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CEO Elon Musk was trolling GM and Chrysler on Thursday. His tweet "Tesla & Ford are the only American carmakers not to have gone bankrupt out of 1000’s of car startups. Prototypes are easy, production is hard & being cash flow positive is excruciating," garnered a lot of attention.

He makes the point that Ford and Tesla are still standing in a field of fallen giants.

And early Friday, Ford CEO, Jim Farley retweeted Musk and sent a single-word tweet of his own, "Respect."

Twitter Reacts

There is a big reaction on Twitter to the brief exchange between the CEOs. The likes, retweets, and comments are swirling.

Elon Musk is a self-made billionaire who owns a handful of highly successful companies including Tesla and SpaceX. He has 48.5 million followers on Twitter.

Jim Farley was brought on as CEO on Oct 1, 2020, to give the company a greater sense of urgency in its transformation to electric and autonomous cars. His grandfather worked in a Ford factory. And now Farley has 27,200 followers on Twitter.

Ford vs Tesla Friendly Competitors

Tesla’s charismatic CEO, Elon Musk founded the car company in 2003. And it almost immediately began to dominate the electric and autonomous auto market with the Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y. The electric car and smart car space, once considered a niche industry has come into its own. Growing through innovation and marketing Tesla sold 499,550 vehicles in 2020.

Ford’s new CEO, Jim Farley, is responsible for pushing through the production of Ford’s new Mach-E  SUV. And in the first two months of 2021, they sold 3,739 electric vehicles.

Adam Jonas, a Morgan Stanley analyst reported to investors on Tuesday that, "Tesla's share of the BEV (battery electric vehicle) market declined significantly to 69% vs. 81% in the prior year. The Ford Mustang Mach-E accounted for nearly 100% of the share loss."

Michelle Krebs, an Autotrader.com analyst, said the tweet from Musk illustrates Ford is “top of mind.” But Ford, the new kid on the electric car block, is all grown up. 

"The Mustang Mach-E is capturing the interest of Tesla shoppers. We need to acknowledge Tesla is going to lose market share. It had 100% and it can't stay at 100% as competitors come onto the market. And in February, Ford was its biggest competitor." Krebs added.

Stellantis Globalizes Car Industry

Musk was also referring to the fact that other competitors in the American car-maker marketplace were unable to make the transition to electric and smart cars. 

General Motors and Chrysler along with Dodge and Jeep are now under the umbrella of an Amsterdam-based global conglomeration of major auto companies. Stellantis includes 10 international automobile brands.

The deal minimizes costs and competition between the brand entities. This was finalized in January, making Stellantis the world's fourth-largest carmaker in terms of global vehicle sales. And the group plans to have 39 electric vehicles available by the end of 2021.