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00:00so Lisa firstly thank you very much for letting me be your show for today I really appreciate it
00:20we're in the fabulous new Puma Gen E tell me about this car and why is it important for Ford
00:27so Puma is currently the best-selling car and also the best-selling vehicle in the UK so close to run
00:36second is Transit Customs so you know we don't know what might happen it's our entry level product
00:42and we've got a petrol version and now this is our electric version so it's kind of our lead-in
00:47offering and probably one of our best sellers in the UK market and how are people reacting to the
00:52opportunity of having a an electric Puma now so really really positive reaction it's still
00:58relatively early days but actually we've had really good order to take and a really good reception
01:04from customers and dealers so really just why should people go electric what's your view so I think
01:09electrification people choose it for different reasons our company car drivers may drive it
01:15because of the tax benefit they get from that yeah I think some people drive it because they feel it's
01:21important to think about the environment and about air quality but there's also a really strong
01:25business case or cost of ownership case because if you charge at home and charge overnight you can
01:30make significant savings on the electric vehicle so there's lots of really great reasons and actually
01:35um it's actually really nice to drive so it's very quiet it's very easy to drive and I don't know
01:40whether you'll pick it up on the recording but it's not an awful lot of background noise so I think
01:46there's a lot of really really really good reasons to choose I think different people choose it for
01:50different different reasons it's a challenge getting bums on seats isn't it it's like there's
01:54a famous Michael McIntyre sketch where he talks about British people getting into a swimming pool
01:59and it's all right once you're in yes it's a big dance around the edge isn't it exactly exactly but
02:04these are all right months once you're in let's we'll come back to product in a minute but just talk
02:08about you and Ford particularly I mean you've been with Ford since you left uni that's right but before
02:15that did you have a love of Ford you know we always talk about the fast Fords are there Fords in your
02:20in your history so my dad was a really big car and bike enthusiast really to be honest probably more
02:27passionate about motor plates than he was about cars but there's always kind of cars and something
02:33being tinkered around in the garage so I don't actually know very much about the technical side of
02:39things but I'm very good at handing spanners and taking direction so there was it was kind of a
02:44familiarity in my home and a bit of my dad's enthusiasm maybe rubbed off a little bit and so
02:52it seemed like when I had the chance to join Ford that it seemed like a really logical thing to do
02:57looking back I'm not quite sure if that was true but yes so I joined thinking that I stayed for a
03:02couple years and I never left you never went back do you have a favorite old Ford so probably
03:08um uh Fiesta X or two I think or maybe what wheels yes exactly exactly that's I think was probably
03:18it kind of combined everything about fast forwards and history for me and as a family my aunt and
03:25uncle used to have a little black anglia 105a with mint leather interior that was a great kind of
03:32family favorite and days out so I remember the smell of that car very vividly so a few Ford's in my
03:38very Harry Potter the anglia isn't it yes yes so that's what you think about now but for me I think
03:44about my aunt and uncle and days out trips and things so yeah you've seen an awful lot of change
03:49over the years so you joined in the 90s am I right yes that's right Ford potentially at its heyday
03:55are we seeing a new heyday because the changes have been huge in terms of the product lineup for
04:02example yeah I mean I think that we've seen when I think back to what so when we made the
04:09announcement to the team that we weren't going to build Fiesta anymore we had a little session where
04:15people were kind of sharing stories about their Fiesta history um somebody was saying listen do you
04:19remember you used to have the pull the choke out to start and about half of my team didn't know what
04:25a choke was right so when I think back to what it was like when I joined what cars were like
04:31the technology that we didn't have on how things have moved forward it feels like we're in a
04:36completely different place and now we're on the cusp of the move into electrification
04:40it feels like the world the industry what we sell how we sell it it's just completely different
04:46both for cars but also for commercial vehicles and not only Ford in that sort of yeah I mean
04:51everything's changed you know what we see in the UK market who competes um the kind of things that
04:57people buy the technology that's available and actually what customers expect as well it's very
05:02different um so yeah I think um I've seen a huge amount of change that maybe you don't really think
05:09about because as you live it every day it's incremental it's only when you stop and look back
05:13that you notice the massive change and there's lots of press probably more press about the
05:18the Fiesta going off sale than there was about the the name Capri which you won't go there because
05:22it's a great car who cares what it's called but lack of Fiesta the Focus no longer around where
05:28have those customers gone are they all gone into Pumas and Cougars yeah I mean we've seen a big number
05:32of our Fiesta customers migrate into Puma really really pleased with Puma as a small car offering
05:38it offers great value actually in the marketplace and in the UK and within UK and in Europe we're seeing
05:46fewer and fewer if you think about normal cars like Fiestas or Focus or what we have as Mondale
05:53and more and more customers migrate into that SUV styling which is where we're migrating our product
05:58line up to so yeah I think we're seeing customers move I used to have a game I played with my my kids
