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Ford Authority

Jim Farley Says Company Betting Everything On Ford EV Team

It came as a bit of a surprise to learn that roughly two years ago, FoMoCo created a skunkworks team that has since been tasked with developing a low-cost Ford EV platform in total secrecy. This bit of news remained relegated to within the walls of The Blue Oval for those two years until early February, when the automaker unveiled some specifics revolving around that plan. However, it doesn’t seem as if this is just any old average fly-by-night, moonshot type of project – not one bit.

“My badge doesn’t work there. It’s totally separate from Ford, and they’ve had a completely different approach. And it looks they’re going to be successful – we’re going to bet the company on them, very American thing,” Ford CEO Jim Farley explained to NBC News in a recent interview, specifically referencing the skunkworks Ford EV team.

It’s clear from Farley’s comments that he has a lot of faith in his skunkworks team, which is led by former Tesla engineering director Alan Clarke. In fact, that same team has been operating in secrecy in California for some time now, but the automaker also recently revealed that it will soon be getting a brand new campus in Long Beach starting in 2025, too.

As for this new low-cost platform – which was inspired by a trip that Farley took to China some time ago and is designed to compete with cheap EVs from that same market – it will reportedly underpin at least three future models. The first is a crossover slated to arrive in late 2026, one that was originally expected to start out at $25,000, but Farley recently admitted that it will probably cost roughly $30,000 when it arrives. That model – which is reportedly inspired by the Ford Escape and may also be built alongside it at the Louisville Assembly plant – could be joined by a dedicated ride sharing vehicle and a compact pickup shortly thereafter, too.

We’ll have more on these future Ford EV models soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for continuous Ford news coverage.

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.

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Comments

  1. This dude is such a dumb @ss!!

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    1. I think you are not following the new battery development. Also EV’s are taking over Europe and other places which has issues with pollution and want it to stop.

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      1. There’s a lot of pushback happening in Europe over EVs especially in Britain. Sad part is that if the entire fleet were replaced with EVs it would do literally nothing to reduce air pollution.

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        1. Where do people come up with these alternative facts? And how do they believe themselves?

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        2. This just in! Critics decry the new fangled “horseless carriages.” Saddlemakers report no one on Europe wants them. Feed store owners predict they will never find a way to get fuel in rural America. Livery hands predict they will do nothing to make roads and stables cleaner. Reached for comment, Henry Ford laughed and replied, “These folks are living in the past. Find a need and fill it, and the world will beat a path to your door. If you’re a betting man, bet on progress!”

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          1. With a grand total of 11 charging stations built under Brandon’s administration, it seems that it will be a long time for charging stations to be universal.

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          2. Completely agree. There is always a crowd of stubborn one who complains about the way things improve and change. When color photography appeared, there was a backlash among photographers. Refrigerators were met with skepticism, the microwave met its fair share of conspiracy theories (radiation fears) and even the electric bulb was met with resistance from the usual brilliant people that ended up using them.

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    2. Yes, let’s double down on gasoline cars….no, let’s double down on vapor locomotive, that is the way of the future. Like or not, EVs are the future and you and everybody who does ot like it will have to deal with it. The “deceleration” of EV adoption in the US resulted in a pretty nice figure of growth of 35% in sales increase in EVs from 2022 to 2023. Ford doubles it sales of EV in the same period. On top of that CA and the EU (not Britain, you know Brexit) will mandate a phase-out so, yes, it is not a fad, that is here to stay. Kudos to Mr, Jim Farley.

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      1. Big mistake!

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      2. Want sugar or Sweet N’ Low with that Kool Aide?

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  2. A safe bet would be Maverick EV with the new CATL 4C batteries made in the US. Or some other battery tweak to get the range it needs. That would be a good seller.

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    1. That would be a great seller. I can’t understand why they don’t offer it already.

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  3. Are you failing to see whats happening? I guess so.
    <> He is going to sell them about 30K.
    And there will be more for less than 30K. Mandate is not an issue. You drive an EV? Drive a Tesla Model 3 , drive a Mustang EV. They are crushing ICE cars in every way.

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    1. Dream on…….

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      1. The dream is real, but a nightmare for you.

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        1. Not as long as I can continue to buy my reliable ICE vehicles.

