As Ford Authority reported early last month, The Blue Oval has shifted its focus away from larger, more expensive EVs, and will instead center its electrification strategy around smaller, more affordable models, which is precisely what the market is asking for at the moment. In fact, the automaker has been working on a low-cost Ford EV platform for two years now, a project led by a skunkworks team. The first fruit of that effort will be a crossover that’s expected to cost around $25k and launch in late 2026, but this new Ford EV platform won’t just be limited to one model, according to a recent report from Bloomberg.
A team of around 100 people are currently working to develop this low-cost Ford EV platform, which is expected to underpin not only the aforementioned crossover, but also, a ride-sharing model and even a small pickup. It’s unclear when these additional models may launch or what sort of price tag they’ll arrive with, though CEO Jim Farley previously said that he’s targeting “hybrid premium” pricing. As Ford Authority previously reported, these cheap EVs will reportedly utilize a lithium-iron phosphate battery due to the fact that this chemistry is around 30 percent cheaper than a lithium-ion unit, but Ford is reportedly looking at other types of battery tech in an effort to further reduce costs.
Ford also reportedly plans on pushing back some planned EVs as part of this effort, which could include the delay of the Ford Explorer EV for North America, which was previously expected to enter production next year. The same was also expected to be true of all-electric versions of the Ford Bronco and Ford Maverick, though this new news could indicate that an EV version of the latter may now be back in play, or perhaps FoMoCo could go with a different nameplate altogether for its future all-electric compact pickup.
Either way, Farley has made it quite clear as of late that the automaker is focused on making cheaper all-electric vehicles, and this shift in strategy is happening for a couple of very good reasons. For starters, pricing disparities between EVs and ICE vehicles remain one of the biggest barriers standing in the way of widespread adoption, and cheap Chinese EVs remain a real potential threat to the automaker’s business, too, as one – the BYD Seagull – was recently highlighted by Farley as a bigger problem for the company than government mandates, in fact.
We’ll have more on these future Ford EV models soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for continuous Ford news coverage.
Comments
Sounds like a good use for the Ranchero nameplate.
An affordable compact EV crossover and compact EV pickup is a better way for Ford to go. Many could use a more affordable EV to commute to work and to run errands and then charge it overnight in their garage. Either the Ranchero or Courier name would be good for the EV compact pickup. Or you could name the crossover the Courier and the pickup the Ranchero.
Make them all hybrids. EV’s won’t proliferate until they provide the same utility for the same value as an ICE vehicle, period. Re-charge issues, grid inadequacies, range anxiety, and poor resale values will continue to plague EV sales for years. They are an immature technology. Climate catastrophe true believers will continue to be the majority of their customer base.