Ford Is Building A $30,000 Electric Pickup As Part Of A $5 Billion Investment Into ‘Affordable’ Electric Cars

A few months ago, a Jeff Bezos-backed newcomer in the car world, Slate Auto, got the world’s attention by debuting a dirt-cheap electric pickup truck. I had my concerns about it, namely, I thought it had too few doors and was too expensive given its lack of features. Well, if the Slate got your blood flowing, it’s time to get even more excited, because an established automaker — one with manufacturing experience and economies of scale that a newcomer lacks — says it’s planning a $30,000 electric four-door pickup truck. And it’s only a small part of a massive $5 billion investment from the Blue Oval brand. Here’s what we know about Ford’s “Model T Moment,” its new “affordable” EV platform.

If you’re been “in the loop,” you know Ford Motor Company has had a Skunkworks team working on some kind of “secret” project in the Bay Area. What exactly is it? We never knew for sure, other than that it almost certainly had something to do with electric cars, given that it was happening in California. Well, it turns out, that Skunkworks team was mapping out the future of Ford Motor Company as we know it by developing not just a new platform, but a new production system that is a bit different than the linear assembly line that built Ford in the early 20th century.

In a “bold and difficult undertaking to compete with the best in the world,” i.e. China, Ford has developed the Ford Universal EV Platform, “a simple, efficient, flexible ecosystem [meant] to deliver a family of affordable, electric, software-defined vehicles – the first of which is a midsize, four-door electric pickup that will be assembled at Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant for U.S. and export markets. Its launch is scheduled for 2027,” as FoMoCo says in its press release.

The company’s CEO, Jim Farley, reiterates the Universal EV Platform’s emphasis on affordability, saying in the press release:

“We took a radical approach to a very hard challenge: Create affordable vehicles that delight customers in every way that matters – design, innovation, flexibility, space, driving pleasure, and cost of ownership – and do it with American workers,” said Ford President and CEO Jim Farley. “We have all lived through far too many ‘good college tries’ by Detroit automakers to make affordable vehicles that ends up with idled plants, layoffs and uncertainty. So, this had to be a strong, sustainable and profitable business. From Day 1, we knew there was no incremental path to success. We empowered a tiny skunkworks team three time zones away from Detroit. We tore up the moving assembly line concept and designed a better one. And we found a path to be the first automaker to make prismatic LFP batteries in the U.S.”

Launching a new modular EV platform is hardly novel, and in fact, Ford has been well behind others like Volkswagen (whose MEB platform debuted roughly seven years ago), GM (whose Ultium architecture underpins a bunch of GM vehicles like the Equinox and Blazer EV, as well as non-GM vehicles like the Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX), Hyundai/Kia (whose e-GMP 800v architecture that underpins the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 has been out for about five years), and on and on.

But when I asked Ford how its architecture is different, it replied by saying “it really goes beyond a modular architecture,” saying the reduction in wiring and fasteners, plus the use of unicastings, makes this a more modular approach than elsewhere in the industry.

I’m tempted to say “its’ about time,” but Ford’s slow roll-out of EVs — its F-150 Lightning that was largely based on the existing gas truck and thus managed to get to market early, as well as a crossover EV named the Mustang — wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, as the world has clearly been clamoring more for hybrids than for EVs, of late. Still, EVs are the future, and to truly compete long-term, you’ve got to build a modular platform, so that’s what Ford has done. Here are some of the benefits of Ford’s new modular architecture and of its “affordable” in-house LFP prismatic batteries, per the automaker:

The platform reduces parts by 20% versus a typical vehicle, with 25% fewer fasteners, 40% fewer workstations dock-to-dock in the plant and 15% faster assembly time. Lower cost of ownership over five years than a three-year-old used Tesla Model Y.

