What To Know: The former Ford CEO was impressed by Tesla's Investor Day, he said in an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box" the morning after the event.

When automakers hold events for investors, most expect to hear about company strategy, see new products or services unveiled and be presented with new financial targets. 

"Clearly, in this event, they only did the first thing," Fields said.

"That being said, they did lay out a lot of enablers and a lot of content on the manufacturing and engineering efficiencies that they're putting in place to reduce costs, which is key to Tesla continuing to grow and deliver more affordable products off the next generation platform that they talked about."

In order for Tesla to reach mass adoption, prices have to come down to a range of $30,000 to $35,000 per vehicle, the former Ford CEO said. 

"Tesla started as a software and battery company and is becoming a manufacturing company. On the other side, you have the established carmakers, who are basically manufacturing and engineering organizations, trying to become software and battery companies," he said.

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Fields told CNBC the winners are going to be the companies that have the most appealing products with the best software, cost leadership and can demonstrate consistent execution.

"Tesla right now is one generation ahead of the other automakers," Fields said.

Although other automakers like Ford have made significant progress with vehicles like the Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning, "Tesla still has the leg-up on the competition and I think they demonstrated that," the former Ford CEO said.

TSLA Price Action: Tesla shares are down 1.93% at $190.07 Tuesday afternoon, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: courtesy of Tesla.