Just over a year ago, Ford CEO Jim Farley revealed that the company has tasked a skunkworks team to develop a low-cost EV platform roughly two years prior, which was a notable development for a number of reasons. Aimed at helping Ford compete with the likes of Tesla and its Chinese EV rivals, this new platform will soon underpin a variety of future models, starting with a mid-size pickup. However, those models will seemingly be less complex than many might expect them to be.
“Look we, we have really smart people in skunkworks and the actual innovation is a little different than people think,” Farley said at the recent 2025 Wolfe Research Auto, Auto Tech, and Semiconductor Conference. “The actual innovation is to design a vehicle for manufacturability. For the simplest smallest footprint in a plant with the lowest labor content and that drives a lot of complexity reduction, massive complexity reduction and it requires large and new investments like unit casting in the front and the rear of the vehicle for it to be made completely differently.”
Farley previously noted that Ford is betting the literal farm on his EV skunkworks team, which is operating in a very streamlined manner that helps reduce costs as well. In fact, the exec recently revealed that Ford’s EV team is far more cost-efficient than its ICE development team, by a rather large margin. As Farley alluded to here, at least some of that cost savings and improvement in efficiency/reduction in complexity stems from the use of a giga press machine that Ford acquired some time ago.
In terms of what we can expect to see come from this low-cost EV platform in the future, Farley previously hinted that the first such product – the aforementioned mid-size pickup – will be a “game changer.” Previously, most expected a small crossover to launch first, but it’s unclear if such a model is still in the works. However, Farley recently hinted that the Louisville Assembly plant – which builds the Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair – might soon be retooled for EV production.
Comments
Just don’t bother with ANY EV for now. Judas Priest, what DOES it take to get through to these people? A blow to the head?
I wish I knew. My fear is it is going to take another 2008/2009 reckoning to get all these idiots of the auto industry and replaced with people who are concerned with making ICE vehicles that are affordable, sell in volume at a profit, and can finally be as reliable as Toyota.
Toyota too is unfortunately dropped in quality….
Look at the MY24 Tundras still blowing their motors….
I am not EVEN going to mention the cost outside warranty….
Bankruptcy might get their attention
Sure, Ford EV sales only up 30-some odd percent year over year for 2024 in the US, but let’s listen to this guy.
Total EV sales in 2024 in the US over 1m, but let’s just cede the market to other manufacturers.
Not.
It’s all about global competition my friends! You can’t run away from it, or stick your heads in the sand or up your ___. We’re either in the game, or China takes over this market entirely, which they already seem to be doing. In addition though, the infrastructure issue still has to be addressed. Homes with only 100 AMP service. The average inhouse charging system takes 80 AMPs to charge…and what those folks who don’t have a garage? These are some of the barriers to entry that go beyond just creating a less expensive alternative.
Very few EV chargers can go higher than 40 amps. And they have to be hardwired to do so. I charge at 40 amps on a 100 amp service. They sell meter collars that let you draw high amperage on the street side of your service now. Cool stuff.
Are you suggesting that we all need to build new houses too, so that we can buy these cars that we don’t want?
Based on the comments here and other similar EV articles, the biggest barrier to entry is a lack of education. 80 amps is almost never required for home EV charging. Many people could manage using only a 120v, 12 amp standard level 1 plug. Though most will be more comfortable with a 40 amp outlet. Average homes have 200 amp panels not 100 amp. And why is a garage needed? It’s not.
I’m sure that this unspecified revolutionary Ford product, set to be revealed at some unknown future time, will be much better than the previous, canceled revolutionary product and the revolutionary product before that, also canceled before any concrete details were revealed.