hi i'm time magazine and this next award is for the most influential company who electrified
everything this company has been working for over a decade to bring electric vehicles
to the forefront of society they've revolutionized the automotive industry and have single-handedly
turned evs from a niche compliance ticket to a staple in popular culture as you've probably
already guessed at this point the company who we've picked as most influential for having
electrified everything is drumroll please board time magazine just came out with their 100 most
influential companies of 2022 and i was flipping through it and you can't help but laugh at who
they picked and who they left out like for example they chose ford for electrifying everything
which would sound like a joke to anyone who's actually familiar with the ev situation
in 2021 ford sold about four million vehicles globally and out of those four million vehicles
about three percent of them were electric and included in that three percent
are plug-in hybrids which have full gas engines so if we take out plug-in hybrids then around
one percent of ford's vehicles were evs if we look at the top ev companies which is including
plug-in hybrids ford doesn't even make it in the top 10. now this isn't me trying to be mean to
ford this is just to say that if time wants to choose a company who's electrifying everything
they sure do have strange criteria in their justification for choosing ford they say this cars
suvs pickups and other light duty trucks account for over half of all u.s transportation emissions
making electric vehicles key to mitigating climate change but it's not enough to just
offer evs people have to actually want them ford's approach under ceo jim farley electrify some of
its most popular models like the f-series long america's best-selling pickup and it's working
demand for the all-electric f-150 lightning helped push ford's market value over 100 billion for the
first time in january ford is going all out to lead the eevee revolution says executive chair
bill ford and they're totally right that light duty trucks are crazy popular in the united states
people love their trucks and the ford f-150 lightning if it lives up to its expectations
is going to be a great ev and i'm sure a great truck i'm super excited about it but here's
the thing about that ford hasn't even started shipping them yet to say ford has electrified
everything with a product that they haven't even released yet well it seems a bit premature now the
lightning is supposed to be shipping in may which is pretty soon but they still have a difficult
production ramp ahead of them their ultimate goal is to produce 150 000 electric trucks annually
which would make up about 15 to 20 percent of their f-series line which would still mean that
only four percent of their total vehicles are electric now that is a good start for sure 150
000 electric trucks is nothing to scoff at but it sure isn't electrifying everything like time
magazine is saying it's not even electrifying the majority of their trucks much less electrifying
the majority of their fleet but another thing to consider here is that while ford's goal is 150
000 trucks annually mass production of evs is difficult and is far from guaranteed for example
their mustang mock e which was their first real entrance into evs which came out in late 2019
sold generally two to three thousand units per month in 2021 and so far in 2022 is actually
showing worse sales according to inside evs ford mustang mock e sales in february amounted to 2001
which is surprisingly 46.5 percent less than in february 2021. we hoped that the mock e would
improve as the demand is high but the company is clearly struggling on the production side we
heard that in february production was halted due to a lack of semiconductors which means that the
situation will not likely improve significantly in the near future so that means while ford may
want to produce these lightnings they might not be able to due to supply constraints and
the reality of the situation is that many of the supply shortages which are causing ford to not be
able to produce very many mock ease are also going to apply to their lightning such as semiconductors
and batteries what i'm trying to say here is that just because ford wants to produce evs at a larger
volume doesn't mean they can and the machi is proof of that and what's honestly even scarier to
me is that they're struggling to produce the mock e and in 2021 they only produced 27 000 of them
that's almost nothing and i think it's awesome that the maki is doing so well and has really
high demand but if they're struggling to produce 27 000 mockies i don't see it as a given that
they can produce 150 000 lightnings annually and of course 2020 and 2021 were crazy years as far
as logistics and global supply chains and that should be taken into account it's not that ford
doesn't have a chance it's just to say that it's going to be difficult for them but let's address
the elephant in the room time magazine awarded ford for electrifying everything but you know who
didn't make it on their list you probably guessed it at this point it's tesla and this is what's so
hilarious about this piece and pieces like it they have to support legacy auto because of
their financial motivation and company structures but it leads to unreal levels of contradiction
imagine how out of sync with reality you have to be to give ford an award for electrifying
everything while not acknowledging tesla everyone knows that tesla was the catalyst that forced the
legacy auto industry to take evie seriously this isn't even a controversial opinion without tesla
nobody including ford would be taking evs as seriously as they are today when we look at
the most influential companies today by loads of metrics tesla is topping the charts it's
the leader in evs it's the leader in autonomous driving it's a leader in software and computing
they're leading in grid scale storage solutions to help solve this energy crisis and the list just
keeps going on just about everyone agrees that we have to try and do something about climate change
and tesla is one of the premier companies that's actually stepping up to the plate that's why when
you look at where engineers are wanting to work after finishing college it's tesla well actually
it's spacex and then tesla but spacex didn't make the list either but it gets even funnier because
time recognized some other companies for their contributions to the ev industry are you ready
for this and again tesla didn't make the list okay so they put byd on their list byd is a chinese eb
manufacturer they're around the third largest ev manufacturer in the world tesla is number one on
that list but byd is a major player then they put rivien on the list but what's hilarious about this
one is they say inside evie maker rivian's plan to take on ford and tesla which okay if they're
putting ribbon on there i've got nothing against ribbian i'm actually a big fan of the company
but if you're talking about the most influential companies there is just no way that rivien could
be considered more influential than tesla especially not in the ev space
but clearly i just don't get it because time magazine would know best they also put evie
connect on there for their charging network and they put redwood materials on there which is a
battery recycling startup that was founded by none other than jb strawball what's funny about him
is that he is a co-founder of tesla and again i think what redwood is doing is actually critically
important if we're going to have all these evs and their batteries will be wearing out which
they will then we need a good way to recycle them but are they more influential in 2022 than tesla
yeah no i don't think so and that's what it comes down to time is clearly putting an emphasis on evs
and co2 emission reduction but they left out the leader in the industry which seems kinda weird and
luckily they suspected that some people might be confused with their reasoning so they wrote this
howtime chose the 100 most influential companies of 2022 and here's what they say time solicits
nominations across sectors including healthcare entertainment technology and more from our global
network of editors and correspondents as well as from industry experts then we evaluate each
on key factors including relevance impact innovation leadership ambition and success
the result is a diverse array of 100 businesses helping chart an essential path forward
and after reading that criteria i have no idea why tesla wouldn't be topping their charts
anyways does it actually matter that time magazine doesn't think tesla is as influential as ford or
rivian or byd in the grand scheme of things no not at all but their exclusion of tesla
does give you a glimpse down the rabbit hole and i hope you take the leap alright peace