ASM: So there’s clearly a lot going on for Ford electric vehicles. So as Ford looks ten years down the road, how do you think Ford and the rest of the vehicle industry are going to look in ten years?

DP: I think we are going to see EVs becoming the norm and the best product and people realizing that they are not a compromise. What I think we will see is that you will need a reason to buy gas. There are a couple of segments that are more towards that but you are going to have a need to buy a car but every person who gets a modern performance electric car, 97% of them never go back. And that tells you something.When you got a product that is so compelling, 97% never go back. What will happen is that as people can see what they do, it will become more pervasive. The only ones who still look for gas are if either they have no experience with it or if there is a specific use case that they need to still use gas. That is the only case and by that point it is going to be normal to buy new electric cars.

ASM: Another question is that do you have any advice for high schoolers who wish to pursue a career not only in battery development and EVs but this developing field of green technology?

DP: Yes, so I’d say learn about this subject from everybody you can and there are great resources available and engage with companies that work in this field, just like you have today. We have many programs where we are reaching out to young people and colleges where you can talk to people from our companies who work in this field and they will tell you what is important and you are forming relationships for later such that when you are looking for opportunities to participate you can be tied up with companies where there are opportunities. So linking with companies as early as you can and so it is mutually beneficial for each.

ASM: One question in reference to my home country of India. India is a totally different market from here and there are many challenges there. A lot of current EV manufacturers have not tried there. So what challenges does Ford see with developing and distributing EVs in countries such as India?

DP: So there can be a challenge but there can also be an opportunity as well. Countries that are going through their industrial development cycle are suffering from things other countries did like the atmospheric pollution. In many cases they leapfrog as well, India passed over the whole telephone line and went straight to cellular. In fact when I worked there one of the best experiences of mobile phone usage anywhere in the world I had in India. I would be on the phone doing meetings the whole time I was there and I would never drop a call whereas I’m here in the middle of dearborn and Detroit and I’m dropping calls the whole time so they leapfrogged and that’s what can happen. So EVs powered by renewable energy can emerge in countries, like India have so many days of sun so you can pick up energy from those and if the right infrastructure is put in place you can have products that are good value cost, for example, there is a lot of traffic and so you may not need a 400 mile battery but maybe a 50 mile battery which can charge at night from power collected from the sun, which means a smaller battery, light, easy to build, cheaper, less emissions and gets renewed from the sun. I think we can see innovation breed in places like India and you will see that everywhere. That’s what happens everywhere, solutions develop that fit the needs of the local market

ASM: I know I said the that would be the last question but I just have to get this in

DP: [laughs] Squeeze one more in, go on then!

ASM: If you could say anything to the most hardcore supporteers of gas powered cars, what would you say.

DP: Yeah so I would say this. I am one. I have loved cars all my life. I was in charge of Mustang here for a while and I bought a Mustang GT350R, I believe it is the best Mustang ever made and I love it but when you experience a new modern electric you see the benefit it has. Is it different, yes but it has a lot of attributes. My Mach-E responds to my acceleration in 1/10th of a second, no gas car ever did and that feeling is intoxicating in a different way. My GT350R makes a beautiful sound, it is a whole different thing. Yes it is, I’d get sick of that if I do it everyday it’s not nice every day. But yes I love it as well. The EVs can do things never possible and when it reacts that quickly to you it feels so good. And if you like performance and a lot of Mustang owners do, you are gonna love EVs because performance is incredible. The GT I am bringing this year is 0-60 in 3.5 second and that is supercar performance from a few years ago and it will do that with five passengers and their luggage on a monday morning going to work. It is crazy! And so we can achieve performance we could never before and at a very good price and with incentives at something like $52,000. I mean we never had a car that could never perform at a price like that before, that’s faster than my GT350R to 0-60, the high speed is different. The one liner to someone who is hardcore and has never tried is try it and to walk away and say I don’t like that. In fact as a little story, the head of both Mustangs Owners Clubs, the presidents of both clubs in America came to the launch event and said, “I’m not really sure about this Mustang thing and this SUV” and both of them left saying “I can’t believe how good this is” and one of them ordered two of them and they are very very linked to Mustang and the history, but they saw the benefit. You gotta try it is what I would say.

ASM: Great! Thank you so much for doing this and I know we went quite over our allotted time.

DP: Thank you very much and stay in touch with Ford.

ASM: Yes, definitely.

DP: Good luck, take care.