With Ford shifting its focus away from larger, pricier EVs and toward cheaper, smaller models, one thing that has been confirmed by the automaker itself is that a skunkworks team within the company – led by a former Tesla executive – has been working on a low-cost Ford EV platform for the past couple of years. This platform will underpin a crossover and potentially also a pickup and ride-share vehicle, but otherwise, not much is known about what we can expect – though CEO Jim Farley did hint that the Ford Escape may wind up serving as somewhat of a template for that future Ford EV. When speaking at the recent 2024 Bank of America Automotive Summit, Ford CFO John Lawler provided us with a few more clues that seem to somewhat back up that notion, too.
“So it’s about that smaller platform. Now, the great thing about EVs is when you look at the design footprint, the way you can think about is that the exterior size of an Escape could be the interior size of an Explorer because you don’t have the package limitations of the front,” Lawler said. The host of the summit – John Murphy – also pressed Lawler on that particular topic as well, which he proceeded to confirm – somewhat unambiguously.
“Okay, I’m going to ask you a follow up to that. And you might say, ‘hey, listen, we just can’t answer it because we’re not talking about it yet.’ I think you said the footprint of Escape with the interior of an Explorer,” Murphy said, to which Lawler responded by saying “yeah.”
This new low-cost Ford EV – which Farley has referred to as a “non-negotiable” model that will feature “hybrid premium” pricing – will reportedly launch in late 2026 with a starting price tag of around $25k. Perhaps even more interestingly, another recent report claims that this future Ford EV will be built at the Louisville Assembly plant, which is where the Escape and Lincoln Corsair are currently produced, too.
We’ll have more on Ford’s future low-cost EV soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comment
Look into the front drive unit, using an external drum rotor motor. Like an Elaphe hub motor. Cheaper magnets turning a larger radius, staying cooler from airflow, avoid rare earths.
A rear drive unit should be as cheap as possible induction, very mild hp push a twist beam suspension.
Give non-CARB cold weather states a propane auxillary heater, especially if Ford is going LFP with its batteries.