Ford’s European boss takes a jab at Tesla

Alex Kraus | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Steven Armstrong, Ford Motor Co. 

Adding more fuel to the growing feud between Ford and Tesla, a Ford executive had a snappy rejoinder ready for Elon Musk when the Tesla CEO tweeted on Sunday that the company hit its production goals.

armstrong tweet

This is not the first time — or even the first time in a week — that the two auto manufacturers have traded barbs.

Last Thursday, Mark Truby, Ford’s vice president of communications, hit back at Musk after the Tesla CEO told The Wall Street Journal that Ford resembles a morgue.

In a Twitter post, Truby called Tesla’s manufacturing facilities a “makeshift tent” and said that the Ford Rouge Factory has an F-150 roll off its production lines every 53 seconds.

Mark Truby tweet: No doubt the vibe is funky in that “makeshift tent,” but it’s not bad either across the street at the #FordRouge plant where a high quality, high-tech F-150 rolls off the line every 53 seconds like clockwork. Come check it out @elonmusk #BuiltFordTough

Although Tesla has yet to record a profitable year, its market value of $56.8 billion tops that of traditional automakers General Motors and Ford. General Motors has a market cap of $55.3 billion, while Ford’s value sits at $43.0 billion. Both companies produce many more vehicles than Tesla.

For months, Tesla has been trying to reach a production rate of 5,000 Model 3 electric cars per week. The car, a sedan priced lower than Tesla’s other models, is the company’s attempt to reach a larger, mass market. But it has been plagued by production snafus and previously missed this milestone.

Even now, that production is running at a faster pace, Tesla is still not making the lower-priced $35,000 version of the Model 3, but a higher-priced version instead.