Take for instance the wiring harness in the new midsize truck; it will be more than 4,000 feet (1.3 kilometers) shorter and 10 kilograms lighter than the one used in our first-gen electric SUV. Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) prismatic batteries also enable space and weight savings, while delivering cost reduction and durability for customers. The platform’s cobalt-free and nickel-free LFP battery pack is a structural sub-assembly that also serves as the vehicle’s floor…The new midsize truck is forecasted to have more passenger room than the latest Toyota RAV4, even before you include the frunk and the truck bed. You can lock your surfboards or other gear in that bed – no roof rack or trailer hitch racks required.

Ford talks about large “unicastings” (like Tesla’s gigacastings), and how its team plans to build sections of its vehicles independently, and then bring those sections together — in much the same way as a front subframe is “decked” with a body on a traditional car, except with three large subassemblies. From Ford:

Large single-piece aluminum unicastings replace dozens of smaller parts, enabling the front and rear of the vehicle to be assembled separately. The front and rear are then combined with the third sub-assembly, the structural battery, which is independently assembled with seats, consoles and carpeting, to form the vehicle.

Parts travel down the assembly tree to operators in a kit. Within that kit, all fasteners, scanners and power tools required for the job are included – and in the correct orientation for use.

The Ford Universal EV Production System dramatically improves ergonomics for employees by reducing twisting, reaching and bending, allowing them to focus on the job at hand. Because of the integration between the Ford Universal EV Production System and Platform, assembly of the midsize electric truck could be up to 40% faster than Louisville Assembly Plant’s current vehicles.

Some of that time will be reinvested into insourcing and automation to improve quality and cost, ultimately netting a 15% speed improvement. “We put our employees at the center and re-created the factory from scratch,” said Bryce Currie, Ford vice president, Americas Manufacturing. “We live and breathe continuous improvement, but sometimes you need a dramatic leap forward. We expect ergonomic breakthroughs and complexity reduction – through elimination of parts, connectors and wire – will flow through to significant quality and cost wins.”

Here’s a look at Ford’s “production tree”:

The architecture is a 400V one, with Ford saying “We think that is absolutely the right choice,” as it enables low cost and access to the existing charging infrastructure. When I asked whether the platform has provisions for a range extender, Ford replied with “We’re not gonna get into specifics.”

As for what more we know about that midsize truck? Not a ton. Ford says it will be aerodynamic to the point where, if the company put its battery into an existing truck of roughly the same size, the range would drop by 50 miles compared to the upcoming vehicle. In addition, Ford says EV will have a 0-60 mph acceleration time similar to a Mustang EcoBoost (~4.5 seconds), and then the press release seems to maybe include a subtle dig at Slate Auto: “We assembled a really brilliant collection of minds across Ford and unleashed them to find new solutions to old problems. We applied first‑principles engineering, pushing to the limits of physics to make it fun to drive and compete on affordability. Our new zonal electric architecture unlocks capabilities the industry has never seen. This isn’t a stripped‑down, old‑school vehicle.”

Maybe that wasn’t a dig, but why mention that this isn’t a stripped-down vehicle? I mean… who would think a modern EV is a stripped-down vehicle if not for the existence of Slate?

Anyway, the mid-size truck is to be built at the Louisville Assembly Plant, which will see a $2 billion investment that, when combined with Ford’s $3 billion investment in its Michigan battery factory, will total $5 billion and allegedly create 4,000 jobs.

Ford says in reference to the Ford Maverick hybrid pickup: “We believe there’s room for both.”

Ford calls this new platform and manufacturing method a “Model T moment,” which is fair to say, as this represents a major shift for the company. At the same time, I’ll be interested in seeing if it’s really that different than what we’ve seen from the competition. GM makes its own batteries, it’s focusing heavily on affordable LFP batteries to bring EV pricing down, and it’s got an architecture malleable enough to build a variety of vehicle types across a variety of brands.

But it doesn’t have a $30,000 four-door pickup truck. Nobody does right now, so if Ford can be first, and if that truck can offer decent range and decent tech, it could be a game-changer in its own right, worthy of Ford’s new “The Universal Vehicle” badge you see above.

All Images: Ford