American's love driving and being able to fuel during the day with shorter range vehicles is a thing. Once the ranges are there I think most people would plug in over night v.s. have to stop at a gas station.

[fredeberlein]

Not correct. My longest charging time was 30 mins for Tesla Y. The average is 20 minutes.

[KungPowEnterFist]

PHEV/Hybrid sales are exploding, because it is the better technology/economics for the mainstream. With PHEV's, if you can charge, you get virtually the same efficiency as an EV within your battery range. Can't charge or out of battery range, you still get far better efficiency than ICE. Forgot to charge, car still works. Its freezing outside, car still works. Its hot outside, car still works. Wet outside, car still works. EV's are still incredibly far away from where they need to be for them to make sense for the mainstream consumer.

[thenetworkarchitectchannel]

EVs are way more convenient if you can charge at home. Quieter, faster, more reliable too.

[TrungPham-kpnl]

Even if they're focused on "cost", they're not informed about "cost", cost of acquisition (paying extra to dealership), cost of using (cheaper than gas to use), cost of maintaining (little to no maintenance), cost of upgrading (continuous OTA upgrades to existing features eliminates the needs to buy a new one every 8 years (for average consumers) as designed and planned by legacy manufacturers. Considering ownership experience that goes beyond cost (quiet, clean, easy to use, no engine rattles, no pain that comes from dealing with stealerships to name a few), it's almost priceless.

[corndogblue]

Charging is not a technology problem imo it's a marketing problem. I've had a Tesla for 4 years now, I was thinking about maybe getting an ICE truck but I don't want to be going to the gas station all the time, such a hassle. I almost never go to a charging station by comparison and I just use the dinky 110 charger at home that the car came with; it's s on the same charging schedule as my phone and it works for me.

[gerardoarredondo]

Norway has en 82 percent ev sales go ask them how they did it simple .

[scottjohnson]

The Tesla was less cost than a gas suv . Charge over night never have to wait to charge. It’s nice . Charge cost for me per mount is $30 or $25 . They are not for everyone you need to be able to charge at where you live. If you can’t it will be real tough for you to have a great experience with the EV .

[gainer]

Ford seeing strong Lightning sales in February. FSR .up 8 % Today. Fisker. Over 300 % increase in deliveries/ sales of Ocean Suv EVs expected in 2024... Over 356 million shares trading yesterday. EVs are the Future... Investing Early. ?

[技术与个人]

As CEO of ford, what did he do for EV? Did he try to solve charger issue?

[ytfeverguy]

The net result of all this is a billionaire EV overclass, and high gas prices. Let's everybody start riding a bicycle.

[weirdshibainu]

Technology is all about making the user's life easier and more productive. E.V.'s for the average person is a step backward in those terms unless they have a garage with a charging station. Until range can be doubled at a cost effective price and charging times plummet, E.V's will have difficulty growing to scale. As of today, there is nothing more energy dense, nor as transportable as fossil fuels.

[sarabeth]

TSLA has crashed because it is even now, way overpriced. The current price requires that sales double every year for the next decade. That sales are now dropping will cause the share price to fall to a P/E of 6-7, or worse. Toyota was bashed by Tesla fanboys for saying that hybrids and PHEVs are the near environmental future. Now that their HEV and PHEV sales are skyrocketing (as well as their stock price), who's laughing now?

[Anthony-djnd]

I see many people sitting in thier EV's while charging waiting to get robbed or assaulted!😢

[timower]

More convenient? Wholly expected from an ICEV guy. Keep people ignorant, CNBC!

[davidtunstall]

At some point, Tesla stock holders have to start getting concerned a bit, right? Right?

[jackhopman]

Tesla need a 500 miles Model Y version

[harrychu]

Nah. New car financing is around 11% and upwards of 14% for used cars. 1 out of 8 auto buyers are failing to qualify for financing.

Rates are simply too high and analyst expect no growth in the overall US auto market YoY, but still see a plus 50% YoY growth rate in EV sales.

[rjv]

misleading report. vehicle sales are down market wide, both EV and ICE. EVs are also not fully mature. motor tech will leap in the next few years. battery chemistry and density will also evolve quickly. but the major reason EV sales are down is because the market is saturated. all sales are down... or is everyone else misleading?