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          1. Hurry up, buy your vapor locomotive soon because that time is coming or mandates are coming (good). You sound like a boomer, so you might possibly don’t come to see it at all, but just saying. I have a Model 3 and a Mach-E GT. There is no possibility whatsoever that I will ever get back to buying a gasoline car. Once I drove an EV, I realized that the gasoline engine is technology of the 20th century.

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  4. Very smart thinking. Gamble the company in a product most people do not want.

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    1. You are right on the money. So many people have EV on the brain. Well they have been brainwashed. Anytime the government tells you what to buy its bad news. After the fanboys and the elites bought them demand has fallen off. F150 lightning 15K off, Mach e 8K. They still can’t sell them.In my area you cannot get a fast charger installed. They cannot supply enough power !!! By the time the “skunkworks” vehicle comes out it will be 40K!!! Farley is an idiot!

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      1. This just in! Buggy whip makers decry Ford’s investment in new fangled horseless variable carriages.
        “They’re wasting money on something most people don’t want,” say prominent wheelwrights. Hostlers insist they’re trying to brainwash people into buying something that can “never replace Old Dobbin.” Street cleaners swear it won’t even reduce road manure!

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        1. “Fully-electric vehicles (BEVs) had 7.3% market share in Q1 2024. This is the first quarterly decline since Q2 2020. Sales in Q1 2024 rose 2.6% year-over-year, but fell 15.2% compared to Q4 2023.”

          Electric Vehicle Sales and Market Share (US – Updated Monthly) – CarEdge

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    2. Per Forbes, ” While Tesla sales may have slipped, other brands have increased sales, partially offsetting the decline. For instance, Ford’s EV year-to-date sales have nearly doubled, total sales across the country rose in Q1 2024, and nationwide EV sales have grown every quarter since 2021. ”

      I guess he’s listening to his other customers instead of you. *shrug*

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      1. “Fully-electric vehicles (BEVs) had 7.3% market share in Q1 2024. This is the first quarterly decline since Q2 2020. Sales in Q1 2024 rose 2.6% year-over-year, but fell 15.2% compared to Q4 2023.”

        Electric Vehicle Sales and Market Share (US – Updated Monthly) – CarEdge

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  5. Better sell your Ford stock!

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    1. can it get worse? It’s been in the toilet for years?!

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  6. Give people a choice! Ice, elec, hybrid let the market decide where this goes. If electric will take over then gradually as the tech and infrastructure progresses it will eventually.

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  7. Ford and GM are in a tough spot. They were losing market share, cancelling vehicles and entire divisions. GM basically sold itself to China for pennies on the dollar. This EV push – which the greater public is rejecting – is just grasping at straws in the hope of remaining relevant and solvent. Betting the entire company on a product so unpopular that it requires the government mandate you buy is not a smart idea.

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    1. GM sold itself to China? huh? Was not for the govt, there would be no GM, no Chrysler at all. Was not for the GOVT, there would be no internet(TCP/IP), no GPS, no fracking, no microwaves, no digital cameras, no jet engines, no MRI, no Kevlar, no artificial heart, no cochlear implants, no weather satellites, no penicilin, no prosthetics, no insulin pumps, no WIFI. All these were investments that the private sector thought were “bad ideas” or didn’t have the financial prowess to finance. Government mandates is one way how China got to be where it is, and shows how America lost its way in its “government its the problem, not the solution” mindset.

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      1. Mandates are how China got to be a comm unist country. Are you into Marxism?

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    2. Unfortunately, at least in Ford’s case, “good management” went out in the 1990s. GM’s went in the 1970s.

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  8. No EVs wanted in our family… A million reasons why. The only reason China, Asia, and Euros drive them is because gasoline is so expensive there. Increased tire and brake pad wear, increased environmental particulate matter, expensive battery replacement, repairs, insurance, broken charging stations, battery fires… No thanks!

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  9. Trumpers will be idiots to the end. EVs have MUCH lower brake pad wear (regenerative braking), super-low maintenance costs, no filter/oil changes, no gasoline bills, etc., etc. My Mach-E GTPE costs me $20.23 per 0-100% fill-up, in the nation’s most expensive AC power area (PG&E). How much does it cost to fill-up YOUR high-performance ICE car?

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