NEW YORK -

In his five years as Ford’s chief executive, Alan Mulally has testified before Congress, talked with reporters, delivered keynote speeches and addressed the shareholders of America’s second-largest automaker.

But earlier this week, he faced a speaking engagement of a different sort: an interview with dry-witted funnyman David Letterman.

As one of Letterman’s guests Wednesday on the Late Show, Ford’s top boss appeared comfortable and engaging in the Ed Sullivan Theater lounge chair, shooting the breeze about airplanes, electric vehicles, Ford’s revitalization and his call up to the automotive big leagues.

He was fairly open about Ford’s rebirth and what the automaker was facing five years ago before he came aboard. He even talked about helping to steer a new business plan, but Mulallly shied away from talking about the company’s Big 3 rivals’ bailout experiences when prompted by the host.

Mulally talked about his experiences and product development at Boeing and Ford — especially the latter’s new electric offering, later joining Letterman on a test-drive — but he also took a minute to talk about his early career.

Telling Letterman he was a “fun" child,  Mulally said the first job was delivering papers. Later he was a bagger at a grocery store.

The pair also talked about how Mulally wound up spending 37 years at Boeing, where planes like the 707, 747 and the 777 were launched during his tenure.

Interestingly, he noted that initially he had no intentions to leave Boeing, “And then I got a call one day, Dave, from Bill Ford. And I said ‘Bill Ford of the Ford Motor Co.?’ … He explained to me that they were in trouble, they needed help and he wanted help personally. And in the end, I felt like I was being asked to serve a second American global icon, so that’s why I left Boeing to go to Ford.”

Letterman also asked Mulally how Ford was able to achieve what it did without a bailout, while others could not.

In essence, Ford didn’t “need” government assistance because at the time of the bailouts, the proactive measures Ford had previously taken allowed the automaker to be “well on our way” to profitability, the Ford executive explained.

“When I joined Ford five years ago … clearly, we needed to move very quickly on a different strategy. So we decided together that we were going to focus on the Ford brand; we divested all the other ones. We also decided we were going to have a full family of vehicles: small, medium and large; cars, utilities and trucks,” Mulally noted.

“We also decided that every new vehicle you got from Ford would be best in class in quality and fuel-efficiency, safety, really smart design, and of course, the very best value,” he added.

Ford then approached the banks with that plan and raised almost $23.5 billion, Mulally explained. The automaker then undertook the necessary restructuring and “accelerated the investment” to push out the lineup Ford has today.

Letterman prodded Mulally a bit to see what the automaker’s chief had to say about why others couldn’t do the same without a bailout, but of course, the executive kept his opinion quiet and didn’t say a word about General Motors or Chrysler.

“Well, I think in Ford’s case we clearly needed to do that, and we needed to move decisively,” he said of the steps Ford took when he came on board. “And I’m just very pleased that we moved as fast as we did.”

Later on in the interview, Mulally delved into Ford’s electric-vehicle offering,

Responding to Letterman calling himself a “dope” for having two non-American brand electric vehicles, Mulally noted: “Well, Dave, you are going to have a fantastic electrification of an entire family of vehicles from the Ford Motor Co. made right here in the United States of America.”

Then, Ford’s Focus Electric was unveiled on stage — with two female models showing the car off, LA Auto Show style.  Mulally also discussed with Letterman what the car has to offer. 

And then, in typical Late Show fashion, the quartet took the Focus Electric for a spin around the stage, with Mulally riding shotgun and the comedian driving.

Of course, first Mulally kindly reminded the Late Show host: “Put your seatbelt on, Dave.”
 
To see a clip of Letterman’s interview with Mulally, visit www.cbs.com/late_night/late_show/video/ .