Ford Motor Company announced this morning that it is making a $5 billion bet on its electric vehicle future. The payout is a $30,000 midsize electric pickup truck arriving as soon as 2027. The investment involves overhauling its Kentucky and Michigan assembly and battery plants, reinventing the assembly line and developing a new Ford Universal EV Platform that will underpin the next generation of affordable electric vehicles of all shapes, sizes and scales.
The $30K electric truck
Let's start with the most relevant bit. At an event at Ford's Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky, Ford President and CEO Jim Farley announced that its next new vehicle would be an affordable, midsize electric pickup truck targeting a starting price of $30,000.
The yet-unnamed EV is said to boast "more passenger space than the Toyota RAV4." Its F-150 Lightning-like front trunk (or "frunk") and cargo bed grant it "tons of room for five adults, bikes, surfboards, work equipment, whatever you need, it's all in the vehicle," according to Farley. Ford also says the pickup will be "faster than the Ford Mustang twin-turbo," which sprints to 60 mph in under 5 seconds.
Farley went on to state that the new truck will support fast charging, boast "amazing range," and be able to power a house for up to six days thanks to its bidirectional charging capabilities. Ford claims it will support over-the-air updates and a full suite of tech and creature comforts for the $30,000 sans incentives -- perhaps a dig at the recently announced Slate EV truck, a barebones electric pickup that targeted an incentive-dependent $20,000 net.
Read more: The cheapest electric cars of 2025
Ford Universal EV Platform
The new electric pickup will be the first vehicle built on the newly announced Ford Universal EV Platform, which will eventually underpin a family of affordable electric cars, trucks and SUVs. The new platform was designed for faster, simpler assembly (which would keep manufacturing costs down) and low, easy maintenance (which would reduce ownership costs).
Ford tells us that its newest EV will use 25% fewer fasteners than its previous, more conventionally built EVs. and that there will be 20% fewer parts overall thanks to smarter decision-making during the design and development stages. Zonal architecture enables the electrical systems to save around 10 kg of wire harness -- not unlike what we've seen Rivian doing with its updated R1T and R1S.
Rethinking and simplifying how the car comes together, Ford estimates that the new EV truck can be assembled 15% faster than, say, a Mustang Mach-E electric SUV. Its simpler construction will presumably result in lower ownership costs over five years than "a three-year-old used Tesla Model Y," which is a strangely specific comparison. But making EVs cheaper to maintain would be a win.
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