06:04when we were driving around wherever we'd go and uh I would say oh there's a Ford Puma going past but
06:10the game we used to play was there's a Ford Fiesta Britain's best-selling car you know you couldn't
06:14drive far without going and seeing a Fiesta but it used to be the case with dealers as well and
06:20you've got far fewer dealers how are you managing with fewer dealers you're still selling a lot of
06:26cars is it a natural attrition or something you've you've kind of focused on so it's kind of been an
06:32evolution for us um a two-fold evolution is one we've got um more specialized commercial vehicle dealer
06:40in dealers in the UK we call them transit centers so rather than have all dealers do a little bit of
06:46commercial vehicles sales and after sales we've got a very specialist line of events because selling
06:52a commercial vehicle and maintaining them you need to have reasonably specialist knowledge and then we've
06:58looked at where we need to have dealers to serve as communities and we're saying that people maybe
07:04uh 20 30 years ago wanted to drive 10 minutes expect to drive 10 minutes to do their their local
07:11shop or to go to I don't know Curry's or whatever people are now prepared to travel a little bit
07:17further and we're affecting that you know network let's talk about the electric cars uh unsurprisingly
07:22we're driving around Essex at the moment there goes an Explorer um you've got seemingly overnight a full
07:28range of vehicles with Puma uh Explorer Capri of course the uh the Mustang Mach-E now two of those cars come
07:36as a relationship with with Volkswagen and I know we journalists focus on these things what do customers
07:42say is anybody in the showrooms actually saying well we know this is a Volkswagen underneath do they
07:48do they care do they say anything no I don't think we're getting any of that reaction from customers
07:53and I think you as journalists and us as motor industry people um probably think about this a bit more than
08:00actual customers but we would say that the versions of our products so Explorer and Capri drive really
08:06much like a forward so as you get in everything that you see in touch is very much forward so no we've
08:12not really had many questions or feedback from customers they just don't care they don't know I guess
08:17well I think don't know or don't care yeah would be my assertion so what what is uh what what differentiates
08:24for these days if I was to speak to my neighbors and they would say which not by Ford but what does
08:29Ford stand for what it used to be about driving feel and uh people's car yeah I would still say that
08:35it's still about driving feel and that's kind of what our teams focus really heavily on as their building
08:42and developing product and certainly for our Electrify product we focused on making sure that it
08:47drives really really well but also that it's um easy to own and easy to use and that's partly um
08:55around what what's available to you in in your vehicles maybe that's partially what's available
09:01in the vehicle in terms of specification but also it's the ownership experience and the support that
09:07we've given after sales particularly with our commercial vehicles in terms of uptime and how we focus
09:11on keeping vehicles all the world one of the things Ford has done for its uh electric car buyers is
09:17quite innovative um quite like it the full power promise so it gives people a free home charger
09:23free miles when they're out and about uh is that going down well the customers like that yes it's
09:28been really well received and I think maybe if I take a step back and think about why we did that
09:32we know that some customers we took are concerned or have a little bit some reservations about the
09:38potential of moving to electric product we want to think about how we could overcome those
09:43misconceptions or concerns so charging is a really big concern for customers so giving a free of
09:50charge home charger allows that most people most days will be able to charge and also in many instances
09:56benefit from a really beneficial overnight charging rate and we also give some free miles away which is
10:04great and we also know that customers are a bit concerned about really our charge when they're out and
10:08about so we have um five years free services along with that is roadside recovery so if you ever happen
10:14to run out of charge um someone can pick you up and take you to a charge pod or back home to get
10:21charged up we know customers are concerned about battery life and there is no need to be concerned
10:26about battery life in vehicles so we're giving you an eight year warranty and along with that you get
10:31the blue access to the global charging network and the ford pass app which just helps you plan journeys and
10:36also manage your billing for all of your charging so we think we've got a really good comprehensive
10:41package that helps customers feel a little bit more confident if they want to take the stuff into
10:45electrification just takes the pain away yeah busts the myths um another area that i've seen you guys
10:51lead on is autonomous driving with blue cruise which is on the uh the mustang mac e that's right are we
10:57going to see that rolled out further what's uh what's the plans for for more self-driving are we ever going
11:04to get to a full self-driving ford so our focus very much is on how we improve driver assistance aids
11:13we think probably that autonomous driving is a very niche sector and not necessarily going to be
11:20of widespread adoption in the short to medium terms so our focus is thinking about how we improve the
11:26driver experience for every driver not just the few who might be thinking about autonomous driving
11:34so you'll see more things like blue cruise things like uh some of our driver assistance technologies
11:39where we're focusing reference is there any frustration from from government stroke governments
11:47the different legislation or the the speed of which ford for example is allowed to implement the
11:53technology that we know is there so if i think about blue cruise the uk government were really
11:59proactive and working with us to get approval to launch blue cruise in the uk we were the first
12:03market in europe to do it and the uk government actually were massively supportive but i think
12:09the whole area of autonomous driving is really challenging um so and i think there's a lot of
12:15work that still needs to be done before we think about widespread adoption on on roads but in the
12:21instance of blue cruise for us um uh the government was massively supportive and and getting that on the
12:27road so it's a tick for the government there let's continue on that theme around evs in particular
12:34you've been quite strident on on this in the past are you happy with the support that the government
12:39has put in place for industry over the z ev mandate for example and also from a consumer point of view
12:45okay so i think that the z mandate is kind of in the background of the industry that's kind of mandating
12:52a force mix around the mix of electric vehicles manufacturers have got to sell either cars or vans
12:59and unfortunately that mix is probably a little bit ahead of where we're seeing the rail demand
13:04and if we're going to hit those targets that mean that as an industry we have to discount really heavily
13:08the smt estimate that there's about six billion pounds of discounting in 2024 to hit targets yeah
13:15that can't go on can it no and that that's the issue and that as an industry we've invested really
13:20heavily in bringing electric vehicles to the market so if we want to hit those targets we'd ask the
13:25government for for two things one was for some flexibilities to help us manage bumps along the
13:30road and the second one was for customer incentives for retail customers my government's responded and
13:38we've we've got the flexibilities which is really really positive um but we have not got
13:43incentivization for retail customers and that's a real challenge um because the amount that forcing
13:51demand is costing the industry is actually quite huge and it's not something that's probably sustainable
13:56so what's your government do so ideally we'd like incentives but i'm not sure where that's going
14:02to come or not and we need to kind of just engage with them and see what's possible we've you know
14:07we've worked really constructively with um for transport um part of business and trade and we'll
14:13continue to do that and see where we can end up not that i want to mention other brands but i was
14:17talking to matt galvin who's the uk md of polestar and his view was that the government should be using
14:23the money from fines through the zev mandate to incentivize particularly private buyers to to go
14:29electric is that something it's a good idea do you think so i i'm not sure there are many manufacturers
14:34they're aiming to pay fines so i'm not sure that's gonna kind of work i think the government needs
14:40to find funding to help us get to the objective that we all want to get to which is our climate
14:47change objectives and that um uh transition towards um zero emission vehicles in 2035. and where are you
14:56on your your targets of the government saying you must sell 28 of your your uh your cars should be
15:02fully electric how how far off that are you so we've got a plan to comply this year um but you
15:07know we're pressing hard against us and it'd be great if we'd had some incentivization to help us
15:13get there okay i'm going to head away from cars now and i remember jim farley your boss i understand
15:19as the ceo of ford telling me that his favorite ford is the ford transit yes is it yours well actually
15:28my life started very very early on so one of my first jobs just as a commercial vehicle zone manager
15:34so i was very familiar with with transits and i think the commercial vehicle business is one of the
15:42best bits of our business and yeah so i'm really passionate about commercial vehicles you spoke about
15:47puma being number one best-selling vehicle in the uk transit is not many people realize it's actually the
15:54number two best-selling vehicle in the uk so that's right that's correct yes that's right
15:59how far off being number one could it could ever get there so it was number one actually two years
16:05successfully it was number one best-selling vehicle in the uk and unfortunately puma well fortunately
16:11unfortunately puma picked it to the post so i've got in my business i've got somebody who runs a
16:15commercial vehicle business somebody who runs the passenger car business bit of competition they're
16:19both basically competitive and do you know what i don't know where to put my money i don't know where
16:23we're going to end up nice position to be in i guess yes one of the challenges for the commercial
16:27vehicle side as well as the car business is the influx of uh the far eastern brands particularly
16:33from from china now the pie isn't going to get any bigger but they're going to want to take a slice of
16:40of the pie how are you going to sustain market share in the face of all these new challenges that are
16:46coming from the the chinese brands in particular i suppose i think it's about confidence in the
16:51product range that you've got and i think we've got the newest lineup of cars and commercials that
16:55we've ever had and it's about the level of service we deliver us through our really well established
17:00data network um and you've kind of got a bet on yourself haven't you so i think um we uh we've got
17:10a strong stone rebels in terms of our product lineup i mean our commercial vehicle lineup is the best
17:16it's ever been we've got a great ring a great network of dealers to support customers and i'd
17:22say the same one on cars as well it's clear that ford is in a good place under lisa's leadership in
17:28the uk but i always finish my interviews by asking two very important questions firstly if lisa was on
17:34her own in the car what music will she be listening to and the answer was clear bruce springsteen who she'd
17:40been to see recently and then how would she mark my driving well she was impressed with my multitasking
17:46skills and gave me an 8 out of 10 which i would send straight back at her as far as ford is concerned
17:52at the moment it's a very solid 8 out of 10 and rising
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